Your College Can Boost Your Career – Long After Graduation

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It's been ages since you graduated college, and you're pretty far along in your career. Hopefully you've gained helpful skills and knowledge from your education.

It may be time for another call or visit to campus! Did you know your alumnus status often provides additional helpful career benefits long after the university has stopped cashing your tuition checks? Here are some inexpensive or free perks and services your alma mater may be offering that can give your career a boost – even later in life.

Career Placement & Support: Most colleges allow their alumni to utilize the campus career services office. In addition to providing access to job postings and career fairs, Advisors may provide individual career coaching and facilitate connections to potential employers with whom they've built relationships. Remember, your college wants you gainfully employed – it's good for the school's reputation, well-placed alumni can provide students with internship and carer opportunities, and a happy alumnus with a healthy income can become a willing donor.

Discounted Courses: You may be able to take classes on the latest topics for far less than a matriculating student pays. For example, Boston University offers alumni the opportunity to audit classes (in other words, on a not-for-credit basis) through its professionally-oriented Metropolitan College for less than 10 percent of normal tuition. It's certainly a cost-effective way to bring your skills and knowledge up to date.

Professional Networking: Schools cultivate alumni affinity through networking events. Larger universities often host mixers, seminars, and fundraisers on- and off-campus. These events are a fantastic way to access and get to know prominent alumni. A well-timed introduction can facilitate a career-changing conversation.

School Reputation: Here's a benefit you can take advantage of without having to lift a finger. Colleges invest a great deal into improving their reputation, since a strong ranking enhances the school's profile, boosts enrollment, and improves the market perception of degrees conferred to students and alumni alike. If your alma mater has risen in the annual rankings, your earning potential may have also grown with it.

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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, 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.

5 Incidental Factors Impacting Your Job Search

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1. If a company doesn't call you for an interview after applying for a job, it may not be about your qualifications. It could, however, be a comment on the sheer volume of applicants. A recruiter at a well known technology company told me she receives over 10,000 applicants (yes, that's four zeroes) for each job. Even if your resume checks all the boxes for essential skills and qualifications, this tidal wave of candidates can overwhelm your chances of getting a look by the recruiter. If you want to improve your chances of getting noticed, it helps to tweak your resume's keywords and terminology to better align with the job posting, and to network with key decision makers at the employer.
    

2. Find the recruitment process exasperating? So does the recruiter. As companies push to do more with less, recruiters have increased responsibility. The typical recruiter works on filling 30 open jobs simultaneously. That's includes managing the process for 300,000 candidates (30 jobs x 10,000 applicants) from the initial job posting, filtering resumes, screening candidates, arranging and conducting interviews, preparing and negotiating the offer, and ensuring the person they hire shows up to work, as well as balancing the needs, demands, and biases of hiring managers. Recruiters spend as much time on customer service and internal negotiation as they do on recruitment. While there's no excuse for sloppy followup, bear in mind that it's incredibly stressful work and it's inevitable that things will fall through the cracks from time to time.
    

3. There's a positive bias for "Passive" job seekers. There are two types of candidates considered for job opportunities – Active job seekers, as the word implies, actively apply to job postings online, while Passive job seekers are individuals who aren't looking tochange jobs and wouldn't have considered looking for a new position if someone hadn't tried to recruit them. Passive job seekers are believed to be more valuable – hiring managers often (incorrectly) rationalize this as, "If the person is actively looking for a job, how successful in their current job can they truly be?" Which is why companies pay dearly for premium subscriptions to LinkedIn, which they use to reach out to presumably Passive job seekers (just take a look at LinkedIn's marketing materials if you need further proof). It's absolutely in any job hunter's best interest to have a highly polished, keyword-loaded LinkedIn profile that increases the odds of a recruiter viewing their profile during searches.
    

