What Employers Want to See in Your Resume

As part of the 2011 regional workforce study on Silicon Valley’s technology community, a research team completed interviews with 27 hiring specialists, recruiters and managers from separate Silicon Valley technology companies.  The six key lessons listed below summarize the results of the interviews and provide technology job seekers with universal recommendations when seeking employment in Silicon Valley.

Lesson One: A resume should be targeted and specific to each employment opportunity you are considering.

• Employers were quick to point out that they could almost always differentiate between those job candidates who tailored the resume for the position to which they were applying and those job candidates who did not.

•  Job seekers should spend enough time researching the employer and the related position to better understand how their career experiences match the job requirements and how they can best apply their skills to the position to which they are applying

Lesson Two: Be concise

•  “Wordsmithing” is an art – Master it!

•  Recruiters spend as little as 15 to 30 seconds reviewing a resume. Your resume should convey an accurate, clear and compelling portrait of you in as few words as possible – 1 to 2 pages maximum.

Lesson Three: Four key components belong on page 1.

1.  A strong objective, summary or mission statement
2. Work experience that demonstrates key skills and how they are in alignment with the sought after position
3. A clean, well-formatted resume that is visually appealing and error free
4. A track record of innovation – You need to show how you have been a problem solver in your previous positions

Employers were in agreement that the first page of the resume, and in particular the top one-half of the first page should be strong enough to grab attention so employers take the time to consider the remaining components of the resume and determine whether to interview the candidate or not.  “The first thing I look at on a resume is the summary, the first three to five sentences at the top of the resume.” Hiring decision maker for a medium-sized technology firm

 Lesson Four: Technology skills are only part of the equation. Soft skills, your ability to become a valuable contributor to the team, are even more critical. It’s far easier to send someone off for a few days of technical skill upgrading than to teach people communication skills or how to play nice in the sandbox.

Lesson Five: Gaps in employment were viewed as drawbacks by employers, but most indicated that if a candidate could show how they continued to develop themselves during periods of unemployment, they would still consider them a viable candidate.  Employers did not consistently indicate whether periods of unemployment should be explained in the resume itself or in a cover letter.  On the other hand, job-hopping is a red flag. “If they are job-hopping, in other words they are opportunistic, I am immediately going to disqualify that resume.” Hiring decision maker for midium-sized technology firm

Lesson Six: Tell a consistent story. A cover letter, resume, any interviews and follow-up thank you notes (yes, thank you notes!) should consistently demonstrate the key skills, abilities and areas of knowledge that provide the foundation for quickly describing a job candidate. Employers stated that they are more likely to hire those job candidates they can describe with some confidence and are less likely to consider those that they do not feel confident in describing. “That they can back up what they have in their resume during the interview.” Hiring decision maker for large technology firm when asked what was the most critical aspect on how an applicant should present themselves.

A Few Additional Tips for Competing in a Tight Economy

Define your personal brand – your professional reputation – the unique combination of your attributes and achievements.

• What are you known for?  Do you come to work early and leave late? Are you reliable? Can you be trusted with confidential information? Are you habitually late for meetings? Do you actively seek out new challenges? Do you thrive on change? Are co-workers comfortable coming to you with professional problems? Under what circumstances do others seek you out? What kind of projects or conditions make you feel “most alive”?
• A reputation is behavior, not words. In business a reputation is everything. Inside a company your reputation is the determining factor in how successful you will be. To a potential employer, your personal brand (your reputation) is viewed as a predictor of success.
• Building a professional online presence is crucial.  According to a recent article on CareerBuilder.com nearly half of all human resources managers take online presence into account when screening applicants, and more than one-third believe that online presence will eventually replace the traditional resume altogether. For personal branding purposes, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are the predominant social networks with Google+ rapidly gaining popularity.  Below are some links to help guide you in the personal branding process.
• http://www.theworkbuz.com/job-search/marketing-your-personal-brand
• http://www.quintcareers.com/branding_self-marketing.html
• Just as important as a professional online presence is a professional offline presence. Consistency is a key element. Your resume, cover letter, business card, and thank you notes (yes, thank you notes) should all have the same “look and feel.” Your email address and your voice mail message should also convey a professional image.

Keep your E-Image clean.  With few exceptions what you put on the Internet is public, so make sure what you put online is working for you, not against you.

• Google yourself – any surprises?
• Assess your social networking site profiles – are they consistent? Are there any photos or stories that could damage your credibility and your employment prospects?
• What have you blogged? Anything that would “turn off” a potential employer? How was your writing?  Good enough for an employer to have confidence in your writing ability?

Never, never lie on your resume.  The slightest things can become huge when an employer does a background check or a credit check.

This came from a study that was done on what employers look for.

To your continued success,

Georgie

Three steps to your next job

1.  Change Your Mind Set!

How do you respond to the question, “Where do you work?” or “What do you do?”  If your typical response is, “I’m unemployed”, then you’re doing a great job of staying unemployed! We are what we think!!

During this time of transition change your mindset, STOP thinking you’re unemployed and START knowing you’re employed…You have a job! Your job is being a job developer; selling your talents, your skills, your experience and YOURSELF to a company that’s excited to pay you a recurring annual salary a year.

STOP saying and/or thinking you’re unemployed because you’re not!

2.  Have a Game Plan!

You’ve been chosen to lead an important project, how do you prepare? By sitting back, doing nothing and hoping for the best? Of course not! You create a plan of action, sometimes referred to as a Game Plan! This important project is to design and execute a game plan that will get you a job.

