“One of the great benefits of a top company is that the perks are attractive and generous,” say Kevin Ricklefs, senior vice president, talent management at CHG Healthcare. “But if you’re focused on how this job will benefit you instead of how you will benefit the company, you’ll likely sabotage your chances of ever discovering what free daily meals or free healthcare or loads of stock options feel or look like.”

From doing your homework ahead of the interview to letting your personality shine through, here’s a look at six ways to nail the hiring process at a top-ranked company.

1. Pay attention to initial communication. Most people think the interview process starts when they are sitting in front of the hiring manager, but how you project yourself leading up to the interview can impact whether or not you get hired.  According to Ricklefs a lot of strong candidates neglect to return emails or send information in a timely manner which can hurt their chances. “Your attention to detail in the interview process is a good indication of your attention to detail in your future job,” says Ricklefs. “Make a positive first impression long before your first official interview.”

2. Prepare your elevator pitch. Although companies will throw out the occasional off-the-wall question during the interview, nine out of 10 times you are going to get a common interview question, which is why having a well-honed elevator pitch in your back pocket is essential, says Kathleen Downs, a recruiting manager at Robert Half International. “It should never be perceived as an invitation to start talking about personal things,” says Downs. “Some people give away too much information that has no relevance to how he or she will perform the job.”

3. Research the company and interviewer. No matter what position you are interviewing for, you have to have some knowledge of what the company does and be able to communicate that during the interview. The Internet has made researching a company painless so there’s no excuse. “Spend a few hours before any interview digging into the products and people who make a company successful,” says Ricklefs. “Make sure you don’t sound like you’re bluffing or worse, making up information on the spot.” If you want to impress the person interviewing you, learn some information about his or her professional and personal background and weave that into the interview. Ricklefs says to check Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest for insight into the interviewer’s interests. “You may discover you both are passionate scrap-bookers or die-hard fans of last year’s Super Bowl winners. Then use that information to your advantage,” he says.

4. Dress to impress. Right or wrong interview attire can say a lot about you. If you come underdressed it may send the message that you don’t care enough about the job to throw on a suit or business attire. Because hiring managers are going to judge you based on your outfit, it’s important to dress appropriately. “You can always recover from being overdressed but you can never recover from being underdressed,” says Downs. What’s more, she says you have to be on your “A Game” during the interview which means no slouching, no eye aversions and no meek handshakes. “You want to make sure you ask intelligent and appropriate questions.” she says.

5. Make your personality show. Recruiters and hiring managers interview a slew of qualified candidates during the hiring process, and what makes one stay in someone’s mind more than the other is personality. According to Ricklefs, the ones that stand out are the ones that show their true self. “Share your passion, your goals and your vision. No one wants to hire or work with a boring person,” says Ricklefs. “Make sure you do the talking; not your resume.” Hiring managers know how to see past the fluff and bluffs, so if you have to fake your way through the interview, chances are the company and/or the job isn’t a good fit for you.

Another mistake that job seekers make is bashing their former employer. Even if your old boss was a complete idiot it’s not a good idea to diss the former boss on the interview. “Employers don’t like complainers,” says Ricklefs. “Be professional, courteous and focused on the future possibilities, not past complaints.”

6. Thank them profusely. Whether the interview went good or bad, you have to make sure you thank the people who gave you the chance to interview and follow up with a thank you email expressing why you would make a good fit for the job. If you met multiple people a major mistake would be sending them all the same email, says Downs. It’s much better to make each thank you email unique to the conversation and to focus on the things that were relevant to the particular person. While you may think you’ll stand out if you send a handwritten thank you note, Downs says you are better off sending it via email. “Decisions are made very quickly,” she says. “It’s much faster than snail mail.”

6 Tips To Get Hired is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Want to know how to fail? It’s easy…

1. Don’t Follow Up

Follow up, follow up, follow up. The people you are dealing with have full, busy days. You need to stay top of mind. As long as you are aren’t making more than 1-3 connection attempts per week, you don’t need to worry about bothering them.

2. Don’t Personalize Your Resume & Cover Letter

Personalization is about two things: showing investment in the opportunity and displaying yourself in the most positive terms possible. Show investment by clearly displaying investment, through research, connection or visual branding. Consider how to portray yourself and your skills most effectively for each opportunity.

