And, yes, as a job seeker, you should have a business card. They’re no longer exclusive to the employed—in fact, some might argue that business cards are more important for people looking for a new gig.

Business card do’s:

• Include important contact information. At the minimum, your business card needs your full name, email address, website/online portfolio, and phone number(s). You could even include links to your professional networking accounts.
• Consider going virtual. If you often find yourself running out of traditional business cards (or forgetting to bring them altogether), an electronic business card, such as CardCloud, can be a great alternative.
• Keep it simple. There’s no need to include everything on your card. While it may be tempting to list out all of your skills or accomplishments, those things are best saved for your website or online portfolio.
• Use one or two readable fonts. Using too many fonts makes for an ugly business card. Choose one or two simple, classic fonts to ensure your information is clear and easy to read.
• Write notes on the back. Want someone to remember something specific that’s not on your card? Write a note on the back before handing over your card. This tactic is used a lot in sales and marketing when the salesperson is offering a special deal or incentive to entice the customer to come back or purchase the product.

Business card don’ts:

• Be cheap. Much like investing in a nice suit for job interviews, you shouldn’t focus on getting a bargain business card. This doesn’t mean you have to spend hundreds of dollars – websites like VistaPrint.com have very reasonable prices for large amounts of business cards.
• Include too much information. As stated above, keeping it simple is best. If people want to know more, they’ll contact you.
• Keep outdated cards. Ever received a business card with a scratched out phone number or website? It looks tacky and unprofessional. Instead, order new ones if an important piece of information changes.

What else is important for job seekers to know about business cards?

Do’s and Don’ts Of Business Cards is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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With so much uncertainty, how can one plan for the future? Here are a few ways to plan for post-grad life while still in school:

Build and maintain your professional network.

It’s important to network before you need it, particularly when you’re planning on being new to the job-seeking world. Whether you realize it or not, you already have a network of professionals at your disposal—even if you’re not connected to those individuals on social networking sites yet. Find former supervisors and co-workers, professors, classmates, mentors and current colleagues online to strengthen your relationship with these individuals. That way, once you’re on the job hunt, you can leverage these connections to help you land an ideal job in your field.

Research target companies and areas.

The job search is an overwhelming process, particularly if you don’t have a specific focus. If you’re planning on moving out of state, research areas first to determine where you could afford to live and how you’ll relocate if you do find a suitable job opportunity. You might also want to pick an area where you have friends or family to stay with in case you need to visit for an interview at the last minute. Then, make a list of five to 10 target companies within the area to focus your efforts on. This makes the job search much more manageable as opposed to aimlessly searching job boards and company websites in hopes of finding something up your alley.

Receive recommendations and nail down references.

Once you’ve connected with your network on social networking platforms, ask for recommendations or referrals to display on your profile. Ask former and current supervisors, professors and colleagues for letters of recommendation that you can display in your professional portfolio or on a website. Confirm with these folks that they will be willing to serve as a reference during your job search, too – reference calls can often make or break a job opportunity.

Have a solid “Plan B.”

You probably realize that you’re graduating in uncertain economic times. In many areas, job openings are highly competitive or only available to former interns or internal candidates. What will you do if your job search takes longer than six months? Do you have the option to move in with a family member if you cannot find a paid job? Do you have money saved up to get you through several months of job searching? Unfortunately, you must prepare for the worst, while still hoping for the best and maintaining a positive attitude.

What else do college seniors needs to prepare for before graduation? Do you have any advice from personal experiences that seniors can learn from? We’d love to hear you – you can share your comments below.

College Seniors: Plan For Post-Grad Life Now! is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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A cover letter or introductory email is often the first thing a potential employer sees when reviewing a job applicant. It’s the first opportunity to impress recruiters and hiring managers and, therefore, the first opportunity to disappoint them. Everything from copy mistakes to inappropriate jokes in a cover letter could derail an application.

Here are the top ten worst things to put on a cover letter:

1. Next to Nothing

While writing something that’s too long is a common cover letter mistake, what can be even more damaging is a cover letter that’s too short.

Bruce Hurwitz, President of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing, Ltd., a New York-based staffing firm recalls a cover letter he received a few months ago for an entry-level IT sales position. It read simply, “Here’s my resume. Call me. [Phone number].”

“I cracked up,” Hurwitz says. “This person had only just graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. It was ridiculous.”

A good cover letter should be somewhere between 200 to 250 words, Hurwitz says, and should answer the question of why a recruiter should look at the resume. “The key is to highlight one success,” Hurwitz says. “For example, ‘I successfully increased sales 500% over two years, resulting in increased, sustained revenue of $25 million.’ Once I read that, I look at the resume.”

2. Criticism of a Prospective Employer

Thumbtack.com, a San Francisco-based site that connects customers with small business services, asked potential employees to submit in their cover letters feedback about their website. One candidate, a contender for an entry-level position in April, didn’t pull any punches.

