The Good, the Backdoor and the Ugly

The Good, the Backdoor and the Ugly Recruiters! Stop getting off on your back door chasing! Picture this. It’s a dusty street. Three figures are in the shot. A scruffy dog runs stage left to right, weeds tumble through the dirt. Recruiting is a Spaghetti  Western! Close up  (You’re a recruiter.) You’re wearing a poncho, you have a cigar in your mouth, a single-round revolver in your hand and someone is playing a whistle. Opposite you, down the road (a bullet away) is a client. They too have an attitude, and they say: “Did you get the idea? We don’t like to see bad boys like you in town!” (Please read this with a wicked Mexican accent and please don’t think I’m sexist I didnt write the script!) Now pan right â€" there’s a lowly candidate, sat in the dust looking a little coy, leaning towards the client. You can just see the tremble in their hands and they won’t look you in the eye. The good, the bad and the ugly: You’re the recruiter â€" you think you’ve done a great job. You’ve taken the job brief, written the advert, posted it across numerous places. You’ve interviewed countless candidates (binned countless more hopeless hopefuls) and you’ve put the shortlist in front of the client. You may run the risks, my friend, but I do the cutting. If we cut down my percentage? Liable to interfere with my aim. A fist full of dollars: The client has no perception of the value you’ve delivered â€" and they back door you. Such ingratitude after all the times Ive saved your life. For a few dollars more: The candidate wants the job and has a fit of amnesia about what you have done and grabs the offer from the client. The way I figure theres really not too much future with a sawed-off runt like you. Now I get that the trilogy I’ve outlined above seems a little skewed. I’ve been writing about back door placements for a year, and even interviewed software businesses about tech to prevent them. I’ve sparred with people online when they claim that only crap (censored) recruiters get back doored â€" I see that as an easy and boring statement made to simply get effect. Bad things happen to good people. They also happen to misguided, misrepresented recruiters! You see, in this world theres two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig. The good, the bad and the uglier: The recruitment industry has become either fixated on pursuing the back door placement (and they often get off on it), it is actively ignoring them or it is blissfully ignorant. All = bad dog! In any event, they happen. Do they happen to the innocent? I agree with Mitch Sullivan, when I don’t believe the recruiter is innocent, but I vehemently believe that no-one is innocent. Stop playing chicken with your clients: When I speak to recruiters about back door placements, many of them light up with stories of legal pursuits and stuffing terms down clients’ throat. I get why they need to feel victorious, but feel that this is a screwed up approach (and mainly designed to mask the obvious feeling that they may have brought it on themselves?) Client Eastwoods silver bullet to backdoors? If all you want to do as a phase 1 project is to track whether you’ve had any back door placements, then the below list is a start. Check your CRM â€" does it have processes within which you can use to quiz the system on candidates who have attended interview but were not offered? If it doesn’t, sort it! (I created a script in my Bond Adapt system back in 2003 â€" surely the world has moved forward?)  Hirabl exists as a super-speedy sci-fi version of my clip. Back door placements needn’t be a Spaghetti Western! If you want to prevent future back door placements, then you need to be better. What do you do leading up to sending out info to clients? Have a really good look at what you have done, said, and whether you have recorded any of this on your system. Hunting through your emails takes time (and this costs money). Theres no excuses for poor data management in any recruitment firm. Obvious statement 1: When you’re sending out CVs / emails about candidates, are you sending terms each time? And if you are, are they PDFd, or are people able to be a bit sneaky and change your lovely Word docs? Obvious statement 2: Are you actually agreeing terms before sending CVs to a client, or stealth bombing them with terms during a CV raid? Obvious statement 3: Have a content plan which resolves around them, not just you (and your jobs). Make it clear you know your stuff (and you have to know your stuff to make that clear!) Make it clear what your job is (newsflash it’s not to place candidates, it’s to work with passive and active talent to get them engaged and remain engaged beyond their start date). It’s to understand your sector and work with clients to fill their vacancy problems (a job is a problem, a gap, not just a job spec which needs advertising.) Bear in mind that candidates are not engaged by the current poorly written adverts (see other blogs for my thoughts on this). And once you have done all of this, grab your poncho, cigar, jump on your donkey and ride off into the sunset to buy a really good horse! Sure. Well after a meal, theres nothing like a good cigar.

