Toronto Recruitment, Staffing, Managed Solutions, IT Staffing and the ROI of Happiness.

Stop Using These Words on Your Resume

Posted April 26th, 2012 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

Your resume is supposed to make you stand out.
So why are you using the same terminology as everyone else?

As most experts will tell you, it’s best to think of your resume (or your LinkedIn profile) as a sort of ‘teaser advertisement’ for you and your skills and experience. After all, the goal of the resume is to get a recruiter or potential employer interested enough to call you for an interview. You have just a few moments to capture the reader’s attention.

Recruiters typically review hundreds of resumes every week, and the truth is that 90% of them contain statements like “Passionate about delivering effective results in innovative ways while leveraging my skills in a dynamic environment.” Quite apart from the fact that a line like that actually says very little about your unique skills and abilities, it also doesn’t do much to help you stand out from the competition – because everyone’s using the same words to describe themselves.

Here are some words you should avoid if you want to make sure your resume doesn’t sound like everyone else’s – and some suggestions for alternatives:

Passionate

10-15 years ago, ‘passion’ and ‘passionate’ may have been unusual words to use in a job-seeking context; today, they’re so overused that they’ve become wallpaper. Instead, try statements which begin in different ways:

“I do best when I’m…”
“Very interested in…”
“I get excited by creating…”

Innovative

Unless you actually work in a think-tank which is designed to pursue scientific innovation, ‘innovative’ is another word which has become chronically overused, especially when describing skills. Using more varied language will do a better job of highlighting your achievements:

“Developed a more cost-effective method of…”
“Used web-based technology to transform…”
“Created a proprietary system to…”

Dynamic

Most people use ‘dynamic’ in a resume/profile context as a sort of shorthand to convey that they’re comfortable with a fast-paced environment, but like many overused words, it can lose its meaning through overuse. Try these instead:

High-productivity
Entrepreneurial
Brisk
High-change
Growing

Utilize

One of the worst offenders in the jargon stakes, ‘utilize’ just makes you sound like you’re trying too hard, and if I could delete one word from your resume, ‘utilize’ would be it. Go for simplicity instead:

“Put my skills to work…” (instead of “utilize my skills”)
“Used existing resources to create…” (instead of “utilized existing resources”)
“Developed new process…” (instead of “utilized research to transform existing processes”)

Extensive

‘Extensive’, in a resume context, is one of those words that can mean anything – and therefore tends to mean nothing. You don’t have to state that you’ve got ‘extensive experience’ in something if the skills and experience you’ve listed clearly outline your achievements. For example:

“Managed 5-person client services team…” (instead of “extensive experience in managing people”)
“Coordinated $500,000 marketing initiative…” (instead of “extensive experience with marketing”)
“Implemented enterprise-wide supply chain management system…” (instead of “extensive experience with supply chain management”)

BONUS TIPS

Avoid repetition of adjectives – it can suck the excitement right out of your resume, and make it look padded with description rather than facts
Opt for verbs (managed, led, completed) over adjectives (pro-active, forward-thinking, innovative)
Don’t use long paragraphs. Describe each job you’ve had in one sentence, then list accomplishments in bullet points. This makes your resume an easier, more compelling read

Remember: As with any advertisement, resumes are best when they’re simple, straightforward, and go easy on the jargon.

BranchOut: Do you need to care?

Posted April 20th, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers, For Job Seekers

Some call it ‘The New LinkedIn’.
But did we need a new LinkedIn?

I don’t know about you, but in the past few days I’ve had a whole bunch of invitations to connect to people on BranchOut, the “#1 professional network on Facebook“. It’s strange, because after an initial flurry of invites when BranchOut launched last summer, I hadn’t heard much about it, from job-seekers or recruiters.

According to yesterday’s media release, however, BranchOut has just raised $25 million in funding, has 25 million registered users, and is signing up new users at a rate of 3 per second. So someone thinks this application has potential.

BranchOut is supposed to make it more easy to connect to professional contacts by leveraging your Facebook contacts, and by providing a more ‘sexy’, user-friendly interface than LinkedIn.

There’s no question that BranchOut’s look and feel are more appealing than that of LinkedIn, and if you’re the sort of person who has a lively Facebook profile, it’s easy to import/invite your friends to your network:

(I borrowed this screenshot from this website.)