“The engineering of your site looks lazy and ineffective,” the applicant wrote, proceeding to describe the color scheme of the site as “disconcerting to my eyes.”

Needless to say, he was not considered for the position, though not before the hiring manager got in some laughs around the water cooler at his expense.

“We forwarded the cover letter to our managers sort of as a joke,” says Sander Daniels, co-founder of the site. “It was the most caustic feedback we received. But we responded kindly to him — we didn’t suggest any improvements to him in approaching other employers. We don’t see it as our role to counsel failed candidates.”

Daniels observed that while many strong candidates turn in well-written cover letters, some have let the demand for engineers get to their heads, as Silicon Valley romances them with six-figure salaries and other job perks.

“Maybe they think they can get away with it — but in our company, culture is a very important factor.” Daniels says. “Even if Facebook‘s best engineer came to us, we wouldn’t hire him if he was a jerk.”

3. Personal Stories

While employers are sometimes interested in personal stories, especially if they give some idea about work ethic, it’s best to save these stories for the interview, says Lindsay Olson of New York-based Paradigm Staffing, who specializes in recruiting communications and marketing professionals.

“I think my favorite of all time was the salesperson who poetically told me about how he decided to run a marathon, climbed to reach glaciers to have a taste of pure water, ran at heights of 5,000 meters in Peru, and biked down the world’s most dangerous road and survived (over 300,000 have not),” says Olson, of a candidate who was applying for a business development position at a recruiting firm in June last year. “All this in his opening paragraph.”

If you are asked in an interview about your hobbies and adventures, be prepared with a strong answer, says Olson. “What a [job candidate] likes to do outside of work might show how they are in their job,” she says. “As a hiring manager, what you don’t like to hear is, ‘I just like to sit around at home and read books all day.’”

4. Awkward Language

Rachel Levy, director of marketing at Just Military Loans, a Wilmington, Del.-based personal loan service for military personnel, got a letter last week from a candidate who seemed to be expressing lukewarm interest in an IT analyst position.

“My name is xxx. I am pretty interested in the IT analyst position at Just Military Loans,” the letter began.

Levy says she sees many applications, especially for IT jobs, to have grammatical and other language flaws. “What I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of people applying to these jobs, for whom English is a second language,” Levy says. “So the connotations of certain words and phrases may not be clear to them. Which is fine, but they should get someone to help word their intentions correctly.”

In this case, Levy thinks the applicant meant “very” instead of “pretty,” but she’ll never know because that applicant didn’t get an interview.

5. Someone Else’s Words

Frank Risalvato, a recruiting officer for Inter-Regional Executive Search Inc., is deluged with cover letters from different candidates that all obviously use the same template from the same career coaches.

“Some of these [cover letters] we see are very obviously not written by the individual,” says Risalvato. “We get 15 to 20 of these a month, and it sounds disingenuous and insincere, seeing these cover letters from Seattle one week, Chicago another, and it’s all the same style.”

Some career experts also warn against the tired stand-by opening lines in a cover letter. “Opening a letter with a passive and clichéd statement such as ‘Enclosed please find my resume highlighting my experience and skills that would help your company to grow and succeed,’” is a no-no, says Ann Baehr, certified professional resume writer and president of New York-based Best Resumes. “It’s best to use something catchy and more specific such as, “If your company could benefit from the expertise of a hard-charging sales producer with a flawless record of success for closing tier-one Fortune 500 prospects in the healthcare technology market and capturing millions of dollars in revenue, please take a moment to review the attached resume.”

If you’re uncomfortable with that approach, make your cover letter unique to you with insights about the company you’re applying to, advises Darrell Gurney, Los Angeles-based founder of career coaching site Careerguy.com and author of Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply For A Job Again!.

“Put in a note saying something like, ‘I’ve been following your company’s progress in the last year and in February and I noticed your company was mentioned in the Journal of such and such,’” Gurney says. “That’s the amazing thing about the Internet. You can spend 15 minutes online and look like you’ve been following them for a year.”

Gurney reminds applicants to do their full research on the company if they do get called in for an interview after.

6. Irrelevant Experience

As noteworthy as an impressive Girl Scout cookies sales record may be, it’s not worth trumpeting that experience when trying to break into a field like software sales. Rich DeMatteo, co-founder of Philadelphia-based Social Media Marketing firm Bad Rhino, remembers a candidate who did just that when he was working as a corporate recruiter at a software company.

“I was recruiting for a software sales position and one candidate was sure she was qualified because of her success selling Girl Scout cookies when she was a young girl,” DeMatteo says. “I think she was young and didn’t realize how important it is to state the right experience. Younger applicants tend to reach for skills, and try to find them anywhere in their life.”

Some candidates take it even further, acknowledging they have no relevant skills, but pushing to be hired anyway.

“I read one for an IT analyst position that says, ‘Although my qualifications do not exactly match your needs, the close proximity to my home is a big bonus for me,’” Levy of Just Military Loans recalls. “You have a lot of underqualified people just out of college just throwing resumes at the wall, and hoping something sticks.”