5 Ways to Ensure Recruiters Find the Professional You Online

5 Ways to Ensure Recruiters Find the Professional You Online Hiring staff is an important, and potentially expensive decision for employers, particularly when it turns out to be a wrong one. It is therefore not surprising that many employers spend time checking far more than a candidates qualifications and employment history before making a commitment. Your CV may be amazing, and you might have some great references, but chances are if your online presence paints a bad picture of you, you won’t be getting an interview. The good news is that you can influence your online presence by being sensible about what you share, and by making sure your professional self is promoted first and foremost. 1. Google yourself: Around 90% of recruiters will ‘Google’ your name as soon as your CV makes it into the ‘maybe’ pile, so it pays to do your own research in order to see what they might find. ‘Googling’ yourself may seem vain, but it is definitely worth doing, as you could well find some of your less-than-finer moments being displayed for the whole world to see. If you do come across anything unsavoury, you should take action to remove the offending information before it’s spotted. It’s also worth considering that any site which you have contributed to in the past be it leaving a review or posting a comment might show up in search results too, so if you have posted anything that may be seen as inappropriate or rude, you may want to consider removing these. Google has now introduced a way of requesting that information about you is removed from search results. While there is no guarantee such information will be removed, it’s certainly worth a try. 2. Use nameplate sites: A nameplate site is a single page website that acts a bit like a virtual business card. These sites provide a great way of consolidating all of your social profiles and sites (that you actually want potential employers to see) in one place. Nameplate sites are a great, positive addition to your online presence, and can also be listed on your CV. You could use a nameplate site to link to your portfolio, website or blog, or even a specific page on the web on which you have contributed something valuable, such as a forum thread. Some nameplate sites will allow you to categorise who you associate with, or add tags to highlight your main areas of expertise, and sites such as Appearoo will also show a snapshot of how influential you are across social media channels. Most nameplate sites are free, but premium features allow you to fully customise the page, and many provide some form of analytics, so you can keep track of who is viewing your profile. Some popular examples include about.me, flavors.me and re.vu. 3. Keep control of your social media: Privacy controls are there for a reason, and you should be using them. While many recruiters can appreciate that you want to let your hair down at the weekend, entire albums showing how you behave while inebriated, or posts you’ve left telling your friends how you are regretting how much you drank the night before are not going to look good. Make sure you always log out of social media channels if using a shared device, or any device someone else may gain access to. They might find it funny to post a status on your behalf you and your prospective employer may not. Keep your private life just that private. 4. Separate your professional and personal lives completely: As well as making sure you have appropriate privacy controls in place on your social media channels, why not set up social media channels that are used for professional use only? This can be a great way of demonstrating you are passionate and knowledgeable about your industry by associating yourself with the right people, and contributing to the right discussions online. These are the social profiles you’ll want recruiters to find, and by linking them all together, you can use them to build the right kind of personal brand online. 5. Make the most of LinkedIn: Don’t be shy to ask your peers, past employers and clients to endorse or recommend you on LinkedIn. Endorsements show potential employers that you have the right skills to perform the job you are applying for and that people are willing to vouch for this. Recommendations are even better, as they effectively act as a reference. Being actively involved in groups on LinkedIn shows that you know your stuff, and that you possess a genuine interest for your industry. And finally, think before you post anything online: Bear in mind that almost anyone can see what you have published online in a matter of seconds and that once you’ve posted it, it’s much harder to destroy the evidence! Author: Peter Holmes is Director at prime-appointments.co.uk   an independent recruitment agency.

What to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile Section-by-Section - Career Sidekick

