Managing Job Search Success

You have been using Preptel for several weeks and hopefully you found specific jobs to target, tuned your résumé, and applied to 1 or more jobs.

To get the most out of Preptel, we want to focus on all of the ratings, graphs and information provided on each screen. As you use Preptel, this information will provide important information to help you improve your efforts.

Understanding Job Posting Date

One of the most often overlooked success factors in a job search is the job posting date.  When a job is posted, the hiring company will begin receiving applications. Often a period of time, the hiring company will receive enough applications to begin scheduling interviews. This time period will range from 1 day to 2-3 weeks usually. Once interviews are scheduled, any new applicants have a significantly reduced chance of getting an interview.

Using Preptel’s Interview Guide

Congratulations, you received a call or response back from the hiring company and now you need to begin preparing for the phone screen or interview. You successfully passed from applicant to candidate. To prepare properly, we have created Preptel’s Interview Guide. This interview guide shows how you compare to other candidates so you understand your strengths and weaknesses.

To get started, prepare for a transition in your approach. You need to transition from job searching to selling. During the interview stage, the focus shifts from “I am qualified” to “I am the best available candidate.”  Therefore, knowing where you are strong or weak compared to other candidates becomes important.

Introductions with Impact

When making an introduction or asking for help from your network, one big challenge is how to tell someone why you are a strong candidate for a given job.  Most often, this valuable piece of information is left out entirely, or communicated vaguely.  When asking for help or making an introduction, you need to communicate why someone should recommend you. They are risking their credibility and you want to alleviate any fears by clearly showing why you are a top candidate.

Gold Is In Your Network. Learn To Tap Into It.

In a recent article written by Wharton School, about 25% of new hires come from referrals. A lot of press recently has focused on job networking and articles on social media are at all time highs. Despite the press, engaging your network may still be challenging for two reasons – 1. You have to overcome any pride issues related to requesting help, 2. You need a solid introduction so the person feels confident in recommending you, and can make a strong recommendation.

As you begin considering your job network, it may help to understand the value put on internal referrals.

“Each day, I am looking at a screen, scrolling down and seeing line after line of applicants. If an applicant is flagged saying this person comes with an employee referral. That person goes right to the top. I can’t afford to ignore that referral.” says Bill, a technology Recruiting Manager.

How Preptel Works

Imagine if you could review millions of job applications and thousands of job descriptions to improve your job search. If you reviewed the hiring practices from a specific company would you change how you would apply to a job posting? If you could compare the hiring practices of one company versus another, would this information improve your job search success? Do you believe this information would make you more confident, more knowledgeable, and lead to more job offers?

Tips for Finding Good Jobs

When searching for jobs, it is easy to focus on common terms. However, to find the best jobs, use keywords that capture your unique skills or experiences. For example, “Sales Manager” is a common phrase across many industries, but “selling to hospital ER rooms” is specific.

How To Identify Good Jobs

I asked a group of 20 middle to senior level job seekers at Right Management if they thought current job search technologies were effective.  Only a few hands went up. Instead, I received looks of frustration. When asked for comments, I received several worth sharing.

How to Use Preptel Effectively

Welcome to Preptel & Resumeter^®!

All of us at Preptel are excited to have you as a member.  Preptel is designed to support your entire job search process. Using advanced technology and statistical modeling, Preptel helps you identify the best jobs, customize your résumé, engage your social network, and understand your strengths and weaknesses.  Preptel does this for every single job.  This makes Preptel different than any other solution available.  To be successful, we want to get you using our solution effectively.

Uploading Resumes & Missing Information

Your résumé is the most comprehensive document of your skills, experiences, education, and achievements. The information contained in your résumé helps Preptel determine the jobs best for you and how to increase your job search success. Therefore, before getting started, Preptel needs your résumé.

