The Best Way to Discuss Metrics in Your Resume

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to discuss your performance metrics in your resume for greatest effect.

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I want to talk with you about framing metrics in your resume in ways that are very powerful.

What to know how powerful it is? Google has written about this formula. Let’s talk about the power of these metrics.

What you do is write about what you’ve done by comparison to the average individual in your organization and how you went about doing it.

For example, in the quote that comes from Google, “Wrote editorials for the New York Times.” That’s one way of saying it but it isn’t particularly effective.

Had 50 OpEds published by comparison to six by most op-ed writers, as a result of providing deep insight into the following area for three years.”

What they are doing is showing what they did in comparison to the average and then how they went about doing it.

So, if you’re administrative assistant,, you might talk about call averages or support effectiveness, or supporting X number of people or output that you have by comparison to others. If you are a programmer, he might speak in terms of code. If you’re an architect… You get the idea.

The idea is to compare yourself to the average and how you went about doing it. It’s a powerful metrics and method even Google recognizes and looks at when they are evaluating people.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Finding a Job Without A College Degree (VIDEO)

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Someone asked me a question about finding a job without a college degree. He has been on interviews and been rejected solely because of the lack of a degree. He asked what he should do. There is also information here for those of you who do have a degree but have been rejected because you don’t have an advanced degree.

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Someone send me a question the translates into, “I have been looking for a job and don’t have a college degree. I keep getting shot down from one place or anothe because of that. What do I do? How do I find a job without a degree?

I love this question because I’m going to invite you to look at this from 2 different perspectives. One is external, the other is internal.

I want to start with the internal one. That’s the one that says, “because you don’t have a college degree, you are less valuable than people who do have a college degree.” If you have 10 or 15 years of experience, don’t have a degree and they aren’t willing to consider you, they are morons!

By the way, that’s the external answer. I will give you a tactic for responding to them, but the internal side, when the drumbeat is so regular there is an internal side that needs to be addressed – – the belief that you have that you are someone who’s less valuable than someone with a college degree.

Firms that act like that are morons. And for you people who do have a college degree, I want you to get so smug because there was always the master’s degree. There are always the people with the PhD’s who have more education than you. Maybe someone has taken a class in this or a certification in that – – there was always something, some hoop to jump through that you, as someone who has a college degree have to jump through, just like this individual who doesn’t have a college degree because you are the barrier to his entry.

For all of you, I want to remind you that belief and attitude is an enormous variable. Some firms are going to say no. After all, if you have a bachelors in social work and they want someone with the masters of the quantitative discipline, they aren’t going to interview you, are they? 

That’s the reality to it. There is no amount of magical words or hypnosis that is going to change their mind. Their loss. If you want to change that, get the academic that they are looking for.

In the case of someone without a degree, find the easiest degree program that you can find that fits with your schedule, doing online and get it done with.

I don’t think that’s is important as this: “I’m just curious. What do you think that degree (I’m speaking for the person who doesn’t have a college degree, right now) has done for that individual 5 years after they have gotten out of school? 10 years after they got out of school? What do you think it’s done for them that my experience attacking this in my work life hasn’t done already?

You want to make them think and don’t want to fall into the convention.  Understand, though, people are not going to want to think.  So that begs the question, “Do you really want to work for stupid people who can’t see out of the box that they are conditioned to operate in?

Wouldn’t you rather work with smart insightful capable people who have great training and have gotten it online and it never set foot on the university campus?

and it feels so forceful, you tend to believe it. I’m wondering if there is something that happened earlier in your life that gave you the message that you were less valuable than others that needs to be addressed.

That’s a coaching question that needs to be addressed that I can’t do in a video because I need you in front of me or on the phone with me. That’s one thing that

They are taking courses at MIT. They are taking courses at Harvard. They don’t have a degree! They live in various places around the world. Are you saying that they are “less than” you? I don’t think so.

