How To Handle Lunch (or Dinner) Interviews

Sure, it doesn’t happen all that often but when an invitation to an interview over food or drinks comes up, you need to be prepared. It’s easy to make a positive impression, just follow these simple guidelines:

Submitting an Online Job Application? How to Help the Bots Read Your Résumé

It can be frustrating to send out multiple résumés every day and hear nothing back. Yet recruiters find it overwhelming to sift through the approximately 1,000 applications that come in for a single job post.

 

To help manage this large flow of résumé, recruiters use something called an applicant tracking system (ATS). These systems help recruiters do their job more efficiently by electronically filing all the résumés received.

 

If you’re applying to jobs, it’s likely your résumé is sitting in multiple tracking systems. To beat these systems and make sure your résumé gets noticed, follow these tips:

 

5 Things You Should Know About Job Recruiters

Many job seekers are confused about how hiring works, and, specifically, about how to work with recruiters. It is important to understand their role and how the process works in order to be successful.

3 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Negotiating Pay

Many people find that one of the most difficult parts of any job search is talking about money. When the conversation turns to compensation, many job applicants get nervous or uncomfortable and are reluctant to talk about the kind of salary and benefits they expect for a position. These mistakes can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your career. Here are the three most common ones -- and tips on how to avoid them.

 

Cover Letters That Sell

John and Linda applied for the same job. They were equally qualified, and each submitted an excellent resume that emphasized accomplishments, training, positive work ethic and dedication.

John included a general cover letter that outlined his career history and aspirations. To save time, he used the same letter to apply for every job opening he looked at. Linda put more effort into her letter.

 

She found out the hiring manager's name and addressed him directly. She researched the company and learned about its mission, past performance, goals and corporate culture. She also studied the job description and clearly spelled out how she was an excellent match for that particular opening. Linda backed up her claims by highlighting examples of her past success.

 

Although the candidates were equally qualified, Linda's extra effort landed her a job interview. John never got called.

 

Résumé Black Hole Pain: Why You Don’t Hear Back After You Submit Your Résumé

A job search is NOT a “numbers game.” Today’s job search is much more like an “audition” for a new job. That’s a very important difference from the approach that most job seekers have today.

Keep in mind that employers view everything you do in the job application and interview process as examples of the kind of employee you would be.

Are you focused on bringing your “A Game” to your job search? Re-think your approach if you are using the numbers game theory.

Keys To Job Search Success: Overcome These 3 Assumptions Employers Make About You

When an employer or recruiter posts a job these days, they are usually buried under an avalanche of applications and résumés, an average of 250 for each job, according to a recent industry survey. And, to make matters worse, usually only 10% (or less) of those responses are from people who are actually qualified for the job.

Unfortunately, this flood of unqualified applicants tends to make the people on the employer’s side of the job search process somewhat jaded and suspicious of all job seekers. While understandable, this attitude is another obstacle for job seekers to overcome.