What to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile Section-by-Section - Career Sidekick What to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile Section-by-Section LinkedIn / https://www.edenscott.com/blog If youre wondering what to put on your LinkedIn profile, you have come to the right place.A reader from theblog emailed me last week and asked, Biron, Im trying to write my LinkedIn profile, and am not sure what to put on it. Ive been told to just copy everything from my resume. Is that what you recommend?Short answer: No.I realized a lot of people out there probably have this question though, or other questions about what to put on their LinkedIn to have aprofile that stands out. So Ill explain everythingWhat to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile When Job Searching:Here are some key pieces to put on your LinkedIn profile:Your recent work experience, highlighting accomplishments and results, plus any promotions youve receivedA 2-3 sentence profile summaryRecommendations from colleagues on LinkedInIndividual skills (in the LinkedIn Skills section)Case studies/attachments/PDFs to draw attention to your work and highlight your accomplishments furtherA great hea dshot/photoEducation and certificationsCommunity involvement and volunteer workIll cover everything below. Here are my best tips for writing a great LinkedIn profilePart 1: Work Experience and LinkedIn Profile SummaryKeep the Main Sections Shorter Than Your ResumeWhen it comes to things like your work experience and bullets, your LinkedIn profile should be shorter than your resume. Assume people are reading it for a just a few seconds per job listing.So pick your top 3-4 bullets from your resume per job, and put those. But cut the rest out.Also consider including a one-sentence description of your work in each role too, just above the bullets. This is typically a bit longer on a resume, but if its already just one sentence on your resume, you can copy it over. If not, Id shorten it a bit.The only exception to this rule: The summary that appears below your name but above your work history on LinkedIn. Id recommend that be 2-3 sentences on your resume, and around the same length on Li nkedIn too.So thats something you CAN copy over. If youre not sure how to write a resume summary thatll stand out and impress employers, you can learn how here.Why Does My LinkedIn Need to Be Brief/Concise?It doesnt. Theres no golden rule here. Some people will read more content if you put it. But heres the thing the goal of your LinkedIn (or resume) isnt to get them to read every word. Its to make them reply and invite you to interview, right?They might still have some questions and want to know more after reading your LinkedIn, but theyll see enough that they want to talk. And thats the goal. Theyll find out the rest by asking you questions in the interview.And keeping things brief will force you to focus on narrowing down your bullets and accomplishments to just the most impressive.If I told you to include 10 bullets per job, you wouldnt be as selective and wouldnt write great bullet points. But if you limit it to 3-4 bullets per job like Im suggesting, your LinkedIn profile will have nothing but awesome bullets.Taking the time to trim the fat and put only your best highlights on LinkedIn is going to make you stand out while also making your profile more attractive to read/skim, which is what you want as a job seeker.Show Progress or Advancement Whenever You CanEmployers LOVE it when you advance within a company, get promoted, etc.So any time you can show that, do it.Heres a really simple example from the first recruiting job I ever had. I started as an Executive Recruiter and then got promoted to Senior Executive Recruiter. So I made sure to show this progression on my LinkedIn:Note that your profile should definitely have more detail than this.I edited this down because its very far in the past, Im not job searching, everyone knows what the job title Executive Recruiter means, and I mostly want to show the advancement I made and the leadership I started doing here.But in your 2-3 most recent jobs make sure to put more detail about what your job actually i nvolves.Aim for around 4 bullet points like I mentioned earlier. The #1 thing hiring managers and recruiters want to seeis what youve worked on and accomplished recently.One more note about showing advancement and progression: This doesnt always need to be an official change in job title or salary. If you had a change in responsibilities (like starting to mentor/train new team members), you can still mention it on your LinkedIn and show how you progressed (even if your pay and/or job title stayed the same).Focus Mostly on Your Recent WorkThis is one of the key strategies I recommend for what to put on your LinkedIn profileNow, if youre job searching with no experience, or right after college, this wont matter for you because you dont have a ton of jobs to list anyway but if you have many years of work experience and many past jobs spend more time (and space) on your LinkedIn profile on the 2-3 most recent jobs!So for example, the most recent job could have 4 bullet points and a 2-s entence description above it.The next job down would have 3-4 bullet points and a 1-sentence description.And so forthBy the time you get to the fourth or fifth job, it might just be a one-sentence description with 2 bullets, or just 2-3 bullets.Thats not some rule that you have to follow 100%, but its the general pattern you should follow use most of your time, and most of the space on your LinkedIn work history, for writing about your most recent work.You Dont Need to Put Every Past Job on Your LinkedIn ProfileJust like on your resume, considering removing a couple positions entirely if theyre far in your past and unrelated to the jobs youre applying for now.Theres no rule that says you need to list every previous job when writing your LinkedIn profile or resume.Formatting Your LinkedIn Work History Keep it SimpleYou can also see how I used very simple formatting to grab attention in the screenshot above. I just typed before the descriptions, and it stands out visually in the ex ample above.So you can consider doing something like this too but dont overboard. No recruiter or hiring manager likes a profile flooded with symbols, emojis and other graphics making it hard to read or focus.So find one or two small things to do thatll stand out, but then keep it very simple and focus on writing awesome content thatll make the reader want toset up a phone interviewor talk to you.Also, copy what looks good on other profiles. Borrow ideas. If you think the best writers out there dont take ideas from others, youre wrong. So you dont need to start with a blank page for any of this. Look around at other people in your industry, take an idea here or there, make note of what looks good and what definitely does *not* look good.Now, dont go copy one persons LinkedIn profile. Dont plagiarize. But do take inspiration.Part 2: Recommendations, Skills and Case StudiesAdd Some Sections Your Resume Doesnt HaveThis is another reason we cant just copy word-for-word from your resume when writing your LinkedIn profile because LinkedIn offers some sections/features that arent on a typical resume.So youd miss some of the best things you can put on your LinkedIn profile.Here are some great sections to add:Recommendations This is one of the most powerful ways to immediately signal to employers that youre great at what you do. If you dont have at least 3 recommendations on LinkedIn, heres how to ask for them and get them.Skills Make sure to fill out your Skills section with all 50 slots allowed. Why? These will help you appear in more searches that recruiters and employers run. So if you want to get hired, think about what skills you want people to see your name listed under, in a search. This is really the only way to cram your profile full of great keywords and search terms without looking spammy, so take advantage.Attachments/Case Studies You can attach all kinds of documents to your profile in various places, including under specific jobs youve held. Thats ano ther way to make your profile stand out. So think about if theres anything you can create, re-purpose, and attach to grab attention.Part 3: Your LinkedIn Profile Photo Heres a screenshot of a search I ran on LinkedIn (with names removed). Which profile would you be least likely to click? As a Recruiter Im probably not going to click the person with no profile image.Not having a LinkedIn profile photo is a big mistake if youre job searching. Employers and recruiters might suspect your account is fake, and even if not, theyll wonder why you dont have a photo when practically everyone else does. It just seems odd, and brings unnecessary concerns.And choosing the wrong photo can also hurt you in your job search.So choose a professional-looking headshot to put on your LinkedIn profile. It doesnt need to be perfect. But pick something where youre dressed pretty well and look like youre confident, smiling, happy, etc.LinkedIn offers these 5 tips for picking the right profile photo if you w ant more help with this.Part 4: What Else to Put in Your LinkedIn ProfileAfter this, you can put things like education, certifications, and even community service/volunteer work. LinkedIn offers sections for all of these. You can also add different languages you speak to your LinkedIn profile.However, just like on your resume, the first things you highlight should be your recent work experience, accomplishments, and proof of your skills (in this case, the best proof is LinkedIn recommendations, mentioned in the last section).So focus on those things first when deciding what to put on your LinkedIn profile. If you follow these steps youll have a strong profile that catches the attention of hiring managers and recruiters in any job search.

