Top 5 Job Search Blunders to Avoid

Top 5 Job Search Blunders to Avoid Most of us will know or have an understanding that when looking for a new job and new role, networking can be of huge value and importance. However, for many of us there maybe a difference in definition of what ‘networking’ really means. I received a few emails on this recently which has spurred me onto thinking â€"hey I should really write something on this and job hunting online generally if it will help people with their job searches and especially if they are putting hours and hours of time and effort each day doing what is highly ineffective. So â€" here I will use examples from 2 people I have come across recently. One email from â€" let’s call her Sally (to save embarrassment) said: ‘About networking it depends how you define really networking(see article: 5 Good Ways NOT to Network) Im regularly sending out e-mails and adding people on LinkedIn. But this is often to very little avail, and Ive never been on a course about how to network effectively. My progress over the years has been in a kind of trial-and-error way, which Ive supplemented with the odd suggestions from friends, recruitment professionals, and university career advisers’ Unfortunately this does not seem to be hugely uncommon. He carries on after a few exchanges to say ‘I was expecting you to say that I needed to be bolder in my communications with others, more persistent, less honest, and a lot more pushy (just like how a lot of head-hunters are with me, and the sales-people Ive met are) but it turns out Im completely wrong!’. Right â€" so I can’t divulge everything in 1 blog but I can try to make a start â€" so here goes with some of the biggest online job hunting mistakes that I have been hearing about recently: 1. Sending out blanket emails to people you do not know When people receive emails from those they do not know â€" it is ‘spam’. They do not know you and so why should they care â€" well they do not usually care about you or what you are after. If you are sending out masses of emails into the cyber abyss â€" people reading and receiving these can tell. It’s generic, impersonal and usually highly annoying to the reader. Why on earth should they help you â€" they do not know you â€" and you have not taken the time to get to know them! Imagine you are a top manager somewhere going about your day job… then â€" you get hundreds and hundreds of emails from people asking for a job. So â€" unsurprisingly this approach is a big waste of time. Targeted emails/letters â€" which have been thought through and worked through â€" is a different story and probably best left for a separate blog. 2. Adding anyone you can find to your Linkedin I receive several invitations from people who I do not know, to connect and ‘join their professional network’ on linkedin. Do I accept these invitations â€" nope! I usually send a message back asking how I can help. There is also a polite ‘Have we met!?’ note as well to hint at the fact that adding randoms is not a good idea! Getting a reply at all is very lucky. What will usually happen is: They will hit the ‘I don’t know this user’ button, which means you will never be able to contact that person again. If it is done several times â€" linkedin will stop you from being able to openly contact people â€" until you start being ‘good’ and sensible again. Read this article to learn how to use social networks and social media in your job search: How to use social media to job hunt 3. Sending your CV to anyone you can get your hands on I did not know Sally yet the minute she got the chance to â€" she sent me her CV. So what am I supposed to do with it? Ok â€" so there might be a chance that I have a job or know someone but am I inclined to help if I’ve just had a random CV pushed in my face? No â€" so don’t do it. Make sure your cover letter sounds professional but also with a human touch, and you may want to add some business cards into the envelope for a personal and professional touch. Heres some food for thought on CVs: Top 10 Features for your CV 4. Applying to all the ads you can find The other day I was talking on the phone to Tom. He was down in the dumps and has been trying to many months to get a job. After asking what he’s been doing â€" he explains how he’s ‘you know, the usual â€" I sit for hours at a day going through jobsites and applying for all the roles I can find’. When asked if there’s something specific he’s after â€" the reply is a no. He also ‘sits by the phone waiting for the recruitment agencies to ring, but they don’t. They aren’t really taking any notice of me’. Sad but true.. Spending hours of your time applying for everything under the sun without any focus or way to distinguish yourself from the crowd â€" will get you no-where. It will make you tired and frustrated perhaps but the likelihood of getting any of those millions of jobs you applied for is low. You may want to check out How to Get on the Radar of Recuiters by the way. 5. Relying on recruitment agencies or headhunters Following on from Tom’s comment on this â€" you cannot rely on the agencies of headhunters to magic up a job for you. It does not work like that. They are sitting on literally hundreds of thousands of CVs at any one time. Their CV database is huge. You are a number to them and they will only contact you if you happen to fit one of their roles. Given there are thousands of candidates for them to choose from â€" you cannot leave this as your only or main route to finding a job. There is a general theme to the techniques used above. They are all impersonal, mass and volume orientated, time consuming â€" and they just do not work! There is a great book ‘What Color is your parachute?’ which tells you that: Using the internet as a way to look for a job is at the very most 10% effective Mailing out resumes to employers at random is usually 7% effective Answering job ads you see in the press, trade journals etc are also around 7% to 24% effective at most Using search firms, recruitment agencies is 5-28% effective So the way that does actually work is to do what they call a ‘Life changing job hunt’ where you look at what, where and how. What we specialize in is actually an extension of this idea where we look at: what your skills are, what makes you, what you can do. Then we look at where you want to use those skills â€" so the options available to you. Then finally it’s the how â€" and from our experience you get there most effectively via connections or what is more commonly referred to as networking. This method is around 90% effective. Be smart about how you use your time. Get out there, talk to people, meet and get to know them properly. Be curious about them. Ask questions. Seth Godin has a cute note which sums up the need to being curious well in: Why ask why? Author: Nisa Chitakasem is the founder of  Position Ignition  â€" a careers company dedicated to taking you to the next step in your career. Nisa is passionate about helping individuals find the right career path for them whether it involves finding a more rewarding career, making a career change, figuring out the right career plan or being creative about career directions.

