No B. S. Job Search Advice Radio

You Are a “Manager,” Not a “Manger”

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter encourages you to not be lazy and to spell and grammar check your résumé.

 

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I want to talk with you today about not making some of the common mistakes I see in resumes. Here is what I see time and again.

People don’t use the spellchecker with the result being that they describe themselves as “mangers” instead of “managers.” They are the “liason,” instead of the “liaison” for their firm or department. They “lead,” when they should have said “led.” And then there is my personal favorite one. They “asses,” instead of “assess.”

From a grammar perspective, people make a lot of mistakes as well. They use, “your,” instead of, “you’re.”

My point in all of this is not to be obnoxious but to point out that every time that you make a mistake in your resume, there are hairs on people’s next that bristle. You’re trying to make a good impression on someone. They start to asked themselves, “What’s going to happen when this person comes on board and you’re not trying to make a good impression. Where the screw ups going to occur?”

I want to encourage you to use Microsoft Word’s spellchecker and grammar checker. Spellchecker is perfect; grammar checker sometimes depends on the context.

When all is said and done, you want to make sure that the resume that you submit comes across perfectly. And that there are no grammar mistakes. Sometimes you have to make a visual examination of the resume because, in some of the examples that I gave, there were no spelling mistakes. Your usage mistakes as in the example that I gave of, “mangers,” versus “managers.”Manger would probably go through because it’s spelled correctly; managers the word that you intend to use.

So be conscious and you make a visual scan of your resume to make sure that no mistakes go through because certain words are spelled correctly but are being used incorrectly. Definitely, run the grammar checker. There are times that you may use a bullet point, for example, that isn’t the full sentence. Thus, you want to visually check the language to make sure that everything is accurate. This way you will make a great first impression by comparison to the lazy people who don’t do this.

I have to say lazy because what’s the big deal! You are running a spellchecker and a grammar checker. Is this so difficult to do?

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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.”

Functional Resumes?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter speaks about functional resumes.

 

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let’s talk about functional resumes. I am not a fan of functional resumes. It is the problem with functional resumes – – they suggest that you’re hiding something. They suggest that the relevant experience that’s causing you to apply for this role is old. They’re suggesting that you are hiding large gaps in your employment history. Thus, even if you have the relevant experience, I’m not going to call you. At best, I’m going to send you an email that says, “Please send me a chronological resume.”

Why is that? Time is precious and you are obviously trying to hide something. You are obviously trying to hide gaps or that the information was old. Why else would you send a functional resume? Because you did this work last week? Of course, not. The fact remains that people use functional resumes regardless.

The only time a functional resume makes sense is if you are changing careers and your resume leads off with training that you have had that is relevant to your new role. Then, I can see functional resumes working.

Beyond that, all you doing is obscuring certain information that we need to know anyway and, if you think employers are any different, you’re kidding yourself. They aren’t. If anything, they won’t even stop and ask. They’re just going to hit the delete key.

I was involved with the CFO search not too long ago and received a lot of functional resumes for the search. I respond back with an email to those that demonstrate vaguely relevant experience and ask for chronological resume. Every single time, the relevant experience has been years old and the relevant to my client because what you been doing most recently is most pertinent to what matters to them. If you been away from the CFO function for a number of years because you can running a business and now it’s going out of business and now you have to go back to a CFO role, they aren’t interested in interviewing you or bring you on board.

Let me simply say “Ditch the functional resume!” You are not kidding anyone. All that you’re doing is wasting your time and other people’s time. Just don’t bother.

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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.”

Editing the Résumé That Is Too Long

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Jeff Altman , The Big Game Hunter explains how to edit an overly long résumé.

 

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Today, let’s talk about pruning their resume that is ridiculously long. I know in some fields and some academic settings, it seems essential to have a 10 page resume. In industry, that isn’t the case. You want to get your resume to two or 2 1/2 pages in length. Why? Because no one really cares about what you did of the Stone Ages except to see if you had a career progression.

Here’s what you need to do.