But…

That’s still a far cry from LinkedIn’s 150 million users. More importantly, it’s not clear what BranchOut offers that LinkedIn doesn’t. Yes, there’s a theoretical efficiency in having your professional network connected to your personal network, instead of having to visit Facebook and LinkedIn separately. Except that:

Until everyone in your professional network switches from LinkedIn to BranchOut, you’re still going to have to use both
Lots of people are uncomfortable with merging their personal (i.e. Facebook) and professional (i.e. LinkedIn or BranchOut) networks
Facebook doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to privacy. Even if BranchOut is a ‘separate’ application, the fact that it’s contained within Facebook makes many people nervous

Some bloggers have suggested that BranchOut may make it easier to access professional information of friends – people you often interact with via Facebook but not via LinkedIn – but that seems a limited use at the moment, given the disparity in numbers.

What this means for recruiters and job-seekers

If you’re a recruiter who specializes in recruiting social media and communications specialists who tend to be early adopters of new social media channels, BranchOut may prove useful – but not to the exclusion of LinkedIn, at least at the moment.

If you’re a job-seeker, well, BranchOut says that they have 3 million job postings. And I’m all for spending an hour or two populating a profile, because you never know when a recruiter may be searching BranchOut for someone with your skills and experience.

But overall, I think it’s safe to say that BranchOut’s status is a lot like Google+’s status at the moment: Keep your eye on it, but don’t feel compelled to spend a whole lot of time there, because they just haven’t achieved critical mass yet.

Are employers really demanding social media passwords? Not so much.

Posted March 27th, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers, For Job Seekers

The media loves a juicy story, but employers aren’t as obsessed with what you’re doing on Twitter as you think.

In the past week or two we’ve seen a whole lot of media coverage of a supposed new trend: Employers demanding access to the social media profiles of job-seekers as part of the ‘vetting’ process for new hires. It’s gotten so bad that Facebook, in a somewhat ironic defense of personal privacy, issued a statement reminding users that sharing usernames and passwords was actually a violation of their Terms of Use.

But is the practice really so widespread? According to a new study by Employee ScreenIQ – and, frankly, our own experience – employers haven’t suddenly started demanding Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter passwords:

52% of employers say their screening process never includes social media channels
Only 9% say they always use them
That 9% doesn’t mean ‘asking for passwords’ – it could mean just doing a Google search or checking a public LinkedIn profile for accuracy compared to a resume

In Canada, particularly, recruiters have to be concerned with PIPEDA (privacy laws) and the Human Rights Code, which prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. A recruiter who spends a lot of time researching a candidate on social media and thereby learns that a candidate is GLBT or a person of colour could find, when they don’t hire that candidate, that they are accused of discrimination.

The exception: Social media on behalf of an employer

Where things get a little tricky is when an already-hired employee is responsible for managing social media channels on behalf of an employer. If you’re the Sales Manager for an organization, and spend a lot of paid work time building a large LinkedIn network of sales-related contacts during the course of your employment with that organization, it’s possible that when you leave, the employer could ask for those contacts.

If you’re the social media manager for an organization and spend a lot of paid work time building a Twitter following that is associated with the company, who owns that Twitter account when you leave?

These questions are a little tougher to answer – and probably won’t be, definitively, any time soon. Best advice? If your employer asks you to start tweeting on behalf of the organization, open a new account – don’t just do it from your own personal Twitter account.

Didn’t get the job? Here’s why it shouldn’t get you down.

Posted February 17th, 2012 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

Even princesses have to kiss a few frogs before they get a prince.

In many ways, looking for a new job should be a pretty invigorating activity. After all, you’re exploring new possibilities, thinking of new challenges, anticipating a move up the career ladder…what could be more exciting?

Tragically, all the potential excitement tends to get subsumed under the other side of job hunting: The (sometimes repeated) rejection. Maybe you’re sending out lots of resumes and not getting callbacks; maybe you’re getting the interviews but somehow not getting the offers. Either way, it can take its toll on your self-esteem and your morale.