Matching Keywords, Partial Keywords, and Keyword Logic

On a conceptual basis, job keywords make sense to everyone.  However, when you dig into the details of how computers identify keywords, many challenges arise.  I am going to explain the logic to clear up the confusion and hopefully start an ongoing discussion in the comments section about keywords.  I will use laymen terms to remove the complexity of understanding computational linguistics.  For those looking for more info on the subject, a good introductory article from Microsoft is here.

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Technology: Foe or Friend?

Can you identify keywords better than a computer? Try it here.

Job seekers and experts in the field are familiar with résumé keywords.  However, identifying keywords to make your résumé standout is not as easy as you think.

Let’s look at an example. If you are applying for a sales manager position, commonly held views are to include “sales” and “manage” in your résumé. However, to quote Brenda Bernstein, a professional résumé writer and owner of TheEssayExpert,

“Pardon me for saying so, but the above advice is 1) rudimentary, 2) a no-brainer and 3) limited in its value. The problem is that 99% of the people applying for a sales manager job are going to have the words “sales” and “manage” in their résumés! Therefore, you will not get higher on any list by including these keywords.”

Brenda’s statements are accurate.  Over 80% of all hiring companies use computers to screen and rank résumés.  These computers have created new hurdles for job seekers.  Therefore, we wanted to evaluate the best ways to identify keywords.

Sample Résumés

What works and what doesn’t work for electronic résumés

As job seekers, you have two types of résumés you need to create – an offline résumé and an online résumé. The offline résumé is for printing and handing out at job fairs, networking events, and interviews. Your online résumé is one used for any electronic communication, including emailing your résumé or any online job application submission.  Most people like the look of an offline résumé, because of the fancy formatting and pretty presentation.  However, most résumés are put through hiring software and read on a computer.  Unfortunately, these hiring systems are error prone and pretty formatting and graphics cause the system to discard much of the résumé.  Therefore, use your online résumé for any digital communication, and use your offline résumé for when you need to print out your résumé.  To create both types of résumés, you will need to follow different rules and guidelines.

Résumé Experts Weigh in on WSJ Article “Your Résumé vs. Oblivion”

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal “Your Résumé vs. Oblivion” and an NPR segment (both links are here: WSJ and NPR) outlined the challenges facing job seekers when applying to companies.  We are very happy to see Professional Résumé Writers and industry experts agree that these articles do not provide enough information to help job seekers improve their job search efforts.

Executives do not create better résumés

If asked who creates better résumés, an entry-level person, a manager, or an executive, the overriding assumption would be executives. The assumption would be based on the success of executives in their career and therefore they must also create better résumés. However, our research shows something different.

Preptel Increases Job Fit Rating by 30 Percentage Points

After analyzing thousands of job seeker résumés, we found the average job fit rating is 12%, while the average Preptel job fit rating is over 40%.

In our study, we analyzed all types of jobs at all levels of employment, including: executives, managers, directors, and entry-level positions. We found the average job seeker does not tailor their résumé and in most cases, does not know how to tailor their résumé effectively. With Preptel, users had a job fit rating of over 40% on average. This is a 30 percentage point increase. In addition, the top quartile of job fit ratings ranged from 30%-100% for job seekers where Preptel users ranged from 60%-100% match to the job.

Customizing Your Résumé to Each Position is a Must!

With almost every job seeker, there is a reluctance or frustration to tailor their résumé for each job. Even professional résumé writers, though not the best ones, try to explain why 1 résumé is the best approach. Unfortunately, to be successful in getting interviews, a custom résumé for each job is the most productive method.

Here is the hard truth: a single résumé will not position you properly for every job. We analyzed thousands of candidates and found a single résumé varies significantly from one job to another (see figure 1). As our data shows, some candidates range from a job fit rating of 9% to 73%. Since a résumé is one of your best assets, it is surprising so many candidates fail to tailor their résumé to each job.  Regardless of how you get into a company, even networking, hiring companies will use your résumé to determine if you are qualified and a general résumé is a poor choice.

Avoiding the Black Hole

It’s worthy of a news flash: Today, most employers no longer share your résumé with hiring managers. Hiring managers receive a summary report generated by Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software that removes bias-causing problems, tracks EEOC compliance and performance, and supposedly levels the playing field across the applicant pool. Regardless of how your clients are getting into the company – friend, job board, recruiter, or online application – everyone goes through these ATS systems.