Removing Your Personal Brand From Your Company - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Removing Your Personal Brand From Your Company - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke with Laura Vanderkam, who is a columnist for USA Today, an author and a long-time journalist.   She talks about how there are other career options for people these days and how you dont have to work in a cubicle all your life.   If youre a young professional who thinks they have to sit in a cube upon entering the workforce, then this post is required material for you.   Laura gives us hope for our futures by talking about her story, of how to became a freelance writer, after working for a company.   You can certainly achieve the same lifestyle by following some of the insights she provides here. Laura, what does it take to escape from long hours in a cube? If youre asking that question, thats a good first step realizing that there may be other possibilities. In short, getting out of the cube is going to involve taking a risk. I tell people to figure out what they love to do so much theyd do it for free, then figure out a way to start a low cost business doing some aspect of this avocation. This takes some serious thought, but breaking out of the cube is worth it. What career alternatives are there aside from working for a company? There are the standard ones, of course working for a non-profit or the government. But its really important to consider self-employment, too. With the internet, its quite easy to start a business and instantly have a huge potential market. Also, corporate business models are relying more on freelancers than ever before. If you want to work in a creative field, chances are youll need to work for yourself for at least some time. Fortunately, though, you can make decent money doing this sometimes better than you could working for a big company! What can a young professional do to switch their career path early on and not wait till senior year to be locked into a company they might not even want to work with? Young people need to spend some serious time thinking about their careers. Eventually the days of when I grow up are upon you, and you have to figure out what to do with your life. Frankly, if college students spent as much time thinking about their interests as they did about what they want to do Saturday night, then that would solve a lot of the problem right there! But I do realize that young people are often swayed by parents and friends and the idea of what is the right thing to do. No one else can live your life for you. Just because your father was a lawyer doesnt mean you need to be a lawyer. Just because your friends say you cant make a living as a writer or graphic designer doesnt mean its true. Talk to people who make a living in the field you wish to pursue. How did they get there? What do they suggest doing? Ask for specific details. Lots of times successful people like to claim they were lucky or things happened serendipitously, but theres usually a lot of specific hard work they did, too. What are the drawbacks to entry-level jobs? Ideally, an entry-level job would teach you how a company functions, and teach you different business skills, so that you will be able to rise through the company. Unfortunately, a lot of companies no longer work this way. They assume that employees only intend to stay with them for a few years, so the philosophy is more to get what you can out of the new hire until he or she quits. You could spend 12 hours a day cranking out spreadsheets. You might be very good at Excel by the end of that, but you wont necessarily be further along in your career. I tell people to approach each job as if it were a training program what skills and contacts can you get to move you closer toward where you want to be? Did you ever have an entry-level job?  If not, what were the steps you took to carve your own career path? I did a 1-year internship at USA Today right out of college. I worked for the editorial page. The job was quite entry-level I did a lot of fact-checking, and even emptying out-boxes but it didnt end that way. I got to see what columns were accepted and rejected. So I wrote one that looked like the accepted ones, and soon I was writing columns for USA Today regularly. I parlayed that gig into other freelance gigs and now I am writing full-time. - Laura Vanderkam is the author of Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career without Paying Your Dues (McGraw-Hill). She is a member of USA Todays Board of Contributors, and has written for a variety of other publications including Readers Digest, Wired, Scientific American, and The American. She is the co-author, with Jan and Bob Davidson, of Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting Our Brightest Young Minds (Simon Schuster, 2004), and the co-author, with Dr. David Clayton, of The Healthy Guide to Unhealthy Living (Simon Schuster, 2006). She lives in New York City.