DeMatteo suggests trying to focus on specifc sales figures or experience in relevant projects. “A lot of sales, for instance, is numbers-based. Stick to that.”

7. Arrogance

It’s one thing to promote yourself favorably in a cover letter, but watch that it doesn’t degenerate into overt bragging.

This is especially true when it comes to ambiguous skills, says Jennifer Fremont-Smith, CEO of Smarterer, a Boston-based tech startup aimed at helping IT applicants improve their resumes.

“People claim to have things like, ‘superior Internet skills.’ What does that even mean?” says Fremont-Smith. “I saw an application from a Web developer about a month ago where he described himself as a ‘rockstar in design tools,’ and an ‘expert in developer tools.’ That kind of inflated language doesn’t really tell your employer much about your skills.”

Fremont-Smith recommends carefully personalizing your cover letter to the employer and listing the most relevant of skills for the job you want, and why you want it. “The cover letter is the place to tell your story about why it is that you’re the right person for the company,” she says. “It’s about really crafting a narrative that answers the question of why the employer should talk to you.”

8. Wrong Company Name/Wrong Cover Letter

Talk about mistakes that are easy to avoid.

“The biggest mistake I see on a regular basis is that candidates either misspell the name of the company or get the name wrong,” says Gary Hewing of Houston-based Bert Martinez Communications LLC. “If it’s a small misspelling like ‘Burt’ instead of ‘Bert’, I’d be willing to overlook that. But the big, unforgivable mistake is when someone copies and pastes a cover letter without the name or address to the correct company. That, to me, is someone who’s lazy and not paying attention.”

Hewing says sometimes it’s hard to tell if a cover letter was meant for a particular job, even if the candidate got the company name and position right, if they talk about disconnected experience without explaining themselves.

“We’re a sales organization, but at least twice a month, we’ll get a cover letter with someone talking about their banking background instead of sales,” says Hewing. “It’s a complete disconnect to the job description and it doesn’t even explain if the candidate is seeking a career change. It tells me that they’re just not paying attention.”

9. Cultural Preferences

Job hunting is often compared to dating: It’s about finding the right match; and success hinges on staying cool under pressure and masking anxieties to appear confident instead of desperate. But a few candidates take the dating analogy too far, subjecting hiring managers to long lists of personal likes and dislikes in cover letters.

“This one guy wrote the first part of his cover letter talking about his interests like it was an ad for an online dating site,” Olson of Paradigm Staffing says, about an applicant trying for a PR job. “He likes all types of music, but ‘never got into country.’”

While potentially charming to a possible mate, those tidbits are not helpful in a cover letter.

10. Jokes

Breaking the ice with humor isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but jokes in cover letters are usually a turn-off for busy employers, say recruiters. It might be better to save them for the interview, if they are to be used at all. Olson recalled a candidate for a communications executive position who rubbed an employer the wrong way with an off-color joke.

“She decided in her interview, for some reason, to compare kids to Nazis,” says Olson. “She thought she was being funny, but the interviewer happened to be Jewish and didn’t think she was very funny.”

Recruiters agree that it’s best to stick with tried-and-true unfunny, but effective conventional pitches about your education and work experience.

“The thing with trying to be chummy and funny is that you lose credibility,” says Gurney of Careerguy.com. “It looks desperate. And the worst thing you can do in job-seeking is looking desperate or needy.” – Originally posted on FINS by Sindhu Sundar

Want more career news and advice from FINS?

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The Ten Worst Things To Put In Your Cover Letter is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Unfortunately, these mundane, dry, and redundant phrases can make it difficult for you to maximize the power of LinkedIn as an executive job search tool.

It’s also challenging for recruiters and employers to see past these overused terms when looking for your value proposition!

However, with a little ingenuity, you can pull the lackluster phrases out of your Profile and replace them with powerful writing worthy of your career, leadership style, and brand message.

Here are some of the worst offenders lurking among LinkedIn Profiles, along with suggestions for alternative wording:

Accomplished Professional.

If this is really true, then show (don’t tell!) your readers about it. This phrase is likely to prompt more annoyance from employers than appreciation.

Instead, consider using a sentence or phrase that speaks specifically to your achievements, such as “Pharmaceutical sales leader honored for closing 147% of quota during 2009 and 2010” or “CIO heading multimillion-dollar outsourcing contracts at major banks.”

In addition, you can add achievement data (right in the Summary) that cuts to the heart of what you do and why you’re good at it, with sentences like “Sales manager honored for coaching 3 Top Producers” or “Operations Director promoted for increasing production line efficiency.”

Results-Driven.

Most companies plan on hiring someone who fits this description, and they weed out anyone who doesn’t perform to their expectations. It’s almost to your detriment to point this out in your Profile.

You might try adding information that actually PROVES your drive for results, with mention of how you’ve earned a promotion in just 6 months, or the ways in which your performance has outpaced that of your executive peers.

Exceptional Communicator.