3. Don’t Research

Research is key to showing that you care, that you can find information and that you are intelligent – three key aspects of the job hunt. Make sure you read the whole company website, including the last few months of their blog, Google the company, the CEO and any executives in your field. Additionally, when you know who will be interviewing you, Google them too.

4. Don’t Connect with Lots of People

However many people you are connecting with or connected to, you should aim to meet more. A large, high-quality network is the best safety net you can have for your job search. Research shows that “loose” connections (friends of friends and similar) are where the majority of job opportunities are found.

5. Don’t Send Thank You Notes

Thank you notes are a key part of following up. They instill positive feelings about your mutual experience and show that you are organized and effective. Surprise notes, like to the executive assistant who gave you the inside scoop on the dress code, are uber effective and often ensure that you have their vote.

6. Don’t Offer a Clear Value Proposition

Tell companies why they want you. This sounds obvious, but many applicants get caught in stories of what they have done or narratives about what they want. Rather, as a revolutionary, you will tell the company why they want you.

7. Don’t Prepare Your References

There is nothing worse than calling a reference who doesn’t know that they are a reference. And, only slightly better when they don’t know what the industry and position are for the opportunity. Make sure that your references are TOTALLY prepared to speak with potential employers by arming them with the information in advance. Do the work for them – tell them what you want them to say.

8. Be DESPERATE

The only thing you will get if you offer to do anything is nothing. Confidence and initiative are imperative during the job search. You can think of it a bit like dating… no one is attracted to someone desperate. Approach each interaction as an equal.

9. Make It All About You

An application is supposed to be all about you, after all, it is selling you… right? WRONG! This is a very common mistake in sales and it is a killer. Applications, interviews, emails, they are all about the other person and the value you will bring to them. 90% of materials should focus on the core value you will deliver.

10. Don’t Make a Good First Impression

Poor first impressions change the 1 mile jog you were about to go on into an uphill marathon. It may not be possible to recover from a bad first impression. To impress, dress a notch up, stand up straight with deliberate eye contact and learn the art of the handshake.

11. Be a Debbie-Downer

Positivity rocks. No one wants to work with a negative nelly and a positive attitude is often the difference between success and failure. Even when talking about the worst boss and job ever-in-the-world, it is important to have a positive outcome, if with strong lessons learned. How can you change your frustration into lessons?

12. Use Only One Strategy

Today’s market is competitive and deep. It’s important to use multiple strategies for your job search – at the same time and, often, for the same position. Don’t only use big job boards, but don’t totally ignore them either. Build your network, but don’t solely depend on it. Anything you can do to decrease your dependence is gold.

13. Don’t Build Your Network Before You Need It

Networks are something unquestionably best built before it is needed. That said, many people enter the job hunt have to then reach out to contacts that are long-overdue, which can be an uncomfortable undertaking. If, rather, your network is fresh and readily abreast, it will be much more quickly useful and powerful.

14. Uhh, Pepper Your Speech, Like, With, Umm, Filler Words

Nothing makes you come across dumber, quicker than littering your speech with verbal ticks. Like, umm and uhhh all count. Practice taking them out.

Don’t be that guy. Be the one who gets the job offer. – Originally posted on the Personal Branding Blog by Rebecca Rapple

10 Ways To Not Get Hired is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Before you hit “send” on your resume, there are a few things you may want to consider, or you may be waiting a very long time.

1. Ask: “Would I Hire Me?”

First, take a hard look at the document you’ve created and ask yourself this question: “Would I hire this person?” Before you answer, remember, there is a very good chance you are not the only person applying for this position. With that in mind, repeat the question. If your answer is anything other than a resounding “Yes,” you may want to hold off hitting that send button.

2. Be the Red Balloon in a Field of Yellow Ones

The resume is so much more than just a “data dump,” if you will, yet it is treated thusly all too often. This happens much to the chagrin of the sender as well as the recipient.

It is vital to the success of this document that it sets you apart from the competition. You are likely rivaling candidates whose qualifications are similar to your own. So, you must be the red balloon in the field of yellow ones if you want to get noticed.