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Setting up email alerts in Careerslink University of Manchester Careers Blog

Setting up email alerts in Careerslink University of Manchester Careers Blog Im sure many of you are aware that Careerslink is a great place   to search for vacancies, but did you know you can get jobs sent directly to your phone or tablet by setting up email alerts? If you want   to keep track of the latest job opportunities   wherever you are   follow these simple steps to set up email alerts. Firstly log into Careerslink with your username and password (Graduates may need   to reset this, so should follow the instructions on-screen)   Once youve logged in youll be taken to your Home Page. From here choose the vacancy search tab at the top of the page . This will take you to the vacancy search screen, from here clink on Advanced Search for a screen that looks like this. From this page you choose the types of vacancies you want to be sent via email. You can choose as few or as many search criteria. There are a few search categories I recommend you use. If you are interested in a certain sector choose the relevent category from the Organisational Area or search for the Organisation Name if you have a particular one in mind. If the type of job could be carried out in a range of sectors (e.g marketing/admin) search the relevent category from Occupational Area. You can also narrow down your search via location whether the job is full-time or part-time. Lets look at an example If you were interested in looking for a full-time marketing vacancy within the media, arts and culture sector your search screen would look like this. Once youve entered the relevent criteria and clicked search (obviously!) youll get a list of vacancies. Check that these are the types of vacancies you would be interested in, if they arent you might need to change your search criteria. If they are you are ready to set up the email alert to get further vacancies in this area sent directly to you. To do this click email me jobs for this search. A box will appear asking you to create a name for this search choose whatever you want! Ive gone for the ronseal approach and called my search full-time marketing roles (It does exactly what it says on the tin!). Save this search and when new and updated jobs that match this are uploaded to the system they will automatically be sent to your email address! You can save as many searches as you like just follow the same instructions above. All Graduate Careerslink job hunting

How Hiring Companies Uses Resume Writing Services For Software Engineer Jobs?

How Hiring Companies Uses Resume Writing Services For Software Engineer Jobs?A resume is an important document that allows you to present your skills and experience to the right company. This is why hiring companies hire professional resume writing services for software engineers. An applicant should never submit a job application without one, but sometimes this is difficult because it can be difficult to present a clear picture of yourself in such a short document.If you have a professional resume writer to create one for you that gives an accurate picture of your abilities, then you are well on your way to finding employment when your skills are needed. In the current competitive market, it is important that companies know how to evaluate candidates correctly. Good resumes must be written with proper grammar and spelling and provide a good description of the candidate's position and skills.A professional resume writer can do this for you quickly and easily. It is not unusual for a recruiter to spend about thirty minutes reviewing each resume they receive. The best way to get them to respond to your resume quickly is to have a professional writing company create one for you.With these services, the job position is first discussed so that the recruiter will know what the candidate's skills are and what the company is looking for. Then the hiring manager and employee references are asked for their opinion of the candidate. They should be able to tell you what kind of candidate they would prefer to work with immediately.Once the information has been gathered, the resume will be formatted in a way that it contains relevant experience and education in a way that makes sense. This includes including your most recent position and the education you received for that position. There should also be an address and phone number included. After all of this is in place, a copy of the resume is then sent to the hiring company.It is not uncommon for a prospective employer to pass over the resume because it was prepared incorrectly. Since the person making the initial contact for the position was not a hiring manager, they did not have the experience to do so. Using a professional resume writing service can help to provide them with the information they need so that they can move forward with making a decision about hiring the candidate. The hiring company will receive a resume that is fully constructed and properly formatted so that it clearly states all of the necessary information.Resumes that do not contain the appropriate information can result in you being passed over and the hiring company is seeing you as a lower priority. The hiring manager does not want to waste their time or yours by taking a risk on someone who may not have the qualifications they need. It is a rare situation where this happens, but it can happen.Using professional resume writing services for software engineers can make your job easier. They are not always able to find someon e qualified for the position because there is no one with enough experience or education to take the position. The hiring company wants a candidate that they can trust to do the job well. Resume writing services provide an extra layer of quality control to ensure that they are confident about hiring you and not just another candidate.