The trouble with this phrase is that it’s not only tough to prove, but that the person using it often misspells one or more words (really).

Since your LinkedIn Profile gives you plenty of opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills, you’ll have the opportunity to convey complex concepts or perhaps distill a major project into a short description… both of which would speak louder about your leadership and communications skills than this phrase ever will.

Proven Success.

Well, employers would hope so. After all, why mention your success unless you have some proof to back it up?

Here’s where you’re better off noting some metrics, as in “exceeded quota for seven out of past eight years,” “brought company to 87% market share,” or “met 100% of project budget constraints despite limited resources.”

These achievements can help online readers understand the scope of your work and the reasons behind your executive career progression.

Experienced.

Ahem… of course you are. Even worse, “successful experience” is so redundant that you’re wasting space and LinkedIn keyword optimization by even thinking of these phrases.

One way to replace this word is to simply specify the number of years you’ve worked in the industry.

However, be careful here: “15 years of experience in sales” doesn’t quite have the same ring as “Generated 23% average over-quota revenue throughout progressively challenging sales roles.”

Responsible For.

Just like a resume, there is no reason to clutter the landscape of your Profile with a phrase that is largely assumed.

Rather than use this phrase, you can just skip to the relevant facts (“managed $500K budget,” “supervised staff of 10”, “headed global division”) and save everyone’s time.

Microsoft Word Skills.

There’s no advantage to listing basic skills that nearly all candidates possess. Especially at the executive level, employers will be more surprised if you don’t have these skills, than if you take the time to list them.

You’re much better off researching target jobs and noting the leadership skills (keywords) required for the position, then using these terms to show your competency.

To summarize, back up and take a long look at your LinkedIn Profile. Are you committing the same mistakes that have been appearing on resumes for years?

If so, it’s time to refresh your approach and provide specific details on the high points of your career—information that others can readily relate to (and even use to hire you) from your LinkedIn Profile. – Originally posted on onTargetjobs by Laura Smith-Proulx

7 Phrases To Delete From Your LinkedIn Profile is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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1. Don’t listen.

You heard me. Don’t listen. Not to everyone. But stop listening to the jobs numbers. Every pundit on the planet is analyzing and over-analyzing every tick in the number of jobs lost, jobs created, number of new applications for unemployment, whether those numbers are going up or down… Who cares? You shouldn’t. So don’t listen. Companies actually are still hiring. It’s just that the way they’re doing the hiring has changed. You’ve probably seen this. Perhaps you’ve got a friend who’s landed a job working for her boyfriend’s uncle. Or, a cousin who’s now working for his former summer camp counselor. The truth is that the way people get jobs nowadays is completely different than it used to be. In fact, according to recent studies, 50 percent of new hires come from referral, and 25 percent come from employees’ social networks. That means that over 75 percent of new hires come from networking or a direct recommendation and introduction. If this is true, then it is time for you to put those social (on and off-line) networks to work for you and get yourself out there.

Try to ignore all of the griping about “how bad it is out there.” It’s only bad if you decide it’s bad. So stop complaining, turn off the TV, video game console, stop texting, and get a handle on your future. Oh, and remember, don’t listen.

2. Ignore Wall Street and Washington.

There is a hashtag trending on Twitter that uses a four-letter word (#expletiveWashington) and another #WhereAreTheJobs. Americans are fed up with Washington posturing. Between the Debt Crisis, the downgrading of U.S. debt and the tanking of the stock market, working Americans are disgusted that Congress merely tipped a hat toward job creation and then gave themselves a five-week vacation. We’re fed up. And rightly so if you ask me. So what should you, the job seeker, do? I say ignore them. And here’s why.

Whatever scenarios end up playing out in Washington and whatever roller-coaster plays out on Wall Street, the fact is that it is going to have little effect on you, at least for the near term. No amount of deals, tax hikes, tax cuts, deficit reduction, regulation, debt ratings downgrade and market fluctuation are going to drive a short-term net effect of motivating businesses to create new positions, and hire more people. In fact, it might do just the opposite. So I say, don’t hold your breath.

Chances are that this “trickle down” economic approach is unlikely to make “Help Wanted” signs suddenly go up all over the city. Not today. Not tomorrow.

So stop listening when the folks in Washington say be patient, the jobs are coming. Instead, turn away from the rhetoric and look straight in the mirror. You’ll discover that the person looking back at you is the only person who is going to help get you back to work any time soon. It’s time for all of us to grab our bootstraps and get going.

3. Stake your claim.

Our country has always been about staking claims. Claims were staked during the Louisiana Expansion, the California Gold Rush, and in 1969 when we placed an American flag on the Moon. Just recently, Walt Disney Studios staked a claim by trademarking “Seal Team 6,” the Navy team that brought down Osama bin Laden. The funny thing about claim-staking is that we rarely do it for ourselves.

But here’s something every job seeker should know. Careers don’t just happen. They are made. And if you don’t stake a Claim in Your Own Career, believe me, no one else will.

