Blog

A few weeks ago after I finished speaking on an interview panel at the University of Washington (UW), I was standing outside when one of the students from the class approached me. He asked me if my company had any part time summer positions.

I told him that no, we don’t generally hire part-time summer help. (We are a technology company.) I did mention that we had some internships opening up and asked him what his major was, and he said "Sociology".

Then I inquired what he wanted to do in the work world when he got out of school, and his response? "I’m not sure." I gave him a few ideas about what someone with a Sociology degree might be interested in, then headed out.

My thoughts about this encounter? First, I felt really sorry for him. He’s obviously in school with absolutely no idea what he wants to do when he gets out. But right after that, I realized what a bad impression he had just made on me, especially after I spent 90 minutes with three other panel members hammering home that when it comes to interviewing and preparing to look for a job (be it a summer job, an internship, or your first professional position out of college), you need to do your homework and remember that you have one chance to make a first impression.

The world of recruiting runs at a very fast pace. Especially as we are still in a recession with high unemployment, I have many more candidates apply for every job than I have positions. And to be honest, amongst ourselves one of the frequent comments we make when reading a resume is, "did they even read the job description?" Seriously. It still boggles the mind how many people apply to jobs for which they are not qualified. Just as an example, I have two web development intern positions open right now, and both of them require either course/project work or employment experience with a programming language called Ajax, and *demonstrated* (as in portfolio piece, website, or coding sample) proficiency with the tools and type of work we are hiring for. Look, if you have never coded a webpage in your life, just because you are getting a computer science degree that doesn’t make you a good candidate for a web developer internship. And my hiring managers would rather go without an intern than try and fit a square peg into a round hole. And your application history with a particular company *stays in the system*. If, three years from now you apply for a different job, and I go in and see how you applied for an internship in 2011 that you were not qualified for, it does tell me a story. And not a very positive one.

So what kind of an impression are you making?

I’ve recently met a couple of young adults that don’t know what a reverse-chronologic resume is, they only have experience with a functional/skill based resume. So I’m going to give a quick template about what a reverse-chronologic resume is and best practices. For the record, this is the *preferred* format for 95% of all jobs. The reason for this is that hiring manager want to see what you did, when you did it, and a progression of your skills.

Some things to keep in mind. 1) Objectives are relatively passe. A short summary of qualifications is better. This can be a paragraph about you and your skill set and what you are looking for. It should also list (generally in bullet points) your relevant industry skill such as classes (I’ve got plenty of entries on what is appropriate for new grads on your resume) or computer programs you are proficient with. If you are out of school *with a degree* for less than a year or in progress (ie you are still taking classes toward it), your education goes at the top after your summary. This section should take up no more than 1/4-1/3 of the top section of the first page. If you are taking a break from school or have not finished your degree, it goes at the end of your resume before the interests/affiliations section.

After the "who am I" section, launch into your experience. Start with your current/most recent job. Include the company name, location, your dates of employment, title, *a short description of the company (including industry and size* if it isn’t self-explanatory or a "household" name), an overview of your "roles and responsibilities" as it relates to the job/s you are applying for, and any accomplishments in the role. Finally, additional activities should be included after your work history. This includes professional affiliations, social/civic activities and volunteering. (See my entry on what to not/use for this area.)

Name

email/phone
City/state of residence (street address not necessary)

BR />Jane Doe

425-555-1212 /jane-doe@gmail.com

Marysville, WA

Professional Summary:

Recent college graduate with a Bachelor of Business with an HR concentration. Four years of retail customer service and office administration including: cashiering, sales, stocking and merchandizing; reception (10 incoming lines with up to 50 extensions) and conference room scheduling; filing, mailing, faxing, preparing powerpoint presentations, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.

PC skills: Windows-based POS; Mac OSX; Microsoft Office for Mac (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook); internet savvy

Education: University of Washington, Seattle WA

Bachelor’s of Business Administration with an HR concentration – May 2011

Experience:
B />

Cascade Clinic
Bellingham, WA
B >Intern in patient billing services – January-April 2011

Cascade Clinic is a 15-physician practice for low income families. Clutterbuck Consulting

File Clerk, Administrative Support – May-August 2010

Clutterbuck Consulting provides outsourced Human Resources for realtors in the Pacific Northwest. I was responsible for converting all paper files more than three years old into digital files, as well as providing lunch support for the receptionist and one of the office administrators. During my tenure I decreased the paper load by over 12K files.
B >
Nordstrom

Seattle, WA

Summer Associate (floating) May-August 2010, 2009

Work 20 hours a week at the Nordstrom flagship store in downtown Seattle during the summer in various departments in the evenings and weekends. Cashiering, customer service, merchandizing.
BR />Interests/Affiliations

UW Women’s Soccer Team – 2008-2011

President of the Human Resources Student Activities Council – 2010-2011

One of my recruiting colleagues has seen a very disturbing trend the last couple of weeks. Candidates that confirm for interviews, then the day before or the day of, send off an email telling the recruiter that they accepted another offer and aren’t going to come in and interview. This is unconscionably rude, most especially to the hiring manager. It is also a bit duplicitous, because in each of the three cases, the candidates had told her they didn’t have any offers on the table or believe they had any pending.

I don’t think most candidates know how much time goes into scheduling interviews. The hiring manager provides the recruiter with a list of interviewers and alternates for a given position, usually 3-5 people. Either the recruiter or if s/he is lucky enough the recruiting coordinator/admin then spends several *hours* trying to build an interview loop based on the candidate’s availability and all the interviewers. Usually this is done with Outlook.