  1. Look at the most recent 10 years. That is the area to emphasize. Anything before that you can summarize by saying, “Prior experience was as a (fill in the blank) and (list two or three firms) between “list the dates). So what you’re doing is indicating what you did prior to 10 years ago with a quick summary.
  2. What if your resume is three or four pages and that’s just the past 10 years? Let me ask you a friend question. Will anyone care what you did nine years ago? Yes, you did it but will this relate to the kind of position that you are going for now? Is there any experience for any skill needed from 10 years ago that is pivotal for what you are going for today? Probably not. If there is, you have to include it and risk going to along resume. However, I must in all candor say that, in most fields, it’s completely irrelevant to  the kind of position you’re going for today and your ego is getting in the way.

You have to go in with a critical eye and ask yourself, “This is the kind of job them going for. What’s the background of people that they are looking for? Are the keywords going to pop up for what I did 10 years ago and not call me anyway or is this relevant to what I’m doing now?” If it’s irrelevant, get rid of it or minimize. You can do much shorter descriptions of your work or from anything in your past then what you demonstrate today.

When most firms evaluate someone to determine whether they will interview them are looking at just the past few years. The filler is the old stuff and, if you look at their behavior, they are not reading a resume. They are reading screenshots on a computer screen. It is rare when they print out a resume to read it. How many page downs do you think they do? Not a lot.

The most important work is the past few years. As you get past that it becomes progressively less relevant to them. Take a hatchet to it. Cut it down. You have to do it. Not doing it will only hurt you in the end.

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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.”

The Best Way to Discuss Metrics in Your Resume

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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.

[/spp-transcript]

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.”

What Is Your Management Style?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. explains how to answer this deceptively difficult question “What is your management style?”

[spp-transcript]

I’m back today with another one of those tough interview questions that’s designed to make you sweat bullets–today is question is, “Oooooooooooh! Today’s question is, “What is your management style?”

In the US, this has a very simple answer to it. Sometimes people get nervous, though, because it’s an interview, it’s important, it’s their career and they have to get it right. They can’t mess up. They get serious and thus don’t show their personality.

Here’s the correct answer. Let’s work with the premise that you have an idea of the management style of the organization that you’re interviewing with. If you don’t, this generic answer that I’m going to give you will be very effective because, in the US, this is generally what firms look for. The first thing you say is that you are results-oriented. You’re good at solving problems. You can take on the task and figure out what needs to be done. Results-oriented indicates that you are used to getting bottom-line results. You’re very good at getting results from the team. You’re good at getting results from the organization, giving service to people, so that in this way they are able to get what they expect of you.

Finally, in the US, they like to see that you have a participative style. It’s like, “I have an open door policy in my organization.” Talk about a participative management style but also talk about limitations. Every good manager sets limits to the degree to which they are willing to have an open door style.

Recognize that each of these is going to involve the story. For example, results-oriented requires that you tell a story about how you got bottom-line results. If you say that your task oriented, talk about problems that you solve. For participative style you talk about how having an open door policy at your organization allows you to head off problems, help solve them or teach people to solve their own problems so that, in this way, your group got results.

[/spp-transcript]

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.”

Networking Advice from “The Godfather”

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter channels the voice of Marlon Brando in, “The Godfather” to make a point about a mistake people make when they network.

[spp-transcript]

I met have a little fun today and offer job search tip in the process. The phone is going to be around the idea of job search lessons from “The Godfather.”

One of the best ones comes early in the movie when someone comes to the Godfather to ask for help… Marlon Brando adopts a look that is wonderful and teaches one of the best lessons of networking.

“You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor.”

What is he telling him? You only contact me when you need me; the rest of the time, I’m nothing to you. That’s how many job hunters go about networking. They go out there and repeatedly ask, “Can you help me? Can you help me? Can you help me?” The person that there networking with, that there reaching out to respond by thinking, “You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor. Like I’m supposed to do something for you something”

In other words, you are being selfish. You’re showing no consideration. No respect for the other person.

I don’t know how it is for you but I received calls from people every few years when they’re looking for job. If I call them and ask for help with the search I’m involved with, their responses not to return my phone call. Why should I help them?

“Your earn a fee.”

I can earn plenty of fees and I do. The question is, “How should I conduct myself?”

