IResume

In reference to my previous post about Behavioral Interviews, a question was asked about getting back into the IT field after being out of it for 7 years…This question has prompted today’s entry.

No matter the industry, getting back into a field after being out of it for several years can be tricky. Any functional shift like that is tough especially when there are many jobseekers who have relevant, recent experience in your field.

The best advice I can give is 3 fold:

1. Get your hands back into the field whether it is

• At home with software,
• Online tutorials,
• A class or two at a local community college or university,
• Completing a certification
• Reading books.

Show that you are willing to learn, are committed to ramping-up quickly, and have a strong desire to get back into the field.

2. Be prepared.

• Update your resume highlighting skills related to your desired field,
• Get written recommendations,
• Prepare for interviews, and
• Pprepare to take a bit of a step back in order to return to the field. Don’t sell yourself short, but be realistic in the current market.

3. Use your network!!

• Share your career achievements and aspirations with past colleagues, mentors, recruiters, friends, classmates who can give you a positive referral and help guide you in the right direction.

Good luck!
- Allison

http://www.iresume.net

When you are out of a job, do not treat it as a vacation. Take a week or two up front if needed, relax, clear your head, and then return to “work” finding your next career opportunity. We all have responsibilities, bills to pay, family to support, personal and professional needs, so be an adult, stay focused, and treat your job search as your full time job!

Build, and use your network
If you are not informing your network of your job search and career intentions, you are selling yourself short, as most companies announce openings to their employees first to find qualified candidates through word-of-mouth as opposed to job board postings or outside recruiters. So, build your network, and use your network…past classmates, past colleagues, previous managers, family members, friends, etc. LinkedIn is a great place to post your profile and connect with valuable contacts.

Create, and use your online resume
It is also imperative to have a professional online resume that will set you apart from the rest of the candidate pool. iResume is a great place for you to create your resume once and use it anywhere. You can share it with your network, distribute it directly to hiring managers and recruiters, and track your job search activity. You can direct others to your personal url or download your iResume into many different formats as you choose.

Plan your days
Just as you will when you land your next position, you must plan your days in order to be successful and effective in your job search. Schedule coffee meetings, lunch meetings, and phone calls to catch up with past colleagues or interesting contacts who may be influential in your next opportunity. Set a block of time to search online for jobs that are posted. But, as mentioned above, many of the best opportunities are circulated by mouth, so don’t waste all of your time on the job boards. Indeed is a great place to go for aggregated job postings. Attend career seminars such as Realize Your Potential coming up in Atlanta. Attend job fairs, career related networking events, and career related social hours. The more organized your days, the more efficiently you will operate. Have a marketing strategy documented that you can provide to those who are interested, and share your online resume and profile. You can even order cost effective business cards with your iResume url and contact information.

Get off the couch, and get motivated!

• Build, and use your network
• Create, and use your online resume and professional profile
• Plan your days, and stick to it!

Good luck!
-Allison

• Gathering knowledge about
  o the company,
  o roles and responsibilities of the position,
  o necessary skills to do the job,
  o why the position is open (is it a new role, or did someone leave, and why)
• Presenting a top notch resume,
• Being prepared to discuss your education, work experience, and the characteristics you possess coupled with your ability to operate in the work environment.

The objective is to sell yourself and to do so truthfully…don’t embellish on your resume, or during an interview.

Get the interview. Your resume is how you create your first impression, so make sure it is complete, professional, honest, and error free (including spelling and grammar). Once your resume and application get you noticed, often times, the phone interview is treated as a screening to ensure accuracy of your resume and to weed out candidates based on functional/technical ability and how your experience lends itself to the opportunity. When you are brought in for a face to face interview, continue to be prepared to discuss your skill set, work experience, and resume, and be prepared for behavioral interview questions. Behavioral interview questions give recruiters and hiring managers a true sense of how you handle situations in the work environment including stress, management, colleagues, deadlines, and more….remember “past performance is a key indicator of future performance in a similar role/environment.”

