Get career advice

It’s not just what you know but who you know. Marketing yourself can be a powerful tool in today’s competitive world.

The key to successful networking is to use your available resources to market yourself and try and uncover hidden job opportunities. Often, finding opportunities in this way can give you a real advantage over other suitable candidates. There isn’t anything complex about networking, and it should be a key aspect of the job search process.

One of the best resources available to a job seeker is the people you know. When you are looking for a job, you should let the influential people around you know about your qualifications and the type of job you are looking for. Make a list of friends and family who are employed, present and past co-workers, bosses, even teachers. After you have compiled your list, contact them by phone, letter or email. The process should be relatively informal, since you already have an association with these people. Some ideas for key questions you can ask are:

• Do you know how I can begin working in x?
• Can you recommend people for me to talk to?
• Do you know of anyone who employs people with skills like mine?

You may want to include your resume as a reference or sales tool in case your contact wants to forward your details to other associates.

Networking with people you don’t know is also important for a successful job search. Many companies have stands at industry trade shows where you can talk to employees and apply for jobs that day. Find out about the industry trade shows in your area (through the Internet or trade publications), and try to attend as many as you can. Make sure when you go that you have prepared some key questions to ask, and have an up-to-date resume with you.

Additionally, find out the names of recruiters or HR professionals in key companies where you want to work. Once you have a list, write to the person and ask them for some advice or an interview to learn more about the company. You should be using this contact as a networking opportunity, so as to try and get job leads and make connections should they agree. Have your resume ready in case they ask to see it.

A good cover letter can differentiate your resume from the countless others that come across employer’s desks. Make sure yours stands out!

When responding to an advertised job posting, whether via letter, email or fax, you should always include a cover letter with your resume. A cover letter introduces you and your resume and is your first chance to make a good impression on your potential employer. Make it enticing to the reader so they take those few extra minutes to consider you against other applicants.

In term of appearance and out, handwritten or typed cover letters can be equally acceptable and opinion is still divided on this issue. Increasingly however, recruiters are asking that applicants email their details, leaving the handwritten posted option a non-starter. Whatever the method of your application, ensure your letter is neatly and clearly presented on paper of a similar size and quality to your resume. Check again and again for grammatical and spelling errors. Handwriting should be neat and legible. Emails should be written in a common font with standard formatting. They should emulate a handwritten letter in terms of style. Your letter should address the relevant contact, the name of whom will often appear in the job advert. Avoid Sir or Madame if possible. Unlike a resume, it is acceptable to write a cover letter in the first person.

The content of your cover letter should be brief and structured, avoiding lengthy repetition of information covered in your resume. First, clarify your approach. If you are replying to an advert, say so. Mention the job title, any reference number and where and when you saw it. In some cases, an advert will indicate that a more substantial letter is required. Always follow a specific instructions and include any information if it is particularly requested, such as your current salary. Briefly outline your current situation and why you are seeking change. Include your current or last job, qualifications and professional and academic training, tailoring your information to make it as relevant as possible to the organization or job applied for.

Tell the potential employer a little about themselves to demonstrate you have properly read the advert and that you have done some research into the organization. State why you are interested in them as an employer.

You need to succinctly emphasize why an employer may want to meet and employ you. Highlight your transferable skills, achievements and versatility; what you can contribute; and what makes you different. Mention personality traits relevant to the role applied for, taking care not to appear too subjective. Ensure the letter flows freely, however, and does not slavishly match every point on the job description. The reader should be left with an overall impression that you are a potentially valuable addition to the workforce.

Negative information of any sort should be avoided in your cover letter as well as resume. Close your letter with a polite expression of interest in further dialogue with the recruiter. Do mention that you would like the opportunity to discuss your suitability further at an interview and that you await a response in due course.

More often than not, your resume is the first impression that you’ll make on a potential employee. It is worth remembering that each recruiter’s idea of a ‘perfect’ resume will be slightly different. Nonetheless, your resume will, in most cases, be the first impression an employer has of you. Indeed, a strong resume can occasionally itself secure you a job, especially if you are applying for temporary work. At worst, a poorly constructed resume can give a potential employer a negative impression of you as a candidate and bar you from securing that all-important interview. Taking a little time on design, construction and wording will ensure you promote yourself to your best advantage.

In terms of resume structure, start with your personal details, including full name and contact details, especially all useable telephone numbers. Educational history and professional qualifications should follow, including name of institutions and dates attended in reverse order – university before school results. List GPA and any certifications attained. (these details will matter more if you have recently entered the job market, than if for example you left full-time education 20 years ago). Include computer skills and (genuine) foreign language skills and any other recent training/development that is relevant to the role applied for.

The most widely accepted style of employment record is the chronological resume. Career history is presented in reverse date order, starting with the most recent. Achievements and responsibilities are listed against each role. More emphasis/information should be put on more recent jobs. A functional resume can sometimes be more appropriate, for example if you have held a number of unrelated jobs. This presentation emphasizes key skills which can be grouped together under suitable headings. Still, career progression and the nature of jobs held can be unclear with this type of resume.

Leave hobbies and interests to last – keep this section short. References can simply be ‘Available on Request’. Current salary details should not be included. Your resume and cover letter should combine to create a picture of you and your career-to-date and illustrate why you are different from the competition. With this successfully achieved (and a bit of luck!) you will secure yourself a place on a shortlist.