Career Advice From the Class of 2015

Career Advice From the Class of 2015 This week my first child began her college career. Ive told her dozens of stories about my college experience but on this day I was thinking more about the college experience from the parents perspective. The day brought back a memory of my father and bringing my older brother to college over 35 years ago.My dad was one of the least pretentious people I have ever met, but when we brought my brother to school, dad decided to hire a limo service (we didnt own a car) to transport us from New York to Philadelphia. When we arrived on the campus quad we were greeted by curious students and parents wondering who the rich people (we were far from rich) in the car were. We were mortified by the attention and teased my father about the unfortunate trip to Phili for years. When my other brother and I prepared for college, we told dad that Amtrak, Greyhound, or even a covered wagon would be a better method of transport for the occasion.So I was initially turned off by the fact that my daughters school has a tradition that the entire Freshman class marches through the school gates to signify the beginning of their college career. It brought me back to that limosine ride and the event seemed equally silly and over the top to me.But something happened once the procession started and I finally understood the ride in the limo that day as I choked back a few tears and watched 2,000+ freshman stop traffic to walk through the gate. I always thought the limo was about my father being proud that his first son got into a great college and he wanted to indulge for just one day and go in style. But now I think the limo ride was more about celebrating the journey and all the steps it took to get this first son into college. So while I was watching the class of 2015 stream through the gates I thought about where they were going but more than that I thought about where they had been. I thought about how many countless days and nights their parents had spent helping their kids with homewor k, coaching sports teams, being cub scout den leaders, attending teacher-parent conferences, and everything in between.When you are raising kids you sometimes get so wrapped up in the process that you forget to celebrate all the hard work that went into the process or acknowledge all the people who helped you along the way. And I started thinking about how true that is in a job search. People get so wrapped up in the end goal of finding a job that they forget to celebrate the successes along the way. And by the time they get the job they so desperately want to forget the time they spent searching and just move on. But I think there is tremendous value in reflecting on the process. So when you land your new job and enter the building on the first day or attend the new hire orientation, think about the future, but also take a minute to reflect on the past and appreciate all the hard work that went into the process.

Status Update-Im Still Looking for Work

Status Update-Im Still Looking for Work Lately Ive been reading a lot of status updates on LinkedIn and Facebook that say things like Project Manager professional looking for work or Looking for work in a tough economy or Just received my degree in accounting-looking for work. While I understand that these job seekers are trying to create visibility for their candidacy online, I dont recommend broadcasting this specific message in your status updates. Heres why:Blasting this message to your entire network makes you look desperate. You might as well rent a billboard to promote your job searchyes, I know there are stories about people landing a job this way, but these tactics get old very quickly (and by the way, the guy who landed a job by wearing a sandwich board saying he was looking for work is so 2008.)Posting this message makes people in your network uncomfortable. Imagine agreeing to meet someone for coffee and  before the coffee is even cool enough to drink you say Im looking for work. Its awkward. It places an unre alistic expectation on you contact to come up with a solution for you. The same thing happens online when you post that you are looking for work.Sending this message leaves you little wiggle room for a follow up message. Think about if. If you are still in job search next week, what will your status update be? Still looking for work isnt going to cut it.  Status updates on business and social networking platforms are a way for you to build rapport and community and deepen the relationship with your contacts. Chose messages that showcase your expertise, share valuable information, give kudos to others, or broadcast an exciting  endeavor you are working on (even if it is volunteer work). Here are some examples of alternative status updates you might want to adapt for your situation.For a professional fundraiser: volunteering at the American Cancer Society walkathon on Sunday; hope to raise more than $2M.For an HR professional: attending a seminar on compensation plans for 2009 and be yond at (share the link)For an advertising professional: My colleague, John Smith just landed a major account with a leading luxury goods company. Way to go John!For a marketing student: just returned from a campus panel discussion on leveraging social media tools to build relationships with customersfascinating!For a CIO: reading an interesting article on new technologies in healthcare at (share the link)For a Financial Analyst: Boning up on study materials for the CFA Level II examlooks like its going to be a long night!  Create status updates that invite questions and further conversation, not ones that make your network run for cover. Remember, online networking, like traditional networking is a process. Whenever possible, give before you get and you will be surprised how quickly you get something back in return.