During the interview, it is imperative to keep in mind the position for which you are interviewing. For example, if you are interviewing for a management position, and a question is asked of you about your previous experience leading a team, make sure you provide a positive example that highlights your management/leadership skills that helped your team be successful. This seems like common sense, but the nerves of an interview can take over if you are not prepared (be prepared, not memorized and insincere). Practice answering questions with the STAR approach.

1. Situation/Task (state the situation or task at hand)
2. Action, (state the action that you took)
3. Result (state the results/outcome)

The STAR approach enables you to provide a complete answer with a beginning, middle and end. Coupling this approach with your knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of the position for which you are interviewing, you should be well prepared for most questions.

Here are some sample behavioral interview questions:

1. Provide an example of how you have been successful at empowering either a person or a group of people in accomplishing a task.
2. Tell me about a time when you made a personal sacrifice in order to reach a work objective.
3. Describe a time in which you found it necessary to speak up about an issue where there was a real or potential risk to the company or your project and your perspective was not popular. What was the outcome?
4. Tell me about a position you have held that required you to remain focused in a chaotic environment.
5. Describe a project when you were especially energized and others (team, business unit etc.) did not able to share your exuberance. Were you able to change their views or inspire more energy and motivation for the project?
6. This position is an important leadership role for moving our organization forward – Why are you the one for the job?

Good luck!

If you have an interview scheduled with a new company, it is often a phone interview. Be sure to take it just as seriously as a face-to-face interview. This is the company’s first impression of you (beyond your resume), and you want to stay calm, and focus on your mission…Getting the face-to-face.

The phone interview is often the first of two or three interviews prior to a job offer being extended. So, do not rush the process and get carried away asking about benefits, salary, etc. Again, your main objective is selling yourself and getting the next interview.

Here are some very helpful tips to keep in mind.

• Research the company on their website, and be familiar with the job description.

• Have a copy of your resume in front of you so that you are prepared.

• Be upbeat and positive. Project confidence in your voice. Do not carry on about a previous employer, boss, co-worker who you did not get along with, a job that annoyed you, how you hate to work over-time, etc. The objective is to be a positive asset to the new employer, so be sure to SMILE and express your positive attributes. No one likes a whiner!

• Stand up while you are on the phone. You will project your voice better and come across in a more alert and confident manner.

• Listen carefully to each question. Show that you understand what is being asked of you, and answer with definitive answers…no one word answers, and no long-winded dissertations.

• Get into SALES mode, and see yourself. Sell your abilities, experiences, and credentials to the recruiter or hiring manager.

• Do not ask about salary. You may tell them what your current or previous salary is if asked, but stop there. This is not the time or place for that discussion.

• Do not ask about benefits, vacation, PTO. These topics will be discussed if/when you receive an offer and can be negotiated then if necessary.

• Be prepared with a few questions for the interviewer regarding the position, the department, what the expectations will be for your performance. Show that you have researched the company and understand the position.

• At the end of the interview, ask, “What are the next steps?” Reiterate your interest in the position, and provide your availability for a follow up interview.

Good luck!

-Allison

In today’s slower market, job searching is weighing heavily on many people. As the saying goes, desperate times, call for desperate measures. But, the last thing you want to appear in a job search is desperate. Sometimes, this sense of uncertainty and borderline panic may lead people to stretch the truth a bit on their resume or when asked questions in an interview. We caution you, don’t do it!

If you overstate your experience, education, or activities, you are not being true to yourself, and you are definitely misleading a future potential employer, which will not get the relationship off on the right track. You also do not want to get into a role that does not suit your skills and background because you may very quickly find yourself back on your job search.

Most employers today run background checks, and many verify education and previous employment. Even if they loved you in the interview, if they find a misleading degree or misstated position, your chances of working for that employer, or employers with whom they are closely aligned, will quickly vanish. Don’t be too naive…bad news travels fast, and recruiters and hiring managers know individuals in similar roles in other companies. You are much better off to address your experience and education head on and allow for your references to validate your abilities.

-Allison