General tips for cover letters and resumes

• Your resume and cover letter should be laser-printed in black ink using a plain typeface, on good quality white or cream paper.
• Decorative borders are not necessary, nor are photographs of yourself.
• If applying by mail, your resume and cover letter should be submitted in a suitable quality envelope, clearly addressed, with a first class stamp. If applying by email, time should be taken designing and formatting to ensure your details read clearly. Send a copy to yourself to check before submitting it for a role.
• Your resume should ideally cover no more than two pages and never more than three. Aim to ensure the content is clear, structured, concise and relevant. Using bullet points rather than full sentences can help minimize word usage.
• A basic resume may need tailoring with each job application to best suit the requirements of the role applied for.
• The completed resume needs to be checked carefully for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes - which always leave a poor impression – and to ensure that it makes sense. Ask an ‘independent’ party to review the whole document before it is put into use.
• Remember when writing and structuring your resume that it is essentially a marketing document for you and that a potential employer will use the details provided to form interview questions. It should be clear and easy to read. Gaps in career history should be explained, and falsehoods and inaccuracies avoided at all costs.
• There is no reason to include your reasons for leaving each job on your resume, but be prepared to answer these questions in your interview.

The more you know, the less you’ll panic. That’s the conclusion of PeopleSource’s Gary James, who has spoken to job seekers at every stage of the interview process over his 18 year career: “It may seem an obvious thing to say, but it amazes me the number of people who go to visit a company knowing nothing, or next to nothing, about it.”

“Of course,” says Gary, “if you have secured the interview through PeopleSource, your consultant will have given you some preliminary information about the company, the interview format, and probably the person interviewing you. But the more preparation you do, the more confidence you’ll have, so you’d be foolish not to do as much of your own research as you possibly can.”

So where to start? Company websites, is the short answer. It’s very rare for a company not to have a website these days, and it’s incredible what you can find on some of them. In addition to corporate history and press releases, many organizations have stacks of downloadable reports and reviews. Increasingly, you can even find video presentations, which make research easy and fun. In fact, if this kind of information is available on your prospective employer’s website, you may seriously compromise the impression you make if you don’t use it.

If the company that’s interviewing you doesn’t have a press center on its website, it’s simple enough to search for relevant articles yourself. All national newspapers are available online these days, with archives that reach back over years. Just enter the company’s name in the search box. You can do this directly in a web search engine, too (google.com, altavista.com).

Finally, you can get some incredibly useful information by phoning the company. Investor relations departments will always send you the latest report, and secretaries can be astonishingly forthcoming about their bosses’ ‘little foibles’ – even to complete strangers. One enterprising whiz kid even opened negotiations with a prospective employer – a stockbroker – by claiming to be a prospective multi-million dollar investor. He was able to make a spookily accurate (but modest) diagnosis of the company’s new business problems in the interview and got the job on the spot.

As mentioned, your PeopleSource consultant will advise you on the format your interview will take, but you should also devote some time to thinking about all the possible questions you might be asked. It sounds like a daunting task, but look at it this way: the only questions you’ll be asked that don’t relate to your prospective company will relate to you – which means you’ll just be putting time into thinking about yourself!

This is the point at which to return to your resume, since the information here will form the basis of any interview. Study your resume, and think about the questions which could arise from it. Say, for example, you’ve mentioned on your resume that you led a team in a previous job. Imagine being asked about the easiest and most difficult aspects of that task (easiest/hardest questions are useful in relation to any achievement). Or, if you’ve said on your resume that you managed a budget, envision being quizzed about the details of that budget.

In general, be prepared to talk about:

• Problem solving (your biggest problem in particular)
• Planning how you could have performed better with hindsight
• Any gaps in your resume

If it’s difficult to develop objective curiosity about your own resume, study someone else’s (your PeopleSource consultant will be able to furnish you with sample resumes), and then apply any questions that occur to you to your own resume. You could also give your resume to an intelligent friend or relative and ask them to quiz you about your career.

There are some famous ‘impossible’ interview questions around, the most dreaded of which is ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ Rather than tell your interviewer that your perfectionism lets you down, think carefully about the qualities of the people doing the job you’re interviewing for, advises Sarah Scott, Operating Director for PeopleSource Marketing: “Everyone has weaknesses. The important thing is to pick the most forgivable one for the role you’re doing. A good way into this is to think about the strengths necessary for your role, and then think how those strengths could shade into weaknesses. For example, confidence can shade into arrogance; dedication can shade into blindness to the task, and so on.”

Other things to cover in your preparation include your:

• Motivations
• Expectations
• Long-term career plan

A popular interview question these days revolves around your greatest achievement. It’s important to exercise some discretion here. If the most important aspect of the prospective job involves leading and motivating people, talking about finishing the marathon may not be the most relevant reply. Remember, your interviewer ultimately wants to know what you can do for the company. Hence, for most jobs (not all!) your achievement should probably include an element of teamwork. Once you’ve chosen an achievement that relates to the skills required for the job, write a few paragraphs about the situation, using some of the questions and issues discussed above to guide you.

Another useful idea: writing about your achievements and experiences is a good brain flow exercise. On the night before an interview, when your research is complete, it’s a good idea to take a few sheets of paper and just write out what you feel about your career so far. Start anywhere and write anything that comes into your head. You’ll be amazed at how effective and comforting this can be. Apart from giving you the confidence that you’ve covered all relevant points, it’s a great way to tire out your brain and ensure you get a good night’s sleep!

Finally, don’t worry about having interview nerves to some degree. It’s only natural to be apprehensive in an important situation. Nerves are healthy. What you want to avoid is debilitating fear, and if you’re fully prepared, this shouldn’t be an issue.