But you shouldn’t take it too personally, and here’s why:

1. Maybe it really wasn’t the right job for you

It’s likely that the person (or people) doing the screening and interviewing for the job know the organization and the job better than you do, and have a better handle on the kind of person who’s going to be successful in the role. Maybe they need someone who is less ambitious than you are and will stay in the job for longer than you will; maybe they can tell that the job isn’t going to be challenging enough for you. ”I really wished I could have hired so-and-so,” employers have often said to me. ”I just know they wouldn’t have been happy in the long run.”

2. Sometimes the person doing the hiring makes a mistake

From time to time, we send a candidate to an interview for a position that we know they’d do well in. But they don’t get hired. Maybe the interview got off to a bad start and didn’t recover; maybe the interviewer didn’t really understand the role; maybe the hiring manager was simply having a bad day. Stuff happens – you just have to shake it off and keep going.

3. The job might have changed

Sometimes a company posts an advertisement for a position, gets halfway through the screening and interviewing process, and realizes that the role doesn’t exist, or has changed, or has moved to a different office. You – the job-seeker – gets stuck in the middle, and no one thinks to explain the situation to you. It’s not a reflection on your abilities.

4. You might be spreading yourself too thin

If you’re sending out ‘hundreds’ of resumes but getting very few responses, consider that you might not be focusing on the best opportunities for you. It’s better to spend an hour or two crafting a very targeted response to a job that really fits with your skills and experience than to fire off applications to every job that looks vaguely suitable. You’ll get better results, and your morale will take less of a beating.

5. It’s a risk-averse marketplace

A trend we often see in larger organizations is a job that comes with a very specific checklist: The successful new hire must have X education, Y experience, and Z skills just to make the shortlist, let alone the final cut. That checklist may end up excluding some great potential candidates, but in a tough job market, it’s the way hiring managers can protect themselves if a new hire doesn’t work out: ”But I followed the checklist for this role and didn’t do anything risky like hiring someone without the specified skills and experience…”

Remember, a positive attitude is your best asset when you’re looking for a new job. It’s okay to feel frustrated and fed up with the process, but don’t let it creep into your communications with recruiters or potential employers. Go for a run, punch a pillow, or have a glass of wine with a friend – then remember that eventually you will find the right job for you, and it just might be as exciting as you hoped.

Work in IT? Why blogging can be a good career move.

Posted January 16th, 2012 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

If you work in IT, you probably already know that it’s tough to make money directly from blogging.

But that doesn’t mean that creating and maintaining a blog isn’t a good idea – especially if you work in IT. The blog itself may not end up delivering Google AdSense cheques, but it could give you the kind of career boost that will eventually earn you bigger paycheques.

Here’s how:

A blog makes you stand out from the competition

Ask any recruiter and they’ll tell you: Given 2 roughly identical IT candidates, the one with the blog will be more appealing than the one without one. Why? Because a blog indicates all kinds of desirable traits that employers look for in potential employees: An ability to communicate, a willingness to learn new things, and a certain amount of stick-to-it-iveness (because maintaining a blog over the long-term requires commitment). All of this reflects well on you as a potential candidate.

A blog can say more about your skills than a resume ever could

For many IT consultants, resumes are just long lists of certifications and proficiencies – they just don’t leave room for insightful commentary (“Drupal just isn’t as effective as ASP when it comes to dynamic content…”) or in-depth analysis. A blog, on the other hand, can contain longer pieces about your experiences and opinions with specific software, hardware, servers, or whatever else you’re interested in.

A blog indicates you’re a good communicator

One of the biggest concerns potential employers have about IT consultants is that they’re just ‘code monkeys’ who aren’t able to interact or communicate with non-IT people. Having a blog – especially one which is written for a wider audience – is a good way to demonstrate that you are, in fact, capable of communicating with others, and enjoy doing so.

A blog can demonstrate you’re well-rounded

Your blog doesn’t have to be about an IT-related subject. Maybe you’re interested in photography, or cooking, or renovating houses in your spare time. This can be a good thing: Most companies will tell you that the best candidates for senior IT roles are the ones who are well-rounded and don’t just think about code 24/7.