Give the reader something to get excited about that can’t be duplicated on any other resume they may encounter. It simply does not matter that you spent X years in X position and accomplished X goals during your tenure. Your competition has probably done similar things. While this information is important, don’t stop there. Dig a little deeper to mine the career gold that only you possess.

Were the goals you reached achievable by anyone who may have held that position? Or, is there something unique about the way you go about getting things done that gave life to them? Did you have a differentiating way of coalescing disparate teams, shortening processes or clarifying complexity? Did your distinctive voice offer a value-add that set you apart from peers?

3. Exploit Your Uniqueness

If it is the latter, then it is imperative to exploit that uniqueness. When you add this third dimension to an otherwise two-dimensional document, you give it a certain texture that will get you noticed at the very least, and hired at the very most.

Look for any opportunity to do this throughout the resume.

4. Create an Appealing, Navigable Format

Formatting is another important aspect of the resume you should staunchly focus upon. While there are many pre-set formats across hundreds of websites and within your own Microsoft software, these often wreak “template” and should only be used as a starting point, if at all.

Be certain that you create a design that authentically reflects your value proposition mapped to the needs of the prospective employer. Your choice should be easy to navigate and interesting to the eye. The font you choose and the colors for them should be indicative of your professionalism. If what you choose would excite a high school cheerleading team, it is probably not the proper for your resume.

When appropriate, don’t shy away from the use of charts and graphs. When used properly, these visual aids can go a long way to increasing the readability of your resume by breaking up long sections of text that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

5. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Lastly, be sure to proofread your document for spelling and grammatical errors. Knowing the difference between “their,” “they’re” and “there” is one thing. Writing these words properly is another and if done improperly may keep the phone from ringing.  Also, ensure your voice comes through loud and clear on this document. Being someone different on paper than the person you really are will show itself during the interview. That rarely ends well.

Following these tips will help give you a resume you can be proud to “send” and get you the results you need for success.

How To Take Your Resume From “Blah” To “Wow” is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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My new piece on Fortune.com tells how and why companies are doing this, and from many indications this is a trend that could accelerate in the next few years, as Baby Boomers and others retire or reinvent themselves. Companies are concerned if they don’t hire quickly, their top candidate will move elsewhere or start their own enterprises.

So how do you as a candidate get snatched up faster, by a company that is determined to build its team quickly? The key, of course, is to be the kind of talent that looks like a $40 steak at Ruth’s Chris Steak House – so delicious and well-prepared that any manager will bite.

Here are some other ways to speed your hiring along:

1. Demonstrate why you’re an excellent match to their job profile.

This is so crucial in any search, but for employers that are hiring fast they are going to be more attuned to their must-have skills and credentials. So skip the companies where you align with only two-thirds of the criteria and go after those where you’re a match on nine-tenths. This means tailoring your resume to each position you seek, said Rick Parker, Snagajob senior vice president. “Applicable experience is consistently one of the top three things hiring managers look for in an applicant. Look at the desired qualities described in the job description, take stock of your experience and highlight what you have to offer in a unique resume.”

2. Get there first.

The early bird really does get the worm. Half the jobs went to people who had applied in the first week, according to research by StartWire, which helps candidates track their applications and find connections. “People who apply earlier get hired at a greater rate than those who apply later,” StartWire CEO Chris Forman told me when the get-in early research came out.

3. Get recommended by someone on the inside.

You’re already a few steps ahead of those who come in cold, and according to data by Jobvite, candidates who are referred are hired faster than others. So come in recommended, and ask that person to move you to the front of the line. “Because referral applicants also tend to move faster, it’s important to network, be connected online, and ask for referrals where appropriate. The more people you know, the faster, and more likely you are to get hired.” said Jobvite CEO Dan Finnigan.

4.  Prioritize your search.

Put in plenty of time and effort almost every day.  “We’re not suggesting that you work eight hours a day submitting applications, breaking only for lunch. But treating your job search with the same responsibility and enthusiasm that you plan to bring to work every day can help you get hired quickly,” said Parker. Allow time for phone follow-ups, but don’t contact employers during busy times (like 7 p.m. for a restaurant), he said.