You want to work toward creating and building a relationship of trust where people want to help you. Just waiting until someone calls you up or you call someone, you can expect the same response that the Godfather gives, “You never even invite me to your house for a cup of coffee and now you ask me for a favor.”

Again, don’t be selfish. Don’t be a mooch. Treat your relationships well and they will be very happy to help you. That will take time but hopefully you can learn this lesson and don’t have to repeat it year in and year out, lurching from one desire the network with the person to another and, instead, making it a part of your life

[/spp-transcript]

 

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.”

Stupid Interview Mistakes: Monologuing – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the top job interview mistake that too many people make and how to avoid it.

[spp-transcript]

Today I want to talk with you about one of those tragic and completely avoidable job interview mistakes that too many people engage in. I was reminded of it when I asked the question of the job hunter and they went off on this three minute monologue that, maybe, for 10 or 15 seconds had something to do with my question and then they went way off into left field.

I listened for a while, letting them talk on, when he finally came up for air, you know, that pause in the conversation when they finally let someone else speak, I said, “By the way, do you remember my original question?” He thought for a while and eventually answered, “No. I don’t.” We can laugh about it now but how many of you have done that?

What ultimately happens is that you start to think you know the question before the interviewer has asked it because you have been on so many interviews. The problem with you getting a job be be that you don’t interview anywhere near as well as you think you do. This can be one of the big reasons.

You start anticipating the questions and start answering what you think is being asked, go often these long-winded explanations, instead of keeping your answers to 45 seconds, maybe one minute (By the way, if you think that is a short amount of time, try time yourself talking for 45 seconds and see how long that is). You will develop an appreciation for the fact that 45 seconds is a long time.

Your goal is to answer the question. If it is a phone interview, I want you to have your resume out in front of you and write the question down in front of you so that is a reminder that will help you stay on point. When you hear the question, you can even circle a few things on your resume term I do have some talking points you want to make sure to cover.

Answer the question, no more and no less. Don’t go off on long-winded tangents. 45 seconds. Maybe a minute tops. Keep your answer to the point. Otherwise what starts to happen is something that is happened to me – – the interviewer starts to mentally channel surf (thinking about what they would rather be doing; what else they can be doing other than sitting and listening to you; what the next appointment is; who the next call is with). They are no longer listening to you. This could be the very reason why you are failing on your interviews.

You stop listening because you thought you knew what the question was and go off on tangents.

[/spp-transcript]

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.”

Stupid Interview Mistakes: Crossing The Line – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter warned you about crossing the line on your next interview and how that can become so costly.

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers 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.

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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.”

 

 

Are you interested in executive job search coaching, leadership coaching or life coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

3 Questions to Ask at the End of a Job Interview

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers three questions you should ask at the end of every single job interview.

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio,” “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice.”

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

Do you have a quick question you would like me to answer? Pay $50 via PayPal to TheBigGameHunter@gmail.com  

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers 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. Like me on Facebook.

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 forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.

The Most Important Reason to Network

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the most important reason you should be out networking.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to talk with you

about the most important reason you want to be doing networking.

There’s the most important reason why you should be doing networking, not just simply while you’re looking for job but after you are in a job, after you are settled in, why you should continue to network after you are onboard.

You won’t need much of a resume if you are doing great networking. Let me illustrate.

Often, when you’re sending out resumes, you have to tailor your resume to every single role and demonstrate a fit for the position because no one knows you. As a result, you have to “thread the needle” in order to get interviews.

Don’t believe me? How many resumes of people sending out for which they never get a response because in no way, shape or form to they fit the requirement.

What networking will allow you to do is to be slightly off target. It will allow you to overcome the objection someone will have where they say, “Gee, this person’s resume doesn’t look like it fits,” and allow someone who knows you to advocate for you and say, “Not the case. He does have this experience.” “She knows what she’s talking about on the subject. She is in a surround this.” “He knows this material called.”

In this way, you are able to overcome objections because you have an advocate for you. Having than advocate for you, not just simply from the referral perspective but from the vantage point of overcoming initial objections is a huge advantage for job hunters.

So I want to encourage you to build your network, support your network, work on building and enhancing a network after you join you next firm.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you really 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