A blog can capture your ideas in the moment

As you move forward in your career, and start interviewing for more senior (and more well-paying!) roles, you’ll find that employers increasingly ask for your opinions on software, database systems, project management, etc. Chances are, you have opinions, and they’re based on real-life work experiences you’ve had. But you know how it is: If you don’t capture those ideas and opinions at the time, and make a note of the details, they may not come easily to mind when you’re asked about them later. A blog can be a great way to make a note of ideas, insights and experiences you’ve had – which can be a great reminder for you later on.

A blog could attract your dream job

If you’re an independent or contract IT consultant, a blog can help raise your profile and attract attention from recruiters, employers and clients. It may be that they stumble across your blog and think, “This person’s skills are exactly what I need right now!”, or they may see a link to your blog on your LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter profile which piques their interest. At the very least, a blog increases the chances your name comes up when a recruiter does a quick Google search for you. All of which can lead to better opportunities in the long run.

Social media tips for new grads

Posted August 28th, 2011 in For Job Seekers

The other day I was listening to the BBC World Report and they had a feature about recent university graduates who had just been to a job-seeking training program.

“What did you learn that you didn’t know before?” asked the BBC reporter.

The surprising response? Almost all of the kids said that they hadn’t realized how important social media was when it came time to look for a job. Maybe, because they’d grown up using social media for social reasons, it just hadn’t occurred to them that they should be using these networks to help their job hunt.

So here are some basics.

1. Get on LinkedIn. Right now.

Almost all of the kids interviewed by the BBC said they’d never even signed up for LinkedIn before the seminar. But make no mistake: 95% of recruiters say that LinkedIn is their #1 source of candidates these days, so if you aren’t there, you may as well not exist.

Sign up, populate your profile with as much detail as possible, check your writing as rigorously as you would your resume and cover letters, and then start connecting to as many friends, family members and colleagues as you can. Update your status regularly, and join some forums or discussion groups related to your industry.

At the very least, you’ll raise your profile and get a feel for who the other players in your field are.

2. Use Twitter to raise your profile

Twitter can be a good way to connect to recruiters in your area, find out about new job postings quickly, get to know the movers and shakers in your industry, and even raise your profile with interesting information.

If you already have a Twitter account, now may be the time to transition it from a gossip-sharing channel for your friends to a networking vehicle for your new career. Follow recruiters who regularly post jobs in your area, and tweet links and information related to your field or industry.

(My recommendation is not to have a Twitter bio which indicates you’re desperately looking for a job, but saying you’re a ‘recent grad’ or ‘new [your field] specialist’ is okay.)

3. Use Facebook to remind your network that you’re in the market

Many people think Facebook is just for ‘personal’ stuff, but remember: Your friends and family – i.e. your Facebook friends – care more about you and your incipient career than average people on the street. So using Facebook to remind them that you’re in the market (and what you’re looking for) can be a good way to keep yourself top of mind when they come across a possible opportunity for you.

Those interesting industry-related links that you’re posting on your Twitter feed? Post them on Facebook as well – a few articles about your new field will help remind people what you’re hoping to do for a living.

4. Other social media channels

Some recruiters will tell you that ‘video resumes’ are all the rage these days and that you should post them on YouTube, but to be honest we haven’t seen a lot of that for new grads. If it’s easy for you to make and post a video about yourself, then go ahead – but in most cases it’s unlikely to make a huge difference in whether or not you get that first great job.

Google+ hasn’t yet taken off with the mainstream – recruiters are going to be there at some point, but so far they haven’t started using it as a sourcing tool the way they have with LinkedIn.

Blogging can be a good way to indicate to a potential employer that you are really interested in a particular subject or have the kind of extra passion that indicates you’re an ambitious go-getter.

And don’t forget corporate blogs. Make a list of companies you’d most like to work for, and then check out their blogs – you never know what opportunities may turn up, or what information you’ll find that’ll help you write a killer cover email.

Network smarter, not harder

Posted April 26th, 2011 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

Personal networking is crucial to your career.
It’s easier when you’re more strategic about it.

Hopefully by this time I don’t have to tell you why ‘networking’ is important for your career, whether or not you’re currently in the market for a new job. If I do, you can review the basics here. And here is some more good basic info from the Rice MBA program, which is, if I am not mistaken, quite prestigious.

So you know you should be networking, and that you should be doing it on an ongoing basis.

