Month: August 2016

Why You Should Put Contact Info on Your Resume

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the importance of putting contact information on your resume.

 

[spp-transcript]

There’s been an annoying trend in resume writing that people of been doing. I want to see if I can help put an end to it. It’s the absence of an address, city, state and no ZIP Code. Just a name and sometimes it’s only a first name and first initial of the person’s last name and a phone number.

Just start by providing your location and your phone number, particularly if it’s a mobile number, may not correlate to where you are. As a result, you need to include the city and state and ZIP Code. Even if you don’t want to provide an address that I understand some people have a security issue about giving up her address, but city state and ZIP Code should be essential for every resume.

Why?

Because recruiters search for candidates, we usually start by looking for people in the geographic area around the client. Without providing ZIP Code, we have no way of finding you.

Well, I gave you my city!

ZIP Code is more specific and more effective for searching. After all, where was your area code would serve as a good substitute, now with portable phone numbers, you could be like me–someone with a 516 area code who lives nowhere near that location. How would someone know?

So please make sure to include city state and ZIP Code on all of your resumes.

As for not including your last name, I understand that you have a concern about bias by people who will reject you based upon having a last name that they might judged to be unpronounceable. I will simply say that whenever I receive a resume of someone who only includes an initial, I personally am annoyed because I don’t have an easy way to identify this person. After all, some of them don’t even include a phone number or email address to reach them.

And, if you are concerned about bias, for bigoted people you are signaling to them that they should reject you. If they are going to reject you based upon your name not your qualifications, they will do it whether you offer your name or not.

Frankly, only including the initial of last name is assumed to indicate that you are working in the United States on an H1B visa. It is in your name or national origin that is causing you to be rejected. It is your residency status, unfortunately.

Let me also add that applicant tracking systems are also unhappy with seeing simply a last initial. Often they spit out such applications and reject them.

Help recruiters help you. Make it easy. Always include city state and ZIP Code in your resumes and your full name on it, too.

[/spp-transcript]

 

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

Should I Ask for a Referral Bonus from a Recruiter?

by

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE8EPZmNB4w[/svp]
I don’t like the person I would be referring but isn’t this what recruiters do and they are paid for it.

[spp-transcript]

No, it is not the same thing the recruiters do. You’ve done one small part of the recruiting job–you know someone. Whoopey! You know how many other parts there are? Of course you don’t

The job of being a recruiter is not just simply taking the name and going to the client and saying, “here. This person is perfect. Them and send me a check.”

There are so many more details the going to be a successful recruiter that you don’t have a clue about! So I want to dispel that notion that, just because you know someone, you should be entitled to a fee.

Now, the maker of the first part where you ask whether you should ask for a referral bonus. Let me ask you a question. When you refer someone to a doctor, are you asking for a referral bonus from them? How about a lawyer? An insurance agent? Plumber? Certainly US for a referral bonus for a plumber. How about a restaurant. Certainly you do that with a restaurant!

But you want to do with the recruiter. You want to hold them up.

Now I’m sure they’re going to be many comments from people who believe that you should ask them for money but would never think of asking the doctor, lawyer, insurance agent, plumber or a favorite restaurant for money.

I’m sure you are told by people, “why not? They are getting so much money from their fee.”

And I have to tell you, folks, you have no idea what goes into the job – – how much heartache and agony they experience in their job that you are clueless about.

There are some awful recruiters and some tremendous ones. Why can’t they are living without you sticking your hand in your pocket?

You’ll do that with all these other people that you have a bug up your butt about recruiters and want to punish the one who reached out to you for this job or maybe who helped you find the job and punish them for the mistreatment you receive from someone else.

Stop it.

Be generous. Be patient.

[/spp-transcript]
I don’t like the person I would be referring but isn’t this what recruiters do and they are paid for it.

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 

Targeting Your Résumé

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the importance of targeting your résumé when you submit it to an employer.

 

[spp-transcript]

I want to give you some advice about your resume. I’m not talking about the generic resume you put up on a job board for people to contact you about. Then resume should be as large and broad and inclusive as possible, particularly with regard to the last 10 years of your career or your most recent work experience.

Why?

Because it’s most likely would be hired based upon the last two positions (to be clear, I’m not talking about consulting assignments because those could be much shorter); think in terms of four or five years.

So in this resume in needs to be full, encompassing, particularly with regard to the last five years of your career.

With the resume that you are submitting to the employer directly, you can’t send that resume. Why? Because it carries a lot of extraneous things that this employer won’t care about.

Remember the 80-20 rule? 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients?

What you want to do with your resume is focusing in on the elements of your experience that fit what this firm is looking for.

If you’re applying for a job based upon online listing, you have the roadmap right there! If you have referral to someone who’s hiring, and someone who is told you about this position, well, they know about the job you can ask them about it.

Then, tailor your resume to what’s important this firm and minimize (I didn’t say eliminate) the other stuff. Why? Because they don’t care. What they care about is what they are trying to find in the way of an employee.

Remember, when you meet with them didn’t want to talk about what you’ve done. They want to talk about what you’ve done that matters to them. They want to talk about your relevant experience for the problem they have that needs to be solved by hiring someone.

If you start by focusing your attention on that, I can assure you that you are going to get more interviews.