So, step number 1 is dealing with your own “stuff” around the belief that you are less than people with a degree, or the person with the more advanced degree who has taken the specialized program.

The 2nd thing is when submitting a resume where degree is a requirement… “I saw that there was a degree requirement for the position, but let me ask you a question: I have been doing this for 5 years (10 years, 15 years, 20 years, whatever it is), I left school at this stage earlier in life, for economic reasons… Stuff happens… I worked very hard in a very dedicated way for employers who will provide great references and attest to my significance in their organization… What do you think that that degree, I could’ve gotten 15 years ago would deliver for me today?”  You put that in the email that you send to them.

They may reply with a bureaucratic answer, particularly HR because they operate with pretty bureaucratic ways of doing things.

Find out who the hiring manager is and apply to them directly and avoid “the front door.” That’s why I always say, “Never ever apply for job doing applicant tracking system.” 

Take leadership. Take ownership. Take command.

Again, before someone misinterprets this, I see resumes all the time where I am looking for someone to fill a position as a financial analyst and you are a store manager at a retail chain, and you are just not qualified. I’m talking about the specific of the degree scenario.

 

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t Fall For Employers Conning You – Job Search Radio

As much as third-party recruiters are criticized for lying to job hunters, employers run a “hustle,” too. As a former employer mine used to do when he gave me accolades regularly, but was the type of person who would steal a dime from you.

On this show, I point out the two extremes of  how employers try to “con” you and encourage you not to fall for it.

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I want to talk with you today about some of the ways employers try to con you doing your job search.

I used to work for a guy who always used to talk about how much he loved everyone – – love, love, love, love, love, love – – “I love you Jeff. You’re wonderful. I love you so-and-so. You are terrific!” He would steal a dime from you if given an opportunity.

Employers do this and interviewing as well. They say things like, “Oh, man! Your background looks great!” Or “I don’t know. You’re missing some things we are really looking for.” In both extremes, what they are doing is playing games.

It’s the game of trying to “finessed you” into doing what they really want you to do. For example, in the positive spin, people let their guard down. They open themselves up even more and reveal things to the employer they probably shouldn’t reveal because, after all, “it’s looking good, right?” In the other example, they beat you up and try talking you about what you’re missing and what your deficiencies are so they can drive you down on money.

I had a friend who was involved with a negotiation recently. He was brought in by someone he knew professionally, known one another for a number of years, brought into a firm after interviewing on multiple occasions over the course of the six-month period of time, then they come in with a lowball offer. The lowball came in out of the blue; all along, they tell you how much they love him and his background and may offer him a lot less blood than what he told them he was earning and what his value is to them.

So we decided to circle back into another negotiation with them and I had warned him that there was going to be a possibility of this happening to and I kept encouraging them to try to generate different situations for himself because I wasn’t so sure about this one was going to come and successfully. I thought it might but you can’t let your guard down; you always have to be selling. Otherwise, unless you are, “the con” wins. There are lots of different ways these comments work.

So I always want you to out there and making sure of your real value – – value in the marketplace and value to the organization. If they try to sweet-talk you (“oh you’re wonderful”), keep being out there selling yourself; you keep marketing yourself. You keep trying to generate opportunities because you can’t be certain that they are being forthright/honest. Conversely, if the beating you up (“will you take a lot less?), You can respond by saying, “I have a drop-dead price just like you do. If you think I’m worth that much less, this may not be the right thing for me and I probably am not the right person for you. If you really think that’s my value, let’s just shake hands, parties friends and move on.” It’s better to do that rather than putting yourself through the agony of pleading with them. Just shut them up and bring this thing to a happy ending for each of you where you shake hands and go off on something else.

Now, if you have nothing going on and you been on five interviews with this firm, and this is your best hope, you play out this hand. However, most of the time, falling for the con in either way whether it’s the “I love you con” or “You’re a piece of dog-whatever,” isn’t worth anything to you.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn