First and foremost, you must realize that in the job interview you’re a sales representative and the product you’re selling is….you!  This means you have to be ready to sell your skills and experiences as they apply specifically to the position for which you’re being interviewed.

Let me say that again: “you have to be ready to sell your skills and experiences as they apply specifically to the position for which you’re being interviewed”.  This is critically important that and I’ll go into greater detail in a subsequent post.
Also, bear in mind that the interview is about more than just your experience and qualifications.  Yes, you were invited to interview because of what was in your resume.  And while you’ll almost certainly be asked questions in the interview about your skills and experience, you must also be able to give examples of accomplishments to prove you been able to successfully apply those skills.
Additionally, the Hiring Manager wants to get a feel for your personality, particularly to determine if you’re “likeable”, which is of course completely subjective.

In fact, Hiring Managers don’t necessarily always offer the job to the most qualified candidate.  What they frequently do is offer the job to the candidate that is both qualified and likable.  This means that a pleasant personality, the ability to project an air of enthusiasm, and good communication and interpersonal skills count heavily, assuming of course that you’re also highly qualified.

As if all this isn’t enough, you also have to dress appropriately, thoroughly research the company, anticipate and have well prepared answers to common interview questions, along with many other details, all before you even you step through the door for the interview.
Unfortunately, many job applicants believe the interview starts when you first sit down to face the interviewers.  This is dead wrong.  In actuality, the interview begins as soon as you’re told what day and time to come in.  That’s when you need to begin your preparation.
Please believe me when I tell you that preparation is the number one thing that distinguishes great candidates from merely good ones.  And in today’s tough job market, you must be a great candidate to get that job offer.

Consequently, my next several posts will be about how you can properly prepare for any interview situation, focusing on areas such as:
•    Company Research
•    Preparing your “Marketing Message”
•    Why you need anecdotes
•    How to answer both common and difficult questions (and why you need to prepare questions of your own to ask).

At the end of this series, you will know how to be one of the most, if not the most, well prepared candidate in the eyes of any Hiring Manager.

Believe it or not, hiring managers can also be uneasy during interviews, particularly so when we interview someone who is obviously unqualified and/or unprepared.  This means that everything you can do to make the hiring manager’s job easier in the interview will put you that much ahead of applicants who are not as well prepared.

To set the stage for the interview advice I’ll be giving, read carefully the following example of a scenario that is all too common in many interviews I’ve conducted over the years.

Candidates come into the interview room, dressed in jeans or something equally inappropriate, carrying nothing to write with and no notebook to write in.  They mumble their name and overall give the impression that they’ve done little or no preparation.  When asked to give an overview of their experience, they do so in a few short sentences which have little or no relevance to my job opening.  Their answers to my questions are generic and could apply to any position, with no indication that any research was done of my company.  They talk about their experience but not their accomplishments.
Some of the information they tell me contradicts what is on their resume, leading me to wonder if they’ve even read their own resume before the interview.

Worse yet, they sometimes display arrogance or otherwise try to look superior because of their experience and presumed abilities. Or, alternately, their lack of preparation becomes obvious after the first question and they are then too nervous to effectively answer subsequent questions.

At the close of the interview, the only questions they ask are related to salary, working hours and benefits.  They then call back in three days and wonder why I haven’t yet offered them the job.

Does this sound overly critical?  Or – be honest now! – have you exhibited yourself some of the traits described during one of your interviews?  Don’t be alarmed if you have.  Many of the components in this scenario are present in at least half of the interviews I’ve conducted over the years.  Fortunately, the fix is very straightforward because the root cause of every one of the negative behaviors described can attributed to one thing: lack of preparation.

The subsequent series of posts will explain in detail exactly how you can be the most well prepared candidate in any interview.  Preparation is the golden word when it comes to job interviews.  It’s the key to impressing the hiring manager and that’s the key to a job offer.

There are two basic resume formats: the “chronological” format and the “functional” format.  In the chronological format, you list your employers in date order, beginning with your most recent employer and working backwards.  With the functional resume format, you list all your skills and education first, emphasizing those aspects of your resume.  You then list your employment history after that, as a simple list of prior employers with only the dates of employment.

As you might imagine, the chronological resume is the most common and the correct one to use for the majority of people.  It’s also the format most preferred by hiring managers.

The functional resume is best used if you’ve had a lot of different employers and have changed jobs frequently.  You can somewhat downplay a spotty work record by using a functional resume format and concentrating on your skills and education.   If you’ve changed jobs frequently and are using the chronological format with poor results, try converting your resume to a functional format.   You may find that you get a better response.

For more information about these formats and when to use them, please see the resume section of our website at:  http://www.job-search-steps.com/make-a-resume.html.

Once you’ve decided on the right format, there are some important points to consider when presenting your information.

First, use bullet statements for the majority of your material.  Your summary statement should be a sentence or two with some bullets.  Each job on your resume should have a very short paragraph to describe the job and then several bullets for your experience and accomplishments.  The same goes when listing your education, certifications, and very specific technical skills.  These should be presented primarily as bullet points.

The reason to use bullets generously is that it creates “white space” on your resume and makes it much easier to read.  A well organized resume with half or more of the content presented as bullets will stand a much better chance of being read.

Second, use bold and underlining sparingly, but do use them.  I like to see the applicant’s name and the names of previous employers in bold because it saves me time as I scan a resume.  I like to see position titles underlined for the same reason.  To see a good example of how bold and underlining should be used, see our chronological resume sample at: http://www.job-search-steps.com/chronological-resume.html.

Finally, I shouldn’t have to say it (but I will!), proofread your resume thoroughly.  Don’t depend on the spell checker/grammar checker  in your word processor, as it will almost certainly miss words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly.  Proofread every word manually and then have a trusted friend proofread it again for you.   Then, as a final check, read your resume out loud to yourself, as this will help you catch awkward phrases.

Now that your resume is tuned-up and polished, good luck with your job applications.

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While everyone’s situation is different as far as number of years of experience, education, skills, etc, there is one simple statement that I can give you about resume length: shorter is almost always better.

I know this sounds counter intuitive, but as I’ve said many times, you have less than 30 seconds to capture the hiring manager’s interest with your resume.  A tightly written, well organized resume that takes advantage of every word will stand a much higher chance of doing that.

Here’s the hard cold fact: If you haven’t convinced me that you’re a great candidate on the very first page of your resume, I probably won’t read any further.  And even if you have convinced me, if I have to continue reading an additional three or four pages I’m going to start having doubts.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve received resumes that are multiple pages in length, rambling on to three, four, five pages or more.  In today’s tough job market, where ’m reviewing 40 or 50 resumes for each opening I have, I simply cringe when I come across resumes like this.

If you’ve read my advice on other posts, you know that you must tailor your resume for each job to which you apply.  This means that, among other things, you must stress experience and skills that are specific to that job and leave out those that are not.  If you’ve done this, your resume will likely already be tight and focused.  And brief!

And by brief, I mean one or, at the most, two pages.  Here are some guidelines:
•     If you’ve had three prior employers or less, keep your resume to one page.
•    If you’ve had more than three employers, or your particular field requires detailed skills that need a longer resume to list, make your resume two pages (but no more).

Even if you have 20 or 30 years of experience, you shouldn’t be going back more than 10 or 15 years, which you can easily do in two pages.

Please believe me when I tell you that a tightly written, very focused two page resume stands a much better chance of getting you considered than a five page novel documenting every detail of your career.   This is particularly true because you should also have a killer cover letter with your resume.   But that’s a topic for another post.

Read Part 4 of Tune Up Your Resume

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About 80 to 90 percent of the resumes I see include a “Job Objective” or “Career Objective” statement at the top.  It usually goes something like this:

“Obtain a XXXX position in the YYYY industry, with a dynamic company that will enable me to reach my full potential and achieve my career goals.”

If you have something similar to this in your resume, I have to tell you that it’s essentially a waste of valuable resume space.   As a hiring manager, It tells me nothing about your experience, skills or accomplishments, or why you are more qualified than the other 50 or 60 resumes I’ve received.

At best, I simply ignore job objective statements.  At worst, something will jump out at me as inappropriate for my particular position and now I’m reading the rest of your resume with a negative attitude.   In the statement above, for example, what if I don’t consider my company to be particularly “dynamic”?  Right from the start I’m wondering if you’ll even be happy here.

My advice is that you replace your job objective statement with what I call a “Summary Statement”.  The purpose of a summary statement is to give a brief recap of your experience and accomplishments, in terms that makes them directly related to the job for which you’re applying.

The format should be two or three bullet statements about your accomplishments, containing keywords relevant to that exact job opening.  This should be followed by one or two sentences about your skills and experience, again loaded with keywords for that specific job.

The summary statement should appear right at the top of your resume (after your name and address information, of course) and before anything else on your resume.   For a good example of what a summary statement should look like, see our web page at: http://www.job-search-steps.com/chronological-resume.html.  Note the summary statement at the top of the sample resume.

I’ve said in previous posts that your resume has about 30 seconds to catch the interest of the hiring manager and ensure the rest of the resume gets carefully read.  With a summary statement, you’re making an immediate statement about how well your experience and accomplishments fit that particular job opening and are giving the hiring manager a reason to continue reading.  You’re also increasing your chances of landing that elusive interview.

Continue reading about tuning up your resume…

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If you too have doubts about the effectiveness of your resume, perhaps it’s time to tune it up.  I have several recommendations for improving your resume and in this post I’ll talk first about my favorite one, which is this: state your experience in terms of accomplishments, not just activities.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s assume you’re a sales representative in the Widgets industry and you’re looking for a new position.  You’ve prepared your resume, complete with a variety of “bullet statements” about your experience.  One of your typical bullet statements reads something like this:

“Responsible for all sales and customer service in California, Oregon and Washington.  Promote 14 different product lines and provide technical service and support to over 80 customers.”

Looks good?  While at first glance this might appear to be a good statement that indicates solid sales experience, the problem with it is that it’s incomplete.  As a hiring manager, it tells me what you did but NOT whether or not you were successful at it.  It other words, it tells me nothing about your accomplishments.  Take a look at the following rewrite.

“Increased sales last year in California, Oregon and Washington by 19%.  12 of my 14 product lines grew at twice the overall company average.  Added 9 new customers and increased the “very satisfied” customer service rating from 71% to 92%.”

This is now a much more powerful statement because it frames your experience in terms of accomplishments, not just activities.  I estimate that only about 20% of the resumes I read include specific accomplishments.  The other 80% merely give a laundry list of duties with no indication of whether or not those duties were performed effectively.  The 20% that do take the extra step of telling me their accomplishments are always the ones I consider first.

In today’s very competitive job market, the person reading your resume may spend less than 30 seconds in deciding whether or not it gets put in the “candidates to consider” stack.  If your resume isn’t getting the results you want, give it a tune up and add accomplishment to your experience wherever possible.  It may just make the difference between getting an interview and getting passed over.

Read Tune Up Your Resume Part 2.

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From a timing standpoint, if you haven’t heard anything in two weeks after a first interview, it’s perfectly acceptable to call HR to check on your status.  If fact, they expect it. Typically, HR handles all the administrative work for the hiring manager and they will know the status of the hiring decision.

The reason your first follow up should always be with the HR department, NOT the hiring manager, is that at any given time a manager may be interviewing ten or more applicants and it would be time consuming to personally talk to them all.  That’s what HR is for and the hiring manager expects you to make HR your contact point.

Another reason is that, as a hiring manager, I have to tell you I really don’t like getting phone calls from applicants who were interviewed.  If I don’t intend to hire them, it’s an awkward call, and if I’m still interested I will already be scheduling them for another interview.