Why is it important to rate your resume?

According to Professional Resume Writers, there are significant differences between the “perfect resume” today and just five years ago.

“We all know the importance of customizing our clients’ resumes to each particular job, but knowing how to do this can be a bit tricky. Preptel takes the guess work out of resume optimization! After uploading each client’s resume and a targeted job posting, the Preptel system instantly alerts me to what keywords are missing and how my client stacks up against the competition. In a matter of minutes, I am able to modify the resume and give each client the competitive advantage they deserve!  Preptel’s resume optimization tool is amazing; I suspect it will revolutionize the way we serve our clients!” Norine Dagliano, Nationally Certified Resume Writer

Learn What HR Managers Do When Job Hunting

I’m always hot on the trail of the perfect résumé. Why, do I focus so heavily on résumés? Because my friends and professional colleagues at companies like Genentech, Bayer, Kaiser and Applied Biosystems tell me regularly; “ a résumé that will pass the applicant software screen (ATS)” is the most important requirement for a job seeker today, after company knowledge, confidence and appearance. Why aren’t skills and ability #1 on the employer list? Employers know when résumés pass the applicant software screen, skills and abilities are already reliably confirmed, so the focus is on other qualities and qualifications.

Do Not Use PDF for a Résumé

If You Use PDF, You Are Missing Job Opportunities

Many people are using PDF as their preferred résumé format.  PDF résumés look nice, do not show all the editing markup like MS Word, and prevent anyone from editing the document.  There are many advantages to PDF.  However, with those advantages comes many issues when submitting your résumé to a job posting.  In fact, PDF is far more error prone than MS Word, Text, or even HTML.  Unfortunately, many online solutions, including LinkedIN use it as their standard.  If you are using PDF, you are likely missing out on many interviews and job opportunities because a hiring company is not seeing your whole résumé.

Formatting Tips for Electronic Résumés

How to Ensure that Automated Recruiting Software Can Read Your Résumé.

A human will not read your résumé until after it is read, parsed, and classified by a computer.  A great article from the Wall Street Journal explains how this works (read it here).  Even then, a human will only read it if it is a good match to the job description.  It won’t matter how pretty you formatted your résumé résumé or how well you write about your qualifications if the computer is unable to interpret the specifics.

Welcome to the Preptel Resource Page!

Unlock the $20,000 secrets that executive search consultants have been using for years, with Preptel’s unique FREE Resource Guides and other Membership services. Check out the information and resources below for your FREE Guides to Mastering and Accelerating your Job Search. When you work with Preptel’s FREE Guides and Member Services, get ready to interview like you’ve never interviewed before!

Is your job search strategy getting you noticed?

Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. A hundred years ago, when you needed a job you needed a letter of introduction and recommendation to get you in the door. For many years, newspapers, resumes and references were the job tools everyone needed and used. Over the last ten years, technology introduced us to looking for work the new search engine way. Unfortunately, millions of job seekers also discovered the less than 10% chance they have of actually finding a job through a job search engine alone. Today, social networking is taking the place of those introduction and recommendation letters of yore. Is your job search strategy keeping up with the times? Do you have the right knowledge and the tools to get you noticed?

Resumeter

Making it to the top 10 candidate list out of an applicant pool of thousands isn’t easy. It happens with the right mix of search engine know-how, resume design, and of course, resume content. How can you be sure your resume will make the cut? Stop looking for your next job in all the wrong places. Put your resume and cover letter to the Preptel Resumeter Test!

SWOT Guide

Preptel’s FREE Interview SWOT Analysis Guide shows you how to position yourself during the second interview, when showing your interviewer right where you fit in is the most important.

What more competitive arena is there today than the job market? When companies want to face the competition, they use a SWOT Analysis to assess their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats on the market. Use the same tool to find out how you stack up against your employment competition.