This incredibly simple piece of advice is actually not that simple. Imagine that you are a marathon runner, or a Mount Everest climber or a very determined dieter. All of the individuals have made a strong commitment to doing something with determination and tons of effort. No one ever said it was easy to get to the top of Everest. The same can be said of building a career. No matter how much hoping you do, your school’s career counselors and your folks aren’t going to do it for you.

It is up to you to take responsibility for your future. So when you think you’re looking for a job “all day long,” count up how many hours you spent NOT looking for a job. My guess is you’re not as committed as you think you are.

4. Be a car.

Some of the most iconic branding in the world sits on the back of every car on the road. Those shiny metal words and symbols hold meaning for us. When you see the word Volvo, you immediate think “safety” or, if from a younger generation, “boring.” The four interlocking rings of Audi say superior engineering, and the word Prius just makes you feel like you’re doing something good for the environment. That’s because the car companies have figured out how to make you think and feel a certain way about them.

You need to be a car. Well, not exactly. But you do need to understand who you are and what you want to be in the world. Because getting a job is about selling yourself. And by being clear about what you can offer to hiring managers, you will be able to get people to buy into the brand that is you.

One way to figure out what you want to do, and align that with what you’re good at is to identify what passions drive you to get out of bed in the morning, what interests captivate your attention and what skills you have to offer. I call the place where these three overlapping circles intersect the Sweet Spot (see diagram). Your Sweet Spot can help you discover the essence of your brand, and is an essential component of differentiating yourself from other hungry job seekers.

• Ask the most creative person in your life to help you do the following brainstorming exercise to discover your Sweet Spot.
• Grab three sheets of paper and some colored pens. Title one page with Passions, another with Interests, and the third page with Skills.
• Fill in the pages using the definitions above, being as open-minded as you can be. Once finished, randomly select one item from each list and begin brainstorming interesting things that you could do with your life that would allow you to work at the place where your Passions, Interests and Skills intersect.
• Example: Passion – experiencing new things. Interest – learning about different cultures. Skill – writing. Brainstorm idea – Travel the world, experience new things and meet people of varying backgrounds. Write a professional travel blog or for a magazine.

5. Think backward.

If you want to surf, you better go where there are good waves. And if you don’t know any good surf spots, chances are you’d find some other surfers and ask them how to find the cool spots.

Now apply this thinking to your job search. If you want to make movies, go to the places where people make movies. If you want to make cool software, you should find places where people are making cool software.

This logic seems simple, but it’s not how most people think about looking for a job. Most people start by poring through job sites seeking out open opportunities that sort-of-maybe-kind-of fit their skills. Next, so relieved to have found a potential job match, they contort themselves into believing that they’d be happy working at this particular company, even if the company is a widget company and the job seeker intensely dislikes widgets. Unfortunately, that’s how desperate some people feel about their job prospects.

I want you to Think Backward. What if instead of looking for job listings first, and companies second, you begin looking for companies first, and jobs second. This seemingly backward thinking works for getting into good surf, why can’t it work for finding a good job?

Here’s how it works. Instead of using sites like Monster.com or Idealist.org to look for job openings, use these sites to explore company profiles and see what kinds of companies are out there. See if you can find organizations that are doing things that get you really excited. Don’t worry if any jobs exist right now. That’s not the point. The point is to discover what makes you tick. This process, which up-ends that traditional way of job searching, is something I call Reverse Engineering the Job Market. Here’s the basic idea.

• Find companies and organizations that are doing things (making products, providing services) that get you really stoked.
• Don’t worry about whether there are any job openings — in fact, don’t look. Just get to know the place.
• Read the mission statement. The history. The leadership. Get a sense of the company culture and whether it would be a cool place to work.
• Look on the team pages and learn what sorts of people work there. Would you like to meet some of them? Do they have the kind of job you’d like to have?

If you answer yes to some of these questions, you’re ready for your next tip.

6. Enchant people.

Do you love your iPod, IPhone or Mac? Or do you just love going into the Apple store ‘cuz it’s so cool? Apple computer has captivated all of us with its inventions. In his recent book, Apple’s former chief evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, talks about the three pillars of Enchantment: likability, trustworthiness and a great cause.

Your ability to identify, interview for, and land a job are, in my mind, a pretty great cause. Or at least that’s how you need to think about it.

In today’s very picky job market, where getting a job is based as much on who you know as it is on what skills and experience you have, you better figure out how to be likable, trustworthy, and a good cause.

Part of your full-time job to get a job is to meet with and enchant as many people as you can. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks to find, meet and befriend people who already work at the types of companies you want to work for. These “in” people are your ticket to getting a job.

Take a look at the team pages on a company’s website. See if you can find someone in your networked-network that can make an introduction, or help you get an introduction. Be a good listener (for Tip No. 6, please ignore Tip No. 1), and people will take an interest in you. From there, it’s all a numbers game.