But networking is more than just running around handing your business card (or your resume) to everyone you know. In fact, that kind of scattershot approach is almost guaranteed not to generate the results you want.

How to network more effectively

The best networkers – i.e. the people whose career trajectories tend to outstrip their peers – approach their networking efforts strategically. Here’s how:

1. Identify gaps

A good personal network contains a wide array of people in a wide array of roles from a wide array of industries, because you never know when you’re going to need specialized expertise or advice. Do you know a lawyer or two? An accountant? A procurement specialist? A couple of computer geniuses? If all your contacts are within your industry, it’s time to broaden your horizons a little.

2. Use Facebook to tap into your personal network

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Facebook isn’t just for ‘personal’ stuff. Check out your friends’ Facebook pages – could be that your best friend from university is now a senior VP of something and could be a great addition to your ‘career’ network. So why not invite her to lunch?

3. Be visible (especially online)

Google your name. Does anything come up? If not, it’s time to raise your profile, whether by populating your LinkedIn profile, starting a Twitter account, writing a blog, posting a presentation on SlideShare, even comments on blogs using your own name – something that indicates you’re different/above-average/not just another corporate drone.

4. Have something to say

This is both a corollary to #3 (in order to be visible online, you have to have something to say (preferably related to your career or industry, of course), and a networking strategy of its own. Networking is all about building personal relationships, and people like to build relationships with people who have interesting things to say. So the next time you go to a networking event, don’t think about how many business cards you can hand out – think about what insightful comments you’ll contribute to the discussion.

Which leads us to…

5. Have something to offer

Networking is a two-way street: The best way to put yourself in a position to ask a favour of someone else is to have done a favour for them in the past. So set yourself up as an ‘expert’ in something, and make it clear you’re happy to offer help or insight on that topic. (It doesn’t even have to be directly career-related – one young job-seeker I know has collected a lot of favours simply by being an expert in how to use advanced Blackberry features.)

6. Enjoy the process – and learning new things!

The most successful networkers are people who enjoy the networking process: They like other people, they like interacting with people, they love learning new things, and they see networking as an opportunity to do all three. Don’t think of networking as another unwelcome work-related task – think of it as an opportunity to meet interesting people, learn interesting things, or go interesting places.

When to say “thanks, but no thanks” to a job offer

Posted April 9th, 2011 in For Job Seekers

It’s flattering to get offered a job.
That doesn’t mean you should accept.

The only thing worse than being stuck in a job you hate for years on end is taking a job only to flee from it 3 months later: A company who invests time and money to onboard you only to lose you almost immediately is definitely going to be cheesed off, and it’s a small world. Plus it’s bad for your resume – having 5 jobs in 3 years makes you look like an unreliable job-jumper and a bad bet.

Approach the interview process as you would the dating scene

You already know that you don’t have to go out with everyone who asks you on a date, you don’t have to kiss everyone who buys you dinner, and you definitely don’t have to marry someone just because you met their family last Christmas. Sometimes you just know there isn’t a future in the relationship.

Think of the interview process in the same way: You may have a positive interview (or two), and the company may offer you a job – but that doesn’t mean you should automatically accept it.

Here are some situations in which you should probably decline the offer:

1. It’s a counter-offer

You decided you hated your current job, so you went on a few interviews and now you have a good offer from another company. But when you tell your current boss you’re leaving, s/he offers you a raise/title bump/corner office/car allowance to try to get you to stay.

Don’t accept it. With a very few exceptions, all the reasons you wanted to leave in the first place will still be there (you’ll find that, after tax, that $5000 raise doesn’t actually compensate for the 60-hour weeks you’ve been working), plus now your boss considers you a flight risk and your co-workers think you blackmailed your way to some kind of advantage. 99% of the time, people who accept counter-offers end up leaving within 6 months anyway, so you’re better off sticking to your guns and making a clean break.

2. It doesn’t pay enough money to live on

Unless you’re living at home with your parents and just need some work experience, fast, you shouldn’t take a job that pays less than you need for basic expenses, even if they promise you a raise within a few months. You’ll end up stressed out and resentful – neither of which are conducive to giving 100% to your new job.