Writing a Resume For Planet Fitness? Yes, You Can!

Writing a Resume For Planet Fitness? Yes, You Can!Do you need to write a resume for Planet Fitness? You can still get your dream job after going through the transition.A lot of people have gone through the crisis that Planet Fitness is experiencing right now. Things seem to be tightening up as we speak, and what's worse is that the pace and speed at which layoffs are taking place are picking up. So how do you prepare yourself to go through the transition?There are many advantages to writing a resume. If you find yourself stuck in a position and know you won't be able to keep up with the workload anymore, then there's no reason why you shouldn't be proactive and take matters into your own hands. I'm sure a lot of you are still wondering whether or not you should write a resume for Planet Fitness in your current position. It could be a good idea, depending on how you feel about your job now.Perhaps this will be the greatest and great benefit of all: the time it saves you. Do you really have a lot of free time these days? Do you think you'll be able to manage all of the tasks that need to be done in your current position?Another great benefit to writing a resume for Planet Fitness might be the fact that you can keep that experience and knowledge from your previous job with the gym. In many cases, it is just as easy to come up with a new resume as it is to come up with one from your previous one.Now, the problem with that is that you'll also be throwing away all of the things you gained from your previous position. You'll have to deal with the fact that the situation you're in now is more challenging than your previous one was. In the past, your resume might have been all you needed to secure the new job.That being said, there is nothing wrong with trying to make your resume stand out from the rest, but be aware that you're not going to necessarily be going in the right track. It can be hard to believe that you can have a good time working in the same environment a s you did when you were in your previous job.Another great benefit to writing a resume for Planet Fitness could be the fact that your previous employer has lots of other candidates. You may have just been lucky enough to snag a spot in one of their openings. They may not be as busy as they used to be, and that means more jobs and a better chance at getting a promotion down the road.

