It’s Time To Hit The Job Market!

Unsplash | Ludomił Sawicki

There are telltale signs that the tectonic plates of the U.S. economy are shifting, grinding, and releasing pressure as the country moves towards a post-pandemic future, and that means people are hiring again. The iron is heating up and you need to be ready to strike when it’s hot.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as of March 2021, the major economic indicators show either minor gains or are flat, suggesting the ripples of a recovery have begun but the real wave is still forming. As the machinations of capital markets lurch forward, unemployment is creeping down, salaries are going up, and certain disciplines can’t find enough people to recruit – all signals the pendulum is swinging back towards a labor seller’s market.

The economic disruption was sudden and rapid because of Covid, and the short-term economic upturn will be rapid as well. Now is the time to position yourself to take advantage of our recovering fortunes.

Here is a quick checklist that may help you hitch your wagon to a rising star:

1.     Update everything! Resume. Cover Letter. LinkedIn. Portfolio. Social Media Feeds. Websites. Referral information. Whatever you have, update it, and point it toward the role you see for yourself in the future.

2.     If you want to cast as wide of a net as possible, post your resume on as many job boards as you can (and there are a lot of them). That means creating a new account on each job board, setting up a profile, taking skill assessments, and uploading your resume and any other documents that may be requested. Since each job board is different, a lot of time and effort may be required, but you want to make it easy to be found. Of course, if you’re currently employed, you’ll want to use a bit of discretion in terms of how public to make your efforts so as to not upset your boss.

3.     Right now, Food Service, IT, Finance, and Accounting are sectors experiencing a surge in hiring, and those are just a few examples. Keep up on recent hiring trends as they are changing at an accelerated pace. If you want to think about your next move in the context of a long-term strategic career plan, The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projection 2019-2029 Summary characterizes the growth sectors this way: “The healthcare and social assistance sector is projected to add the most new jobs, and 6 of the 10 fastest-growing occupations are related to healthcare.” The other four are in Information Technology.

4.     Hit the job search hard and hit it fast. Be aggressive. The rising tide will be rapid then recede.

5.     Be flexible. You will have more opportunities and make more immediate headway if you are ready to leave the cocoon of work-from-home and go back to the office.

6.     If you are unemployed, or are not worried if your current employer knows you are searching for a new job, tell the world you are ready to work. Activate the “Open to Work” feature on your LinkedIn profile and set it to, “Public”. A green circle that says “Open to Work” will appear around your very recent, very professional profile picture.

7.     Make sure you have clothes ready that are appropriate for a job interview whether on Zoom or in-person. Look sharp!

8.     As the job market improves, there will still be a higher-than-normal volume of applicants per position until the landscape starts to resemble its pre-pandemic self. Any differentiator helps and the most common one that job seekers skip is the cover letter. Even when optional, submit a cover letter.

9.     You can always find a reason to skip to the next opening, but remember there is a 100% chance you won’t get a job if you don’t apply (so always apply).

10.  Make responding to messages from potential employers a priority. A delay on your part will lead to the employer moving onto the next candidate.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

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

Do I Need Multiple Versions Of My Resume?

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Everyone has a different career history, which is immutable, as well as future goals that have yet to be realized. It is realistic to believe that at some point your career history and your future goals will diverge and a significant revision of your resume will be necessary. In fact, there are already such inflection points built into the system that everyone will face, such as landing your first job after college or graduate school.

However, your resume should already be an ever-evolving document to which you are making periodic updates as well as surgical revisions when you are actively applying for jobs and want to align your experience with a job posting’s requirements in order to get noticed.

But do you really need to have multiple, entirely different versions of your resume? These are important practices, but still do not rise to the level of multiple versions. To make that determination, consider the following scenarios:

1. Are you applying to jobs similar in scope to your current position? The resume you have should suffice as long as it’s up to date, even if you are switching fields (and, once again, it’s always recommended to tweak your resume for each job posting if possible). For example, let’s say you are a Human Resources Director for a small company that makes and distributes imported floor tiles. You decide to switch lanes and seek out HR positions in the technology sector. Even though your background is commodities, which is fixed, and your future goal is to move into tech, it’s still Human Resources and your core skill sets are applicable. This isn’t a divergence that requires a new version of your resume.