4. Companies often post internal positions for the whole world to see - because they have to. Many people think of these as "fake jobs," but they're really not. Company policy, union rules, or local law may dictate the practice of posting internal positions. While this can be frustrating to outside job seekers, the intention to provide current employees additional opportunities for growth and development should be considered a positive in terms of fostering employee engagement. Bear in mind that while the hiring manager may intend to hire an internal candidate for the specific role, a better qualified external may change their mind. If you're interested in a role and you have the qualifications, by all means apply; the intended internal candidate may fall through, and at minimum your resume will be in the company's database for future opportunities.
    

5. Employers don't hold back on providing interview feedback out of arrogance or laziness. It's usually because they're crazy busy, and because they're afraid of offending by providing negative feedback in a potentially inappropriate or illegal manner and don't want to get sued by a disgruntled candidate. Human Resources departments often advise employees against providing feedback on these grounds. The lack of feedback may leave you feeling unfulfilled and disappointed, but it's important to preserve your professional brand to an employer, so don't push the issue.

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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, 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.

7 Questions Job Seekers Ask That Can Stop A Job Interview Cold

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The job interview is a minefield. You’re being judged intensely, it’s almost like being on trial – interviewers analyze and scrutinize your every answer. They even assess your personality to decide whether they'd enjoy spending eight hours a day in your company.

You know the drill - your interviewers have run out of questions for you. Now, they ask you if you have any questions for them.

Home free, right?

Many interviews go south at this point. Asking careless questions of your interviewers (like any of the seven below) can kill your chances of landing the job, and stop your interview cold.

Question 1: "What is the salary range for this position?"
Why it’s so dangerous: This is the atom bomb of candidate questions, guaranteed to derail just about any interview. It’s considered presumptuous for a candidate to bring up salary, and most interviewers find it distasteful and tactless. True, employers ask candidates for their salary history and expectations – but that’s the way they like it.
Do this instead: Avoid bringing up the topic. It’s radioactive. Salary will come up in due time, then you'll have more leeway to probe the issue.


Question 2: "Will I be required to carry a cell phone?"
Why it’s so dangerous: The question carries a strong negative implication. Some interviewers may infer that you're unwilling to work after standard office hours.
Do this instead: Ask, "What would a typical week in this role look like?" You'll get a sense of the hours involved. If it starts to sound like a 24/7 job, presume the cell phone will be essential.


Question 3: "When does the company conduct its salary reviews?"
Why it’s so dangerous: This conveys that you may already looking ahead to getting a raise you haven’t yet earned, or may be bracing for a distastefully low offer.
Do this instead: Once you receive an actual offer, then it's okay to start asking about questions about the compensation process. At that point you're negotiating, and the topic becomes fair game.


Question 4: "Does this position offer the opportunity to work from home?"
Why it’s so dangerous: Consider this – the interviewer would probably prefer to be working from home right now, but can’t because the job requires her to be in the office. Interviewing you.
Do this instead: Proceed at your own risk. If you will only consider work-at-home positions, by all means ask away. Just realize that if it wasn't indicated in the job advertisement, then it probably isn't an option.


Question 5: "What is the company’s maternity / paternity leave policy?"
Why it’s so dangerous: You may have intended to explore the company's benefits, but inadvertently planted a seed in your interviewer’s mind that you already plan to be absent for a substantial period of time from the job you haven’t even been offered yet. Never mind what the Family Medical Leave Act says – the interviewer will be thinking about the deadlines they’ll miss if they hire you.
Do this instead: Ask Human Resources about maternity and paternity policies after you get an offer. Better yet, see if it's listed in the company's benefits brochure.

Question 6: "What can you tell me about the company?"
Why it’s so dangerous: Did you bother to do any research before coming to this interview? It’s expected that you'll know something about the organization before walking through the door. You'll look lazy and unprepared by asking this.
Do this instead: Ask targeted questions about the culture, the role, and the company strategy.

Question 7: "Are you seeing anybody?"
Why it’s so dangerous: Yes, in my days as a recruiter I’ve had misguided candidates ask interviewers on dates. You won't get the job. You probably won’t get the date, either.
Do this instead: Don't. Just... don't. Regardless of whether you think you had "a moment" in that interview room, put out of your mind the possibility that this is a potential dating opportunity.

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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, 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.