There Is No Easy Button For Preparing Career Credentials - Pathfinder Careers

There Is No “Easy Button” For Preparing Career Credentials - Pathfinder Careers There Is No “Easy Button” For Preparing Career Credentials Recently, a client asked for a ‘killer cover letter that I can plagiarize’… and I just about fell out my chair. Other than the fact that I found this request to be offensive (simply because this person obviously doesn’t understand that this is how I make a living), this situation also revealed that the client didn’t ‘get it’ that an existing cover letter (or a résumé, for that matter) can’t be re-purposed for their own use. This copy-cat approach is simply not effective. Another time, in an ironic twist of fate, I received an email from a contact who said they needed help with their résumé which was attached to the message. When I opened the document, it was a résumé I had actually written for another client. This person had obtained it as a hiring manager, liked it, and saved it for their own use. When it came down to personalizing the document, that’s where this individual ran into dead-ends, finally turning to me for help. They had no idea that I had written it, but had neglected to take out some of the pertinent details for the original client. Needless to say, I caught them red-handed in their plagiarism, and explained to them that 1) this was stealing someone else’s intellectual property, and 2) you can’t take something that was written for someone else and use it as your own. It’s like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. There is no ‘Easy Button’ to producing career credentials and documents. It requires intense concentration and due diligence to create a personalized reflection of your career accomplishments. Taking someone else’s work and co-oping as your own won’t solve the problem; the end result is an awkward document that bears no semblance to you or what you offer… just a facsimile sketches around you but sounds like someone else. That is actually damaging to your career because you lose the ‘connection point’ between who you are in person and what youve put on paper. Most people struggle with developing their career documents… and their résumé and cover letter reflects that clearly… many obstacles litter the way which  end up being  clearly discernable to the reader. But many of us would see having a root canal as a more pleasant experience than writing a résumé or cover letter. But the truth of the matter is that if each job seeker sat down and did the due diligence that is required to be a successful candidate, their chances of success would be vastly improved. I’ve identified the top four common obstacles in preparing career credentials to be more efficient in this process: Obstacle 1: Generalizing. It’s so much easier to just make a résumé template and then blast it out, isn’t it? Well, it’s time to ask a hunter how well buckshot works out the woods when hunting. Not very effective because there are a lot of trees in the way blocking the shot from hitting the intended target. The same thing happens with blasting out non-customized résumés or cover letters â€" you might, by sheer dumb luck, hit something dead-on, but the overall odds are against you. You need to stay focused on your target and develop the best job search weapon you can in order to hit the mark accurately and efficiently. Anything else with less focus will be a wasted effort. Obstacle 2: Laziness or lack of motivation. Things don’t magically happen. In today’s economy, there are a lot of formerly highly sought-after candidates who are now downing a dose of humility and swallowing their pride… what used to just fall in their laps has evaporated into a faded memory from years ago. It ISN’T easy anymore. The whole development process requires dedication, focus, and concentration. You can’t  simply wave a magic wand and  expect a cover letter or résumé to magically appear out of thin air! Obstacle 3: Time It takes time to  customize and position career credentials to prospective employers. Someone once told me that looking for a job IS a full-time job, and it should be treated that way. This is not something to dabble in from time to time. If you are feeling the heat to find employment soon, it’s time to create a plan, get motivated, and light a fire in creating effective documents! Carve out time every day and every week  to build your career credentials. This is not a slap-dash project. I’m a professional résumé writer, and I spend usually 6-10 hours per project…and I do this day in and day out as my living. It just takes that long to think about how to position these documents effectively. But when the majority of people who don’t work on this type of writing regularly try to sit down to tackle the task at hand, the usual scenario is that they give it a few tries then just gloss over the rest. That’s the worst thing to do. Plan on taking the time. It’ll pay off in the end. Obstacle 4: Lack of clarity of your direction. The biggest elephant in the room when a person goes to write a résumé or cover letter is that they are oftentimes trying to cram their credentials into a job application, versus having a clarity and focus on what they want to do and writing towards that goal. With the time that it takes to develop an effective résumé or cover letter, a great deal of thought should be put into this process. I see a lot of clients that miss that step, and once we get into our consultation, they suddenly realize that they are swimming in deep waters. It’s at that point that I offer them a little time to take a step back and do more evaluation on what it is that they are asking me to do before getting started. That has turned out to be an effective method to help them get focused on the task at hand. Avoiding these obstacles in preparing career credentials will lead to more focused, productive, and more clear résumés and cover letters that are true to YOU!

Five Reasons You Are Being Turned Down For Positions You Are Qualified For - CareerEnlightenment.com

The First 15 Seconds and BeyondIn the first 15 seconds your prospective boss has summed up your qualifications by your appearance, handshake, confident manner and enthusiasm. If you have not rehearsed the answers to likely questions your new manager may ask you, and if you have not lined up pertinent questions to ask him about his company, you will appear unprepared.Attitude Followed by ActionBe convincing that you are a team player. Your goal is to serve the company, to make it great. Prove your willingness to cooperate and to lead in the area of your expertise. What sets you apart is flexibility, ability to multitask or add fresh ideas, willingness to study and research, initiative and attention to detail.After the interview drop a thank you into the mailbox before you go home. Let the boss know you will call in two days, if thats acceptable. Then do it. Simple courtesy and follow-up convince him that you are serious, accountable and hire-ready.Samuel Mauzz is a blogger who enjoys blogging about productivity, business, and marketing.   When not working with Quick Sprout Samuel can be found enjoying the hiking trails and outdoors of Phoenix, AZ or taking in a good book (non-fiction only ??