Month: March 2016
The Recipe for Resume Success
If you visit my website, you’ll see that I’ve read more than 500,000 resumes. It is a frustrating exercise, because most are little more than spam (resumes that in no way fit the requirement) or are badly written – a simple recitation of responsibilities without contextualizing the work that was done.
I was interviewing Ron Nash for my podcast, Job Search Radio, a few weeks ago, and together we hit on a recipe for resumes that get results. We joked that it was an Italian recipe for a successful resume because the acronym spelled out PARM, as in “parmesan.”
Before we discuss the acronym, I want to encourage you to think of your resume in the context of SEO or keyword optimization, particularly if you will be submitting it through an applicant tracking system (black hole) or posting it on a job board. Because of the ranking systems both tend to use, you want to list terms firms search for to find someone like you in the top third of your resume, where both systems will be more likely to believe that it is recent, relevant experience.
Also, minimally, you should include your city, state, zip code, and your mobile number under your first and last name. Not including your zip code prevents firms and recruiters alike from finding you in their systems when new positions open that might fit your experience. After all, when searches are run, 25 or 35 miles from a particular zip code is one of the variables used for locating people.
Now, let’s get to the PARM model:
‘P’ Is for Problem: What Is the Problem You Were aAsked to Work On?
Describe in detail what the problem is you were asked to resolve. Maybe you are an IT professional hired to manage a project to deliver a system for your firm. Maybe there were network issues or business continuity problems you were brought in to resolve. Maybe you are a CPA who is hired to do month-end closings for clients in a timely way. Describe the problem in great detail.
‘A’ Is for Action: What Actions Did You Take to Resolve the Problem?
What did you do and how did you go about doing it? Who did you interact with?
Let’s use the example of an engineer. They might be tasked with developing a solution to a particular problem. Who did you meet with on the business side? How did you resolve issues between the different groups? How many people did you manage? Were they all on site or were some offshore? How large a budget did you have? All of these factors give texture to a description of what you did.
‘R’ Is for Results: What Results Did You Achieve With the Actions You Took?
Describe the outcome of your efforts. Perhaps you delivered the project on time and under budget. Perhaps someone described your work in glowing detail because of the success you achieved. Too often, people only discuss the role and responsibilities instead of going into detail about the results of their work. How will anyone know unless you tell them?
‘M’ Is for Metrics: How Did What You Do Help Your Company Make or Save Money?
There is a big difference to an employer when someone has worked on something that saves $10,000 versus $10 million. There’s a big difference between someone who helps a firm make $10 million versus $100 million. Let people know the scope of your work. After all, unless you tell them, they have no way of knowing.
If you are in a job where this particular metric does not apply, there’s another way to demonstrate value.
Let’s say you work in a call center where such metrics are not available. You can always describe the percentage difference in whole volume you handled versus the average worker. For example: “Handled 17 percent more calls than the typical employee of the organization. Resolved 42 percent of all calls without escalation versus 18 percent for the average employee.”
Such metrics demonstrate how you would be a superior hire for their firm.
Put it all together and it spells PARM – a recipe for resume success.
What Should You Apply For?
Organizing a job search is not about flipping resumes to job ads like a cook in a fast food restaurant, nor is it only about what you want to do. It also involves careful thought and understanding about how your experience “fits” the job market.
You see, most people begin their job search by saying to themselves, “I’ve had it. I think it’s time to make a change.” They know what they don’t want but haven’t taken the time to figure out what will satisfy them or what will please them.
In addition, you must know who you are and what motivates you as well as what criteria are important enough to be uncompromising about and on which ones you’re willing to be flexible.
For example, you must know if you function better in a large environment – whether or not it’s corporate, or a non-profit environment, a team one, or one in which you’re required to motivate yourself in order to perform. To do this examine your previous jobs — what you liked and didn’t like, what worked or didn’t work, and why.
Once you know what you want, then start reading ads on the job boards, research some search professionals that specialize in your field, network with your co-workers from previous jobs, contact employers at companies in the area that seems right for you.
Working in this way will keep your search focused on what it is you want in your next job and not just on sending out resumes and going on interviews.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2016
Make Your Résumé Stand Out
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers a simple suggestion to make your résumé stand out from others.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit http://www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered
Out of Work Since Last Year? Hustle NOW!
I started in the search business in 1972 and it didn’t take long for me to notice a few simple yet understandable behaviors among employers.
They include:
The longer someone is looking for work, the fewer choices they have. Companies start to look at your resume and believe that others have interviewed you and found your skills lacking, so why should they waste their time meeting you?
The longer that someone is out of work the less leverage someone has come salary negotiations. Firms often adopt the attitude of giving you two choices when they make an offer — take it or leave it. They act from the belief that you don’t have many choices (and they are probably right) so they don’t feel a great need to extend themselves.
If you’ve been out of work in your field for a year or longer, it will be hard (or impossible) to re-enter at the same level … if at all!
For those of you whose resumes indicate that you worked for your last employer until almost a year previously, I encourage you to hustle during the next few months to find something – anything — even if it means profound compromise (to you). Once you have been out of work for a year, your choices will become microscopic and the likelihood of your returning to your career as you’ve known it, unlikely.(Think of what offer you would take if you were still unemployed a six months from now. Take that offer today.)
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2007, 2016
How Long Does It Take for You to Do Your Job Each Week
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer the question, “How long does it take for you to do your job each week?”