Then the hiring manager will send out an email that all the interviewers read, with the information on what we are considering the candidate for, any feedback from phone screens, and asks each interviewer to read the resume, the notes, and then formulate questions to address specific competencies or past history. And keep in mind that this usually happens for *several candidates for each position.*

The reason a position is usually open is either because someone has left, or the business is growing enough to justify additional people resources. That means that until the opening is filled, everyone on the team is pulling a significant additional portion of additional responsibitities over and above normal. And then they take out an extra hour or two for *each candidate* in the form of preparation, interview, and then feedback.

So don’t be a rude candidate. Don’t wait until the last minute to cancel an interview. Or better yet, even if you have an offer in hand, go to the interview and see if you may have a better opportunity to compare.

Several times over the past few days, I’ve been seeing references in articles and online forums about "transferable skills" on resumes.

I think people have a misunderstanding of what a transferable skill is and how to portray it on a resume. A professional skill is something related to your job/career or industry that can be seen as an asset to take to another job or industry. A common example is people management. If you have learned how to manage a staff, including both formal development and training and also on-the-job experience (basically because you have *done* it), that is something quantifiable that you can demonstrate easily on a resume. The key to this example for your resume is that it is *quantifiable*. You can tell when, how many, what kind, and how your successful performance was measured and rewarded.

Many "soft skills" are considered transferable skills. And while this is true, you have to remember what a recruiter and hiring manager are looking for: solid, detailed examples of what you bring to the table *as an employee in a specific job*. While a job description often lists specific soft skills as desirable or even necessary for a successful candidate, that does not mean it is either appropriate or even advisable for those raw skills to be considered part of your skill set on your resume as stand-alone details.

For example, let’s say a job description calls for strong organizational skills. This should not be taken to mean that this is a key word that I, as a recruiter, am going to use in my candidate search and evaluation process. What I am going to look for are detailed examples of projects, positions, and accomplishments which demonstrate that you possess this skill.

Let’s say you are an administrative professional. To show me your organizational skills, I will look for action verbs in context with your job history such as "plan" and "execute". I’ll expect to see projects or functions such as calendar management, event planning, budget and expense reporting. The key is to give me a picture of those experiences and responsibilities on the job that require you to have organizational skills to succeed and excel in your profession.

When you are looking at job descriptions, be very conscious of specifics. If a job description mentions something that is as applicable to how you manage your personal/home life as it is to your job, chances are it is concept that you need to identify with very concrete and detailed examples to illustrate them. "Good communication skills" are as crucial in how you deal with your spouse or partner as they are to how you handle your business relationships with your manager and colleagues. But the situations in which you exercise those skills and navigate misunderstandings or conflict are vastly different.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: show, don’t tell.

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine asked my opinion on attending an industry tradeshow as a job seeking strategy. I told him it was brilliant.

Almost every industry has at least one professional association that is a connector for companies, customers, and professionals. Tradeshows are generally set up to for sales opportunities. Vendors that make products or provide services set up booths to companies in the industry that use those products/services. Often is the latest iteration of their product, or something new.

A conference is generally a series of presenters for education purposes, where attendees learn new skills or information in their industry. Conferences usually have a lot more employment opportunities, but are generally much more expensive than tradeshows.

When you do attempt to go to a tradeshow for the purpose of job seeking and networking, it is absolutely vital that you remember that this is a sales event. The vendors are there to market and sell to potential customers. They are not there to recruit new employees. To effectively use this strategy you have to at least research the company enough to know what they sell so that you can strike up a conversation with the professional manning the booth at the show. The object of attending a show should be to research who has new products on the market and to gain contact information (ie business cards) for *future* networking (think LinkedIn).

So I asked my acquaintance for some tips and tricks for his foray into the tradeshow, and below are his suggestions.

Many careers involve trade shows. These trade shows have a lot going on- people selling and buying, networking, and of course, folks looking for a gig. Carry a lot of business cards, and wear extra padding in shoes. I recommend a small backpack, something that you can sling over your shoulder. Keep flexible- the company that laid you off has laid off a resource. Other companies may know this- you knew all of X’s customers, dealers, providers, etc. etc. That is potentially valuable to one of their competitors. You can’t throw X to the wolves, but you can say- "I know that market REALLY well" and I think I can help you access it. Likewise, be flexible- carry a nice personal card, carry a consulting company card, etc. (Look at what your various talents are- and make a card accordingly- marketing, training, freelance tech support, systems integration, etc. Also be willing to think out of the box (I should have had storytelling cards with me). Also, a show is a great place to bring yourself back up to speed on who is doing what, and learning about trends, and new products, etc. Since you no longer work for X, you might get more intel than when you were a company man. And all the folks at the show want to know what happend at X- don’t burn them, but you can say- "I’m sure it was just the economy, etc."
BR />

Finally, if you’ve been around for a while, you’ll see many people you used to work with. Don’t underestimate yourself- get their cards, and be straight- "I’m consulting and looking for a steady gig." Chances are, if you were’nt a flake, and are an asset- they might be able to turn you on to some leads. Better yet, is when they walk you over and make the introduction. Get business cards from everyone. After you walk away from the booth, any key ones, write a note on it, or put a sticky on it, with a few follow up notes. 5 days later, that will be crucial for your at home follow up. Also, don’t be afraid to pimp yourself out to companies trying to break into the american markets-a good consulting gig could be a useful thing- you can look at your market from another perspective (outside in) and possibly help hone a potentially hot product, that may have some traction.

Trade shows are a good place to do market research. A company looking at hiring you is going to be a lot more impressed when you can talk about all the pro’s and con’s of the competition, and how you might be able to help them excel.