7. Make 5 your lucky number.

Most people think that 7 is the luckiest number. I’ve no doubt you’ll change your lucky number once you learn to Network by 5′s. When I was a bright-eyed, freshly minted grad, I moved to L.A. to make it in Hollywood. Through a random meeting in a busy lobby, to a phone interview, to an in-person sitdown, I found myself interviewing for a job that wasn’t the right fit. Instead of giving up, this woman and I started chatting, using some good, enchanting techniques (a shared love of sports or travel can be a great start), and we ended up deciding to be friends. I suddenly had an “in” person.

I turned to my new friend and said, “I’m new in town and don’t know anyone, or what the jobs actually are out there. Do you think that you might have five friends who’d be willing to talk to me for five minutes about what they do?” My new friend agreed and with each meeting I had, with each new person I met and befriended, I had another “in” person. By the time I had been in Hollywood for five weeks, I had met 54 people at studios around the city. When Disney called to ask me to come in for an interview for my dream job (as a director’s assistant), they told me my resume had been submitted to the pile eleven times. No doubt they had come from all of my new friends. If you want to Network by 5′s, here’s what you should do:

• Ask your “in” person to give you the names of five people who might be willing to share five minutes of their time to tell you about what they do for a living.
• Whether in person or on the phone, become a genuinely interested listener. Learn everything you can about what this person does, and how they got to be doing their job. Know that this meeting is not about you. Ignore your need for a job and focus on letting the person in front of you tell their story.
• Ask enchanting questions and make a new friend. The funny things is, that if you do this well, they’ll end up thinking you’re wonderful, and they’ll turn the conversation to you.
• Know your personal career brand so you’ll feel comfortable talking about yourself and what you are looking to do. Always have a resume to share. At the end, if you feel they’ll be open to it, ask them for the names of five of their friends.

In no time, you’ll know scores of people doing the kind of work you want to be doing, and your job search will be on the fast track.

8. Be like aspirin.

Aspirin is a great painkiller, and when a hiring manager is looking to bring on a new employee it is usually because the organization is feeling a bit of pain. It could be that someone left the company, there’s too much work for the existing staff, or a new initiative needs some additional attention. Whatever the case, when you go in for a job interview, your job is to be like aspirin and make their pain go away. What exactly does that mean?

Imagine you’re going in for a sales job and your responsibility will be to cover a certain territory selling a product. The best way for you show that interviewer that you are the right person for the job is to demonstrate your skills as a salesperson. No, I don’t mean you should go into Crazy Eddie sales mode. But you can relay stories about past sales experience (perhaps you helped sell out all the tickets to a school fundraiser) or about your fearlessness in making cold calls. Believe me when I tell you that, just like you, your interviewer is looking to get the interview process over with and get back to work as soon as possible.

Interviewing can be hard and scary. It always feels like there’s too much on the line and you’re so nervous about landing the job that it can be hard to stay calm and focused on your interviewer’s questions. Before the big day, research the company and your interviewer. Put yourself in their shoes and see if you can figure out some of the challenges they might face. And remember this important point: If you can make their work-related headaches go away, you’re going to be a rock star in their eyes.

9. Go see a movie.

Finding a job is a full-time job. It can be exhausting and demoralizing. Honestly, it’s easy to just want to crawl into bed and ignore the entire thing. Here’s what I want you to do: Go see a movie. I don’t care which one. Just go have some fun being distracted for 120 minutes in a dark movie theater. Give your brain, your ego, and your keyboard and mouse a rest. Remember that life is fun and you will, once you Stake Your Claim (No. 3), be on your feet.

10. Stay the course.

To find out your score at the end of a round of golf, you have to stay on the course for the entire 18 holes. To find out your marathon time, you have to complete the 26.2 miles. And to land a job, especially one that you really want, you have to keep at it. No one ever said this would be easy. And as new grads enter into the toughest job market in the past 80 years, it takes a special something, an extra special kind of commitment and determination and willingness to try when others have given up. You may have finished your final exams, but this is the first test of your working life.

Find people to help you along the way and help you keep focused. My 85-year-old mentor is one of the people who keeps me on track. If you can’t find a mentor, buddy up with a friend and hit the library or the local coffee shop together. Keep each other motivated, inspired (and caffeinated if necessary). Just don’t lose hope. So… don’t listen and just ignore Washington. If you do these things, you might never realize that the news out there is bleak. -  Originally posted on Aol Jobs by Susanne Goldstein

10 Tricks To Landing A Job After The Great Recession is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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If this scenario sounds familiar, you might have a bad reference on your resume.

Most people assume that former employers won’t give a negative report when potential employers call for a reference. But that isn’t necessarily true. Even though corporate guidelines may state that only your employment dates and position titles can be confirmed, it is not necessarily illegal for a reference to give negative commentary about a former employee, says Jeff Shane, a spokesperson for Allison & Taylor, Inc., a professional reference checking and employment verification firm.

“References can, and very frequently do, offer considerably more commentary to your prospective employer than simply verifying your employment dates and title,” Shane says. “As a result, many job-seeking candidates who expected a favorable, or at least neutral, assessment from their references unknowingly lose out on employment opportunities that are torpedoed as a result of a negative reference.”