5.   Show up ready to talk to several people.

If you’re at an industry conference, treat it as you would a marathon, not a series of short sprints. Employers that are hiring fast, and immediately, will want you to meet several people from different departments.  You need to be prepared to sell yourself as effectively in round two and three as you did when you first drew the recruiter’s attention. So stay alert and even if you’re in a cocktail party, do not reach for that second beer that could slow your answers or slur your language.

Know what you want too, from your next job, so that you can ask the right questions to make a quick evaluation of the opportunity. If there’s one or two must-haves or one deal-breaker, make those known in your interviews, in a way that’s polished, polite and professional.

Finally, be ready to jump when the offer is made – companies don’t want people who are testing the waters or looking for a way to get a counteroffer from their bosses. That could give you some momentum for a while, but may or may not help in the marathon that is your career.

5 Secrets To Quickly Land The Job is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Step 1: Finding Opportunities

This step involves a lot of research. Search company job sites, like Glassdoor, big online job boards (like Monster or Indeed), and your social networks like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Take advantage of your professional network, too; personal references are one of the best ways to find out about hidden job opportunities. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to a company you’re interested in – ask for an informational interview to discuss possible opportunities and where you could fit in at the company.

Step 2: Applying

So you found appropriate job openings – great! Now it’s time to apply. Keep a spreadsheet of what companies you’re applying for, what dates you applied, and what materials you submitted; organization is key in a job search.

When it comes to your resume and cover letter, make sure to personalize them to match the requirements of each job opening; forget “cookie cutter” applications. Remember to focus on achievements on your resume, not simple duties. You should also consider creating a portfolio of your work to bring with you to interviews, whether it’s a tangible portfolio, an online one, or both. Showcasing examples of your actual work speaks more to your abilities than a resume ever can.

Step 3: Interviewing

Congratulations – you made it to the interview phase. This is often the most important (and most nerve-racking) stage in the process. Follow the two “P’s” of interviewing: preparation and professionalism.

Come prepared by researching the company and interviewer, practicing potential interview questions, mapping out your route to the interview, and bringing the necessary materials (a copy of your resume and cover letter, your portfolio, etc). Be professional by dressing and speaking the part, being polite, and following interview etiquette. In the end, there’s only so much you can do for an interview – be yourself and display your skills and accomplishments, and you’ve done your best.

Step 4: Following Up

After the interview, it’s often a waiting game. Set yourself apart from the crowd by making sure to follow up on your interview. Send a handwritten “thank you” note to your interviewer(s), thanking them for their time and consideration. Also take this opportunity to reinforce your interest in and qualifications for the position, and anything else you forgot to say during your interview. Following up, let a company know you’re not only professional, but very interested in the position and willing to go the extra step.

Step 5: Offer vs. Rejection

The moment of truth: do you get an offer or a rejection letter? If it’s an offer letter, congratulations – you got the job. Now, you need to consider whether or not to take it; is it the right job for you? Is it the right fit, in terms of opportunity, salary, hours, and commute? How does it fit into your larger career goals? There are many factors to consider when considering a job offer.

If you’ve gotten a rejection, don’t worry – it’s not the end of the world. Thank the interviewer again for their time and consideration, and ask for constructive feedback. Asking for feedback after a rejection is a great way to start working on your skills and experiences to fit the needs of employers.

Step 6: Negotiating Salary

Salary negotiation is difficult, but necessary when accepting an offer. Research salaries in your industry (Glassdoor’s salary data is great for this) to determine what most companies pay people at your level. Then, instead of demanding a certain salary, let your employer know why you deserve a certain salary – think of your accomplishments, experiences, and anything else you contribute to the company. This should be a conversation, not an argument.

Step 7: Succeeding At The Job

You’ve researched, applied, interviewed, followed up, got an offer, and negotiated your salary; now, it’s time to succeed at the job. Remember the two “P’s” of interviewing – preparation and professionalism – and apply them to your job. Remember to always go above and beyond, ask for more responsibility, and most importantly, communicate with your co-workers and supervisors. You’re ready to start your career now, so start it on a great note!

Guide To Getting Hired For The Class of 2012 is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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