Three Weekly Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Job Hunting Tips - June 29, 2015

Lemon Squeezy

Here are three simple job hunting tips for you to begin your week!

1. Do you know where your interview is taking place? Companies have multiple locations. Or, sometimes mapping programs can get the location wrong (i.e., East 97th Street versus West 97th Street). It would suck to be late, and you'd look bad. Unless you're 100% certain where you're going for that interview, do a test drive before your interview. Scope out the location in person to do an "eyeball test." You could unwittingly end up at a muffler repair shop rather than at your interview.
2. Arrive a few minutes early for your interview. Being fashionably late may work at the clubs on South Beach, but your interviewer has a schedule to keep. Don't get bumped due to carelessness.
3. Want to apply to a company, but don't see any posted jobs fitting your skill set? Your first option is to go to the company website, and see if they have a "general" application, where they accept unsolicited résumés. Your second option is to search for a corporate recruiter at your target company. Recruiters will often include their email address in their LinkedIn profile, to make themselves accessible - send them a polite cover letter indicating your area of interest and a copy of your résumé.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Why Do Companies Advertise Job Openings When They Plan to Hire Internally?

Answers to your Questions

Question from the mailbag: "Why do companies post openings when they know they are going to hire someone internally? I have lost out to many positions because the company already had an internal candidate in mind. The companies I have applied to are big and small, public and private.  I have started to ask if there are any internal candidates applying for this role and the answer is usually yes."

I love this question, because it addresses a widespread frustration among job seekers. Remarkably, there are several reasons why a company may post a job opening to the outside world while they have an internal applicant in the wings:

• Company policy requires them to post every job. Every. Single. One. The bad news is, this frustrates external candidates to no end. The good news is that the company values internal movement and promotion of employees over external applicants, and gives internal applicant a chance at mobility. Should you get the job, at least you know you hit a high bar and you'll get the same consideration for future opportunities.
• Union rules. Some collective bargaining agreements have it written into their contracts with companies that all jobs be posted for internal employees.
• The company wants to see who else is out there. Maybe the internal employee is good - but not thatgood. Often the posting rules indicate that, all qualifications being equal, the internal employee receives the nod. But if the external applicant holds better qualifications, the outsider gets the job.
• The hiring manager hopes a specific internal employee will apply. Sometimes the internal employee may be asked to apply, but ultimately decides she's happy in her current role. It happens. And if the company hadn't advertised outside, they wouldn't have any candidates in the pipeline.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).

Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Effectively Manage Your Time to a New Job

Following is a guest post by Laurie Turner, an employment and career counselor with Jewish Community Services of South Florida, a social services agency which is the largest non-profit [501(c)(3)] Jewish social service agency in South Florida, JCS provides critical help in the community, such as care management for frail seniors; counseling for families in crisis; and employment skills for developmentally disabled adults. Laurie also works with JworksMiami, an employment service which helps match job-seekers and employers.

-------------

Looking for a new job? Not getting paid to do it? If you take your job search seriously, you may realize sooner or later that you have a new full time job for which you are not getting paid.   There may be a direct correlation between the amount of effort you put into searching for a new position and how long it takes you to find one!  So, how do you approach your job search?  Do you wake up in the morning, get dressed, have breakfast and hit the ground running?  Consider planning your day’s activities to include some time at your computer searching for postings, time attending networking events and some time with friends and family to let them know what you are seeking.  Make sure you have developed your “elevator pitch” so you can articulate, in a concise manner, the type of position you are seeking whenever you have the opportunity.

Applying to 100 positions per week? It is probably impossible to do a thorough job of applying to this quantity of jobs. Consider applying to less than 10 and do it properly.  You can research the company or look on linked in to see if anyone you are connected to has a connection with the company.  If you find a possible connection and a position that is a good fit, reach out to see if the person can refer you to Human Resources. Many companies offer their employees an incentive if someone they refer is hired.  You could be doing the employee a favor and helping your own cause at the same time.  Submit a version of your resume and cover letter that best markets you for the position you are applying for.  If you are invited for an interview, prepare, prepare, prepare.

Figure out how to distinguish yourself from the pack. Prepare to answer standard interview questions but also take the opportunity to reveal a little about yourself that will make the interviewer remember you.  Email and snail mail a thank you note.  You will certainly be noticed! Use the thank you note to tell anything you may have forgotten to share during the interview.   There are sample resumes, cover letters and thank you notes on the internet.   Don’t take shortcuts!  Go through the above steps for a week or two and see if you are able to jump-start your job search.  If you are stuck, get unstuck!  Keep a positive attitude, try to relax, exercise, take care of yourself (i.e. eat well and get enough sleep)!  Hopefully, sooner or later, you will get the results you are looking for!