If you fear that a former supervisor may be “torpedoing” your chances for a new job, you have a few options:

• Pursue Legal Action. Not all negative input is unlawful. It is illegal if it involves discrimination, defamation, retaliation, disparagement or sexual harassment, Shane says. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever know what specific negative feedback a reference gave — because a prospective employer will rarely share the negative reference with a job candidate for their own legal protection. But if a third party can document that a reference gave communication that was wrongful, inaccurate, malicious or illegal, you may have legal recourse. Talk to an attorney about the possibilities.
• Send a Cease and Desist Letter. If a reference’s negative input is not unlawful, but is restricting your ability to get a job, you can typically address the situation by sending a cease and desist letter. This letter must be issued by your attorney to the senior management of the company where the negative reference originated, and the letter is designed to alert management of the negative reference’s identity and actions. “Typically, the very act of offering a negative reference is against corporate guidelines, which normally state that only a former employee’s title and dates of employment can be confirmed,” Shane says. When a cease and desist letter is received, the negative reference will be “cautioned by management not to offer additional comments and, out of self-interest, is unlikely to offer negative commentary again,” Shane says.
• Find out the Truth. If you don’t know whether or not a negative reference is impeding your job search, consider hiring a third-party reference checking firm. Such a firm can interview your references and document everything they say for your review. According to Shane, approximately 50 percent of all reference checks conducted by Allison & Taylor uncover negative input from the reference. And the report provided by a reference checking firm can be used for legal action or to develop a cease and desist letter.

Are Your References Keeping You From Getting Hired? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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You don’t need to look far, but taking the time to consider these four points about a company you may want to work for will serve you well.

The Company’s Goal: What is the company’s stated reason for being? What do they need to accomplish and when?

1. What problem does the company’s products or services solve? This may have been easier to answer before the Internet and some of the social solutions we see today. But hey, Twitter gets the word out to followers fast and in many instances that can serve a purpose. Knowing this can help compare the company and industry to other opportunities you may consider.

2. What is the value of solving the problem? In other words, what audience is willing to pay for the products and services and if so how much and for how long? It doesn’t take a marketing whiz to Google and find the data or at the very least ask a few knowledgeable people and take your own swag. And, at the end of the day can help quantify the value of the opportunity.

3. What makes the company’s offerings unique? Compare to competitors own words, research analysts in the market and find out if the opportunity stands with the company or if you should set your sites on another.

4. Does the company have a defined culture known and accepted by the employee base? Almost all companies have grand statements describing their culture – great. Now call into the company or hang out at a lunch spot close by and question any employee about the company in question. If you ask three separate employees and get three different answers, you can bet the company is all talk. Or as we say in Texas, all hat and no cattle. Find the company where the culture is known by all and the prouder the employees recite and describe the culture obviously the better.

We all research a company before an interview or a chance at a promotion, and Glassdoor, a jobs and career community, is a great place to get opinions and insight from current and past employees. If you want to know more, show that you’ve done some research and have data that can help make the right decision.

Lucky Enough To Get An Interview? Don’t Blow It. Research! is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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1. Time is of the essence.

Don’t show up late on your first day (or your fifth). Don’t ask to leave early or take time off for doctor’s appointments. Unless you’re carrying the plague, don’t call in sick. And, whatever you do, don’t request immediate use of vacation time. Show your employer that you want to be at work, and that you take the job seriously. If you don’t do it now, you may find yourself without a chance to do so in the future.

2. Pay attention to your shoes.

And your pants, skirt, dress or whatever else you may be wearing. The first few days and weeks on the job are not the time to oversleep, throw on the first clothes you trip over and head to work without a shower. Appearance matters just as much now as it did in the interview. If your new company has a professional dress code, dress professionally. If it’s business casual, learn what that means. If there isn’t a dress code, notice what others wear. A good rule of thumb is to dress like your boss. If everyone else is running around in t-shirts and jeans, but the boss wears a suit, dress up as well.

3. Be friendly, but not too friendly.

If you’re an introvert, make an effort to get to know something about the people you’ll be working with. What are their names? What are their jobs? How long have they been working for the company? If you’re an extrovert, try not to demand attention. While you should show interest in your coworkers, those first few days are not the time to invite them to your home for dinner or clubbing on the weekend.

4. Have a positive attitude about everything.

You have a job! Be excited. Be enthusiastic. Even if the work you’re given the first few days is boring busywork, enjoy it! Now is not the time to show any disappointment, whine or complain. And don’t forget to show your appreciation to the coworkers responsible for training you. Remember that the time they spend with you means less time they can spend on their own duties, so be grateful and respectful.

5. Listen more than you talk.

Ask questions (about the company, your duties, what is expected of you) and then listen carefully to the answers. Take notes when tasks are explained, then do your best to complete them correctly the first time. It’s natural to make a few minor mistakes the first days and weeks on the job, but make sure they aren’t mistakes that could have been avoided by asking more questions or listening more carefully.