At this point in time, your only follow-up with the hiring manger (or anyone else with whom you interviewed) should be your thank-you letter or email following the interview.  Calling HR instead shows you know the proper etiquette and are respectful of the interviewer’s time.

The one exception to this is when the company is very small.  If there is no formal HR department then calling the hiring manager is your only option.

If you feel you just have to follow-up with me, I much prefer an email (although I still won’t appreciate the intrusion!).  An email lets me respond when I’m able to, and I can be much better prepared if it’s going to be a “dear John” type of response.

Here’s a special tip if you decide to send an inquiry email to the hiring manager after the interview.  Instead of just asking about your status, find a relevant article and send it.  In your email, simply say you’ve been thinking about what you heard in the interview and found this interesting article that you wanted to pass on.  Then, close by saying you hope to hear from them soon.  This reinforces that you do your homework and allows you to make a more subtle inquiry on your status.

If you decide you simply must call the hiring manager on the phone, here’s how to approach it.
First, send an email politely saying that you’re following up.  Then, suggest three different days and times to call them and ask if they can fit one into their schedule, and if not could they suggest a day and time that would work.

You have a much better chance of getting a response to this type of an inquiry, although the hiring manager will probably still be reluctant to accept a phone call.

If you make it to the second or subsequent interview rounds, shorten your follow-up time to one week.  I still recommend you follow-up with HR and use the same procedures.  If you’re considered the best candidate, you WILL hear back, whether or not you follow up.  Trust me on this!

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If you are a business looking to grow and manage your workforce, Manpower’s business solutions will greatly improve your hiring and recruitment. Manpower business solutions will help your manage your global workforce. They can help you cut recruitment costs, and are knowledgeable with all of the different work laws in the different countries. They can help you with your workforce in 50 countries worldwide.

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Technology companies have boomed in the last decade. Manpower Staffing can assist your company with finding the perfect match. Whether you need one employee or a whole team of IT professionals, Manpower can assist you. They can help you find the perfect helpdesk manager, or Web developer. Over the last year, Manpower has placed over 7000 IT consultants all over the United States.

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Overview of Kelly Services

This employment agency has evolved over time from concentrating solely on traditional office services to a global workforce solution. One of the things that makes this employment agency stand out is its clientele as well as its specialization into multiple industries. The industries that it provides employment for includes educational, automotive, legal, engineering, health care, IT support, and many others. Another reason that Kelly Services stands out is because it offers much more than just entry-level positions. In fact, it currently works with more than 90% of the Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies.

Benefits of Kelly Services

One of the biggest benefits of using this employment agency is the wide variety of opportunities that it makes available. While many of the newer staffing agencies focus on a handful of industries that tend to offer a lot of entry-level positions, Kelly Services has been around long enough to establish a foothold nearly every industry and is responsible filling a range of positions from temporary and contract assignments to high-level consulting and full-time employment. Another benefit of using this company is that it will never charge candidates any fees. Another benefit of working through this employment agency is that they are well-known for being able to negotiate it higher hourly rate or salary than many of its counterparts. This is largely due to its track record of success in terms of giving employers high-quality workers.

Kelly Services also offers one of the most competitive and comprehensive benefit packages for their candidates. It includes health insurance, dental, life, vision, and disability. You also have the option to sign up for their 401(k) bonus and holiday pay. Additionally, they offer a variety of online training courses related to skill sets in the business and technology fields. In fact, some of the courses they offer can be counted as continuing education requirements for many professional licensing agencies.

Potential Drawbacks of Kelly Services

While Kelly Services has definitely created a global reach, it still cannot be found everywhere. You will likely find it in all major and mid-major cities in the United States, however their offices can rarely be found in more rural areas. Another thing to keep in mind is that since the offices tend to work fairly independently your level of satisfaction with one office may be much higher or lower than with another.

Kelly Services Review

Overall it seems like this employment agency gets, on average, much higher reviews from both employees and clients. Considering how long it has been in business this shouldn’t be very surprising. While the level of success that you find with Kelly Services will vary from person to person, they are definitely considered a standout within the staffing industry.