2. Are you applying to jobs that are substantially different in role and responsibility than you have traditionally performed in the past? You may need a new version of your resume. If employers are searching for candidates with a specific background and your resume is in a completely unrelated field, they aren’t going to find you to be a fit – such as an automotive mechanic looking to transition into becoming a computer programmer; these are different disciplines, requiring different approaches.

3. Are you applying to jobs that are similar to ones you’ve done in the past, but are different than the position you currently have? Let’s say you worked as a water engineer for a private company but were forced to pivot to teaching due to a global financial downturn several years back when your job was eliminated; now, you want to return to the field, but you’ve been out of that discipline long enough to be behind the curve. You’ll be better served by finding a way to bridge your past experience to your future goals, effectively “leap-frogging” over your current position to get to the meat of your relevant expertise. Either way, a different approach is called for.

Here are some additional tips and considerations as you think about whether to build a second version of your resume:

• Figure out where you fit. Do you truly need multiple versions? 

• If you determine you do not need a major rewrite, remember each job to which you apply is unique and you should always try and tweak your resume to align it with the posting. With that said, “tweak” does not mean embellish. Everything on your resume should be truthful.

• Know when to let go of experiences that do not apply to or support your future goals. Sometimes it is easy to become attached to a certain job or achievement from the past that consumes valuable real estate on your resume but detracts from what you want to achieve in the present. Cut it.

•  Keep accomplishments/skills on your resume that are transferrable between companies and fields. The physical or technical skills may change, but soft skills are useful everywhere.

• Bear in mind your audience not only includes recruiters and hiring managers, but also applicant tracking system (HR system) algorithms. Update the skills section of your resume and keywords throughout specific to the job types you pursue.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

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

Preparing For The Return To The Office

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Ready or not, your boss has told you that the time for everyone to return to the office is rapidly approaching. Yikes!

As more and more people get vaccinated, it’s clear that the pendulum is swinging back to the pre-Covid era, and that means some type of return to “the office” for employees who were fortunate enough to continue working from home through the pandemic. When, what, and how is the latest debate. For most employees, the dream of working remotely is coming to an end.

Few people have ever had to come up with a checklist of how to deal with something like this before and there are no standard rules or ways of going about it. Each company will decide for itself how to proceed and there may be a period of trial and error before settling on the most productive path forward. 

As you can probably surmise, employees hold varying and conflicting opinions on critical issues related to returning to the office, many of which may be in direct opposition to whatever model a company chooses, including being back in the office full time. You’ll need to make your own preparations; here are some suggestions for how to get ready for the “new normal” – whatever that may mean. 

1. Adapt your mindset. You enjoyed the advantages of working from home but are now faced with the announcement that you are expected to return to your company’s office. You’ll be expected to be on board with the transition. If you’re not, your resistance will be noticed, so pretend if need be! Management will expect employees to adapt without (or at least, minimal) complaint.

2. Be flexible, nimble, and agile. The move back to the office is evolving. The “new normal” you are initially told to expect may change direction over time. For example, some companies plan to try a hybrid model at first, then re-assess. You may be back for only a short time before you’re told to be back in the office full time every day. If something goes wrong (e.g. an outbreak), the reverse is possible. You may return to the office only to learn you will be going back home for a while as workplace protocols are reimagined.

3. 3Speak to your manager. Get ahead of the transition by having a conversation with your manager about the new workplace requirements as well as what your position will really look like once you’re back in the office. Most likely, it’s not going to be the way it was before with the simple addition of hand sanitizer. The way your office functions has a direct correlation to the way your work will be conducted. For example, if you’re part of a hybrid model, what are the textures and expectations of days in the office vs. days at home?

4. Maximize your presence during your time in the office. No matter how many days you are in the office per week, be visible, available, and diligent. Remote employees tend to be forgotten (sorry, it’s true), so maximize your presence when you’re there. Strengthen your co-worker relationships and collaborations as you all learn to navigate new safety requirements and new ways of doing the work together. Any systemic change presents opportunities for you to step out and shine.

5. Prepare to make your own career assessment and act accordingly. Since this is a fluid, dynamic situation you don’t exactly know how things will be until you are doing them. If you return to the office and you do not like whatever version of the new normal has been pursued, it is difficult to imagine a scenario where you can negotiate yourself back to working from home every day. Be ready to search for new opportunities that align with your desires.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

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