As the old adage goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression. The opinion your boss and other coworkers form of you in the first days and weeks on the job will be enduring and difficult to change later on. Make a great impression now and you’ll build a firm foundation for future success. - Originally posted on Targetjobs.com by Angela Rose

How To Make A Great Impression At Your New Job is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Dress

Unless you are going to work at a downtown art gallery, professional business attire is a must. Don’t ask the interviewer if it is okay to dress casually – he may say yes. I recently heard a story of a medical billing professional who asked if she could wear scrubs to an interview.  She did, and the impression she left was not one that screamed ‘hire me’!

Even if the company is business casual, wearing clothing that says you are polished and poised sends an important message. Show the interviewer that you take the role very seriously and that you want the job. Choose clothing that is basic. Go with solid colors and tailored suits and jackets. Avoid wearing tight fitting clothing. You are not interviewing to be a pole dancer. Also, don’t wear anything you don’t think is flattering. You will be nervous enough without worrying about your skirt riding up or your buttons popping.

Appearance

Teeth – white as can be, nails and cuticles clean, and well manicured, shoes polished, jewelry – understated, deodorant, but no heavy perfumes or colognes.  Yes, this means you soldier!  No stone should be left unturned when it comes to maximizing your appearance. There is ample research that shows the importance of attractiveness. You don’t need to be a movie star, but being your personal best is a must.  If you need to, enlist the help of a trusted friend or two. Do a mock interview preparation and ask them for their honest opinion about your appearance. Is your hair well combed, does your breath smell fresh. Do you have a beard? Off with your head – or at least the beard! All of it matters.

Etiquette

Give me 20 handshakes NOW.  OK, so you may only shake the hand of a few managers, but how you shake should be firm and confident.  If you have a limp handshake or conversely, have been known to squeeze someone’s hand off, you should practice. While the handshake may seem trivial, body language is an extremely important component of a successful job interview.

Try to match the body language of the interviewer. By leaning in when she is speaking, you are showing interest. Do not cross your arms, bite your nails, or fidget. These behaviors send out the wrong signals and can be misinterpreted. Concentrate on making good eye contact. Smile often.

Attitude

If you are job hunting, it is likely you have been disattisfied in some way with your past or current role.  Whether you feel you are not able to advance to the next level, or you have been laid off for 6 months, you do not need to share the negative details. While the facts are the facts, negative experiences should be reframed into the most positive light. Focus on your value and the good attributes you will bring to the role. Provide honest answers, but don’t dwell on any ‘’’woe is me” stories.  That will only label you as a loser.  I told you this was going to be boot camp.

As a career coach, I find that those who live in a place of negativity have more trouble getting hired than those who learn from their experiences and believe that good things will come to them.  Attitude really is everything. You can have the best suit and the most well groomed hair, but if you have a stinky attitude, hiring managers can smell it a mile away. When I teach my clients to reposition themselves in a more positive way, viola!  Suddenly, after months of rejection, they are getting second and third interviews like never before.

Drop and give me dress, appearance, etiquette and attitude.  There you go.  That wasn’t too hard now, was it? Being prepared properly for interviews may take a little muscle, but the results are well worth the effort.  If you aren’t doing everything you can to make the best possible impression, you may be sabotaging your job search efforts – even  if you have a great résumé and an outstanding work history. Hut 2-3-4.

Do You Need Interview Boot Camp 101? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Are you killing your professionalism by doing any of the following in your emails?

• Being too familiar. Acting like you’re an old friend in an email to a potential employer is not impressive. And, while you obviously know your supervisor on a more personal level than a prospective employer, you certainly shouldn’t address them as you would a friend.
• Using Internet slang, abbreviations or completely misspelling words. You proofread your assignments at work, right? What about your resume and cover letter? And I’m sure you wouldn’t dare insert an “LOL” into one of your work assignments. So, why should your emails be any different? First of all, many folks perceive poorly written emails as spam. Additionally, a potential employer will stop reading once they hit a misspelled word.
• Not using an email signature. While the recipient of your message obviously has your email address, they might not know other vital contact details, such as your full name, social networking handles or telephone number. Your email signature can provide this important information, and help you look like a competent professional.
• Using an email address that is cutesy, inappropriate or otherwise unprofessional. A lot of young professionals created email accounts when they were in their teens. And, while you still might use that email address for personal correspondence, you need to have a professional email address for professional reasons. Your best bet is to use some variation of your first and last name and a email service such as Gmail.
• Misusing CC or BCC. Sending an email to one person, but copying several others on the message? Use CC (short for “carbon copy”). Sending an email to a large list of folks? Use BCC (short for “blind carbon copy”) so ensure that (1) you’re not sharing everyone’s email address and (2) the message doesn’t look messy with a huge list of contacts on the top.

What other ways do people kill their professionalism in their emails?

5 Ways Your Emails Are Killing Your Professionalism is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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