What’s more, you run the risk of looking desperate, which means that promised raise may not be forthcoming (“If s/he was so desperate for a job that they took the absurdly low salary we offered, s/he isn’t going to leave even if we keep him/her on slave wages…”).

3. You aren’t excited about the job

If you get a job offer and aren’t immediately on the phone to your best friend or your mother to tell them about it, it’s probably the wrong job. It’s hard to succeed in a job, especially in the crucial first 6-12 months, if you’re not passionate about it. What’s more, if you aren’t excited now, imagine how you’ll feel after a year or two. Right: You’ll be back on the market again.

4. You don’t believe in the company or the brand

So you’re a die-hard fan of Brand X footwear, but you get a great job offer from their closest competitor, Brand Y. Don’t take it. For most people, career success means being able to get fully invested in what they’re doing, and you’re only going to give yourself a serious case of cognitive dissonance when you have to pretend to love Brand Y all day and restrict your Brand X passion to the weekends.

Sooner or later your managers will notice this lack of enthusiasm and you’ll be passed over for promotion, while your co-workers move ahead.

(On the other hand, you should probably check out Brand X’s career opportunities, where your passion can be turned to good advantage!)

5. You got a bad ‘vibe’ when you toured the office

Most of us have better gut instincts than we realize.

Think about the last job you really loved. Chances are, the first time you walked into or through the office, you got a good feeling about it. It may have been that people were friendly to you; it may have been that you picked up on good teamwork among the existing employees; it may have been the architecture.

We call our reactions to these things ‘vibes’, but in fact they’re quite rational: People who are friendly to strangers walking through their office are likely to be friendly to new hires; people who appear to be working well together indicate a healthy office environment; and architecture you like means you probably have things in common with your potential new co-workers.

Well, these ‘vibes’ work the other way, too. If you’re getting a bad vibe, it could mean that your potential new co-workers aren’t all that friendly, that the working environment isn’t healthy, or that you won’t have a lot in common with your teammates. Regardless, it means you probably aren’t a good fit.

The good news?
Getting one job offer is a good sign that another one is on its way.

Job-hunting is funny: It can take you a while to get on top of your game (finding the right opportunities, writing a killer resume, getting confident in interviews, etc.), but once you do, it’s surprising how popular you start to become.

So don’t panic too much about turning down a job offer. The fact that you got one – especially one that was close enough to what you wanted to be a serious contender – is a good indication that you’re putting your best foot forward and are attractive to potential employers. Which means a better offer – one that’s more suitable for you, anyway – won’t be long in arriving. Really.

5 ways to generate more enthusiasm for ‘older’ candidates

Posted December 10th, 2010 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

Though the recent recession obscured the problem somewhat, North America, the UK, and many parts of the EU are already facing talent shortages which will only get worse in the next few years: Lower birthrates mean that as baby-boomers retire out of the workforce, they aren’t being replaced by new workers entering it.

In some ways, this is good news for job-seekers, especially job-seekers in minority groups: Employers who continue to discriminate against candidates based on race, religion, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation or anything else simply won’t be able to fill vacancies. (The Conference Board of Canada, for example, predicts that by 2015, there will be 160,000 more jobs than workers to fill them in Alberta alone. By 2020, the shortfall across Canada could be 800k+. Similar studies in the US, the UK and the EU make similar predictions.)

However, while job-seekers from most minority groups are receiving a more enthusiastic welcome in the talent marketplace than they used to, one group continues to get a lukewarm reception: ’Older’ job-seekers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Job interviews: Sometimes you gotta fake it til you make it

Posted December 7th, 2010 in For Job Seekers

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Job hunting is stressful and ego-bruising, and it’s even more difficult when you’ve been unemployed for a few weeks and are starting to really worry about your finances. And it’s especially difficult at this time of year, for a whole lot of reasons.

So when you finally get a chance to speak with a recruiter or potential employer in real time – either on the phone or in person – and you’re talking about your career, it can be tempting to vent your frustrations, worries and resentment: ”I’ve been sending out resumes for weeks now and no one ever gets back to me and I keep leaving voicemails but I never hear anything and I see other people getting jobs but no one wants me…”

Would you want to spend 40 hours a week with Debbie Downer?
Read the rest of this entry »

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Stop Using These Words on Your Resume