[/spp-transcript]

 

 

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

Should I Email a Recruiter Who Missed an Interview With Me?

by

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbAuhHGhyEY[/svp]
I am not sure if I should call them or let it slide and wait for them to call.

 

[spp-transcript]

SUMMARY

The question for today you should I email the recruiter who missed the call with me today?

Let me turn the question around; if you missed the call with them, do you think they would’ve called you?

Hell yeah! They would’ve called you and probably put you on the defensive. And you can’t do that. You have to be bigger than that. A corporate recruiter might do it and expect to get an advantage from you later on.

With recruiters, you have to take it on the chin a little bit and say something like, “we were scheduled to speak at 230.”

To me, I would give them 10 minutes of grace time before calling them; I wouldn’t delay major lengths of time.

Why?

Because of is only 10 minutes, you probably have enough time to do the entire interview they would have done and not have to reschedule it.

They may feel inhibited or defensive if they get an email from you.

Your job is to get the interview and deliver on it. It is not to be in power or look for advantage where you push them around. All that happens if you try to push them around is that you will be rejected.

At the end of the day what you want to be accomplishing is really very simple. You want the in person interview.

If this were to happen during the in-person interview, I would go over to the receptionist and say something like, “I had a 2:30 PM appointment with Jenny. She seems to be running very late. Would you mind checking with her?”  I do this at doctors offices when I walk in.

[/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 http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter

Describe Yourself in One Word

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter prepares you with the best way to answer this question.

 

[spp-transcript]

SUMMARY

Here’s today’s tough interview question. It’s the one that’s designed to make you say, “Huh! That’s tougher than it sounds.”

The question for today is, “pick one word that you can use to describe yourself.”

Boing!

Some people might choose hard-working. Some might choose successful or leader. There’s no one right way to answer that question. The idea very simply as what are the qualities that this firm might look for in hiring someone for this job?

For example, if your mathematician using their computer science as part of your work, you might think of meticulous or thorough as being the right word. If you are going for an executive position address this question, you might use the word leader.

The idea is to think of the attributes in advance that someone might prefer in an individual in the role the true interviewing for.

If you’re an administrative assistant, would leader fit? I don’t know. You know the kind of role the trip going for with that really describe what a firm is looking for? For and administrative assistant to the executive in your organization, it might be the right word. If you’re part of an office pool, it probably isn’t.

Again, think of the qualities that are necessary for the work that you do and for the organization that you are working for in the kind of position that your interviewing for. That’s the key to answering a question like this correctly.

[/spp-transcript]

 

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

Tell Me About a Mistake You Made & What You Learned From It (for Recent Grads)

by

 

“Tell me about a mistake you’ve made and what you’ve learned from it,” is one of those classic interview questions asked by interviewers.

Here, the answered is tailored for the recent graduate.

 

[spp-transcript]

 

 

 

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

How to Dress for an Interview

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains the importance of appearance on income and offers suggestions about what you can do.

[spp-transcript]

 

 

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

Trial By Fire

by

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtP0nKtPA6M[/svp]
Facing facts. Facing who you are and the decisions you’ve made . . . incredibly hard.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been coaching people to play their professional and personal games BIG for what seems like 100 years.

For more No BS Coaching Advice and encouragement, visit my website, <a href=”http://www.NoBSCoachingAdvice.com” >www.NoBSCoachingAdvice.com

Ready to schedule your first coaching call? 

The Thursday Supplement to No BS Coaching Advice Ezine August 11, 2016

by

Read The August 11 2016 edition of  the Thursday Supplement to No BS Coaching Advice Ezine

 

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

Don’t Steal

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains why you should not steal from recruiters.

 

[spp-transcript]

You probably don’t think of it this way but let me clear it up. When you see an ad from a recruiter and refers to a job online and you say to yourself, “hey I know that firm is! I think I’ll contact them directly,” you are stealing. You’re taking information that you learned about and using it for your own purposes.

I also want you to understand it’s not the smartest move in the world. Why? The recruiter has a relationship with this firm. They know more than you about the organization. They can handle your schedule. They can help you tailor your resume based upon the job involved and the relationship with the firm and what they may know about the job apart from what has been advertised.

Why would you go around them? To save the firm money?

It costs you so much more because 95 times out of 100 people to get the job that they apply to directly without the coaching of a recruiter.

Foolishly, you think you’re doing the company a favor. In fact, you’re hurting yourself and you are stealing. You are stealing that information to use it for your own purposes without any consideration for the impact on the other person.

Be considerate.

Be kind.

I talked to a friend of mine who is a recruiter with another firm who told me about two instances where people saw one of her postings and went directly to a client and the client dismissed these people and told her the story about them because it was real clear that these people had come to them based upon seeing the advertisement.

Let me summarize by saying, “don’t do it.” What do you get out of it? Do you feel good about it? Do you feel good that you were tricky and are better than the recruiter?

Or you’re going to get back a recruiter that you don’t even know for all the things that happened to you at the hands of recruiters?

Stop it. Seriously, be considerate to everyone that you meet professionally because you don’t know when it will come back and either help you or hurt you.

Help you because you are considered to the other person or hurt you because you acted obnoxiously.

[/spp-transcript]

 

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