What does a successful Game Plan have to have?

A:  Commitment: Commit to having work hours. And stick to them!  If you’re in the mode of getting up late and staying up late…STOP!  Begin your day early, 6:00 am is a good time. Take your first hour to get your mind ready for a successful day. Fill your mind with thoughts of courage, persistence, hope and happiness. That means not turning on the local news channel or reading about the latest news online.  Rather read and listen to only things that motivates and inspires you.

B:  Direction: If you don’t know where you’re going, then how do you know when  you’ve arrived? Know in advance what you’re doing for that day and then follow through…don’t allow yourself to be side tracked.  Avoid making and taking personal calls, cleaning the house, doing laundry, paying bills, etc.  Anything that doesn’t directly relate to finding you a job can be put off for the weekend!
Do research by identifying three companies, industries or organizations that interest you and then start learning everything you can about them. Show off your expertise.  Knowing the challenges your companies, industries or organizations face puts you in the driver’ s seat.  When you speak to someone’s interests they’ll readily refer you to someone like a hiring manager!

3.  Don’t Be Shy, Be a Networker!

Think back to a time when you wanted something so much that nothing would stop you from getting it. I bet you got it! How can I say that? Because when we want something bad enough it’s in our nature to have it. The same should be true about becoming employed.
If all you’re doing is sitting at home surfing the various job sites and emailing your resume to those jobs that interest you, chances are you’re just extending the length of your unemployment. It’s a fact that a large percentage of jobs are not found through a job site, rather they’re discovered from the people we meet at business events, professional associations, community events and even through social media.

If the only dent you’re making in your job search these days is in your easy chair then get out of that chair and start NETWORKING!

Here’s a few suggestions:

Use LinkedIn: The business version of Facebook. Have a profile, do regular updates, participate in the online groups, make yourself and your expertise known to others. Use LinkedIn every day.

Use Facebook:  Have a presence, share with friends how excited you are about your job search, mention the companies you’re learning about, share the news about a great interview you had. Remember people know people you’d like to know. But they can’t help if they don’t know what you need.

Speak up and Be Professional! Keep what you write on Facebook professional because employers do use Facebook to learn more about their candidates.
Use twitter: Twitter is a great way to share your excitement and success to the people that need to know.
Get Out Of The House: Attend meetings where people with similar goals and interests gather.

Here’s Two To Consider

Meet up: An organization that brings people with similar interest together.

CSIX:  An organization that encourages their members to Communicate their needs, Share their goals, Improve their networking skills and exchange job leads.

The above article was submitted by Career Coach Paul Bagan.

You can find links to these resources and more in our “Links” tab located at the top of the page.

Good luck and remember to let us know how you’re doing!

Georgie

When in job search, it’s always thought that the first thing I need to do is create or update my resume.

Though updating your resume is the correct thought a major mistake many job seekers make is failing to inventory their skills; soft and hard. This is the first topic we will be covering in a series entitled “Successful Career Development”.

Let’s get started. When was the last time you inventoried your skills? Knowing your skills is necessary for it will allow you to effectively engage your confidence and direction before you begin your journey towards the career you have always wanted.

So let’s talk about soft skills first. What are soft skills? Soft skills are how you present yourself, how you communicate, how you handle pressure, the ability to think on your feet, self expression, etc. To

inventory these skills there are a number of different avenues you can take. One avenue would be to speak to a trusted friend or career advisor, asking them to share with you what they see to be your strengths and equally your weaknesses. Another avenue you can go to a college career center and libraries to do research on soft skills and how to improve them. You can also do mock interviews to assess those skills (more on this topic will be presented at a later time).

Now let’s talk hard skills. Hard skills are things you have been trained/educated to do: computer networking, project management, office administrator, health care personnel, accounting, fork lift drivers, etc. To inventory these skills consider testing at a local college or temporary agency to evaluate what level your skills are at and where you might need improvement. Where you may need improvement you can seek additional training or education (also presented in another topic).

Another great resource to determine your soft and hard skills can be found on-line. You can do a search on “free career skills assessment test”. This search will pull up multiple sites that will give you free skills tests.  Many temporary agencies offer skills testing for free once you apply with them.  They use these skills tests to find out where you might fit with the companies they represent.   If you cannot find a test for the skill you are interested in, please contact us and we will try to assist you.

We welcome feedback, comments and questions.

We are very glad you have decided to join us on this adventure where we will be covering subjects relating to getting a keeping a job.

In these trying times it is very difficult to find and keep a job.  Some of you may have been out of work for a few years and others for a few days.  Some of you may have decided that you want to break out on your own and go into business for yourself.

What ever circumstances you may be facing, we will try to cover it here and offer solutions that will help you along the way.  Together we can put America back to work.

Subjects to be covered may include:

Skills Inventory
Strengths/Weaknesses
Career Goals
Self Employed vs Company Employed
Skills Improvement
Updating Resume
Confidence
Research
Job search
Self promoting
First Impression
Communications – Verbal
Communication – Non-Verbal
Interviewing
Follow up
Motivation
Handling Rejection
Networking
Education vs Training
Office Politics
Dealing with a toxic personality
Getting a promotion
Changing Companies
Changing Careers

If there are any subjects that you would like us to cover and are not listed above, please feel free to let us know.  We will be happy to consider any reasonable requests.