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit http://www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
Making the Decision
This will become your guide when it becomes time to make a decision, because there’s hopefully going to come a point where you’re going to have a choice between two and five opportunities. Wouldn’t that be great? Firms wanting you and calling you up and saying, “You’re the one we’ve chosen. We’ve interviewed 150 people and we’ve picked you.” Now, imagine five firms are doing that. You have to know how to choose the one that’s right for you. So check what each company offers you against your priorities.
I remember a time several years ago when I was working with a young woman named Lorraine, who in the stress of having to make a decision, almost made a horrible one. I’d gotten an offer for her that basically met every one of her objectives and then her old firm came back to her with a counter-offer.
Her boss sat her down and said, “Lorraine, we love you. You’re so important to us. Please stay. We need you! How about if we increase your salary by $10,000?” They flattered her so much, she almost decided to go back on all these things that were important to her making her commitment.
So I had a meeting with her and we discussed the counter offer. We reviewed the faults she’d found with her employer to see if anything had changed. Ultimately we found that she almost made a terrible decision based upon her emotions at the moment. She’d forgotten about her original thinking, because she was flattered so much. After a brief coaching session, she wound up taking the job I introduced her to and growing greatly in her career. She thanked me every year for five years afterwards for having helped her.
You have to really be true to what your heart AND HEAD is telling you. You have be true to what you truly want, even though your parents, or your current job situation, or other outer influences, are telling you otherwise. You’re not stuck. You have options.
Imagine for a second you are standing in the middle of the road with your arms out and balanced in place. Now, someone takes your left hand and starts pulling on it, and then someone takes your right hand and starts pulling on it. And then someone starts pulling your right leg, and another person starts pulling your left. Eventually, you’re being tugged in all sorts of directions. Well, that’s a good image of what going on a job search sometimes feels like.
You really start to feel the pressure of being pulled in a lot of different ways and unless you have that base of identified values, it’s really hard to figure out what the right decision is—not for your mom, not for your dad, not for your best friend, but for you.
We spent some time talking about the self-evaluation phase and where you want to get to. Now, in planning for change, is there anything that you can do to move yourself closer to your goal? What training can you take? What mentoring or coaching can you obtain that will move you closer to meeting your ambition with this job change?
You are not a robot that’s going to execute tasks in a job. You are a living, breathing human being with needs, wants, desires, and ambitions. I want to help you meet as many of them as I possibly can.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2007, 2016
I Asked For Too Much!
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter answers a viewer’s question about a situation where they asked for too much money.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit http://www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.
Figure Out Where You Want to Go
It is to figure out where you think you want to go with your career. You can adapt this later on. This is not cast in stone. The decision you make today may be a different one than you make two or three years from now. We’re always changing, and the circumstances of life are always changing.
The work world of today is a vastly different one than the one I entered in the 1970’s.
These days, we start by figuring out where we want to go. From there you start breaking it down to figure out what you’ll need to do in order to get there, including what’s most important to you—your values—because not everyone has the same value system as another.
Until you get clear of your values, you’re in danger of following someone else’s path—like the one your parents set you on, for example.
Once you understand what your values are, you can ask what will be the most important things to you in the next job or organization. What are you going to need to see or hear or feel in order to know it’s the right place for you?
Exercises to Help Figure It Out
You can do this in a variety of different ways. It might be useful, first of all, to take some time with yourself and figure out through journaling, and then speak with someone else to see if you’re being realistic. So, for example, the beginner who says, “I want to change jobs now and I want to become the Chief Financial Officer with an organization with my next job change,” is certainly being unrealistic. The likelihood of such a thing happening is next to non-existent. You might need a reality check.
Once you’ve had an opportunity to identify where you want to go in the next few years, speak with a trusted advisor. It could be a trusted current or former colleague, a mentor or clergyman, but ideally it should be someone from the profession that you’re in or want to be in. Someone who has gone through what you want to go through.
It is definitely a balancing act. In fact, what I hope you get from this program is the understanding that I don’t want you to be a drone. I don’t want you to be the next cog in the machine. I want you to be able to dream and be able to achieve the big things in life. At the same time, I want you to have the opportunity to be practical, because you’re going to have to take steps between now and that dream in order to get there.
Let’s look at some of the very basic things you can ask yourself. What kind of job do you want to have? What’s the nature of the work that you’re willing to accept? What are you trying to find in the next firm? What are you trying to get away from at your current firm? Sometimes, you need to go to the negative and identify that in order to get to the positive.
What are you going to need to see or hear or know to determine if the next firm is a fit for you? What sort of conditions or qualities do you want to continue from your current circumstances? What do you like about your current job? What are the qualities in your boss that you like and dislike? Are there certain benefits that you’re going to need, like a particular type of health insurance, that will also be important to you at the next firm? Is tuition reimbursement a critical item for you? What’s the nature of the work or location? What other sort of things just come to your mind that are going to be important to you in the next firm?
Once you’re done answering all of these questions—and you should write down as much as you can–I hope your list is enormous, because then I want you to do next is prioritize the items: take a look at this list and figure out what’s the most important thing on this list, the thing that you must absolutely have? What is the second item? What’s third? What’s fourth? What’s fifth? Normally, the top five is enough, but you may need six or even eight items. Whatever the number, you need to figure out what the critical items are for you and then what the preferred things could be.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2007, 2016
Your Biggest Mistake Working With Recruiters
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter points out the biggest mistake job hunters make when they think about working with recruiters.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.
Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
Visit http://www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more advice there.
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Pay what you want for my books about job search
Subscribe to TheBigGameHunterTV on YouTube for advice about job hunting and hiring. Like videos, share and comment.
Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
Do you need more in-depth coaching? Join my Coaching program.
Want to ask me questions via phone, Skype or Facetime? Have your job search questions answered.