Standing Out From the Crowd

Standing out from the other job seekers must begin with your resume, cover letter and the tactics you use. The better job seekers have two-to-five resumes that they selectively send to employers, depending on the type of job they are applying for. Instead of only having one resume, as the average job seeker does, I strongly encourage you to have a base resume for each type of position you apply to. The way to stand out is to make slight changes to both the cover letter and resume to target each job you apply for Changes made are mostly wording, however it might include adding truthful information about you that is not typically needed for some jobs, or removing items that are not needed for other jobs. >job vacancy indonesia

Getting to this point requires research on the company, its goals and philosophies, and then determining how you can help the company maintain and exceed those goals. 

Steps: >vacancy
1. Take your generic resume for the type of position you are interested in applying for and compare it to the job ad or description.
2. Ask yourself the following questions:
• Are you showing in a concise manner all or as many of the relevant requirements that you possess?
• Every job ad has specific key words. What key words from the job ad are you using to start your bullets with?

3. Research the company, taking time to investigate their hiring processes (when possible), the company goals, and their competitors. By doing this, you can learn much about the company and you can demonstrate your research in the cover letter, as well as the resume. This can be done as follows:
• Read the company website, specifically the press releases (or news) and any profiles of senior management (however, do not limit your search to this).
• Also try search engines such as google.com, and look at the links about the company.
• Visit free financial sites such as at hoovers.com and yahoo.com's financials section. These sites show you how well the company is doing, who thei r competition is, and also provide news links and website links.

4. After doing the research, ask yourself this question: “Does my resume and/or cover letter show how beneficial I would be to this particular company and its specific goals?” If the answer is no, then you need to include additional items that will help you stand out among the other applicants and close the deal.
The biggest decisions are those made at the start of your job search, as it then becomes an upward or downward spiral. If you are struggling to match your skills and qualifications to the job ad, then perhaps you need to examine your process of finding a position that is right for you.
Failure to do so, even if you somehow land the job, can result in starting over again in a year or less.
Being confident with matching your cover letter and resume to the position and company will bring the much-needed confidence when you are granted the interview! >employee

Six Steps to Avoid Becoming Obsolete (or Worse) on the Job

The Client: It only seemed natural that James was angry. Wouldn’t you be angry if you were being passed over for a promotion? And this wasn’t the first time. Last month, there was a really big project being drafted by the Leadership Team that was loaded with more authority, more responsibility and, of course, more money. James was sure he was a sure-fit for the position. But to his dismay, it was offered to a younger, less tenured employee. Now a much juicer promotion was on the table and that promised even more than the other position. A company car, high visibility among the company’s Board of Trustees, overseeing a huge division and more prestige than he ever imagined (but so sorely desired). But it was not offered to him. As a matter of fact, not only was it not offered but he was never even considered for the promotion. To make matters even more distasteful, it was offered to an employee whom James used to supervise less than two years ago.

Anger, frustration, resentment and fear combined with a huge dose of denial quickly became intimate and frequent visitors to James’ psyche. How could he be treated so unfair especially in view of all his years of experience and skills? Didn’t that mean anything? Wasn’t he entitled to being recognized for all that he’d given to the company. All those early morning arrivals before anyone got to the office and he was always the last one to leave. Several years ago he launched and completed a very successful project and was congratulated by the President of the company himself. Didn’t that mean anything? How could they treat him so callously. A man of his stature.

The Problem: James’ situation is more common to the workplace than not. In this day of career-minded, not-ready-to-retire Baby Boomers and as-yet-to-be-career-fulfilled Generation Xers (remember them?), the workforce is literally an “Employers Market”. Yet, many of these workers find themselves struggling either to find employment after having been downsized or to feel valued. It is the latter situation that this article is intended to address.

James’ problem was not related to his technical performance, ie., his ability to perform the duties required of his position for which he was hired. He has a long history of receiving stellar performance evaluations by his supervisors. Rather, James’s problem was related to his inability to understand the “new” rules of the workplace and to incorporate them into a regular practice. You see, James started his career believing that if you go to work early, stay late, come in on weekends and always be ready to “take one for the team” then your efforts would be recognized and you would be justly rewarded. Hey, that’s how it worked for his dad, right? Well, yes, but that’s not how the workplace of the 21st century operates any longer. At one time it was, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” That’s now been rewritten to, “It’s not what you know or who you know. It’s who knows you!”. Loyalty to the employer as well as loyalty to the company used to be the heard on the old job airwaves. Now, the station has a new frequency on station, “WII- FM” or more commonly known as “What’s In It For Me?” The rules have changed and poor James needed help to figure it out. That’s where I came in!

The Solution: James was wounded and needed, even more than a promotion or higher salary, a boost in his self-confidence. Like many others, James’ identity and self-esteem were tightly wound into his job to the point where it was hard to separate the two. Helping James to renew his self-image was job #1. For the purpose of this article, I will condense the timeframe, but since James was motivated to work, he was able to do some remarkable things in a very brief timeframe.

The Outcome: We examined some of his beliefs about himself and looked at the things he values. It wasn’t long before James was able to redefine and separate “who” he is and the core of his essence from his career and vocational Self. James could now see that his worth was more than a paycheck or a promotion or anything external to himself. We then focused on developing strategies to help him improve his chances to getting on-the-job recognition (yes, that is still important to him, but now the degree to which he weighs its importance has been shifted to a more tolerable level).

Here are some highlights of the strategies James and I co-created:

Job Vacancy Indonesia People are hired because they are liked and fired because they’re not! It’s not often that people are hired or promoted solely because of their technical skills. Sometimes the best technical skills a candidate has that makes them a good hire is their ability to drop twenty foot putts with a fair degree of frequency or they can play “like Mike!” More often than not, people are hired because the company feels they “fit” into the existing culture. Find out what your supervisor likes in his/her employees and what he/she values in themselves. Find out why you were hired and make sure you keep those skills and qualities in constant view.

It really is about “who knows you”. Equally important is who knows you. Make it a point to find out who the movers-and-shakers are in the organization and find out why. Informational interviews are effective. Also, asking others why they consider someone to be a leader within the organization is another way to gather helpful information. Once you have the information you need, develop a strategy that ensures they get to know who you are and your value to the company.

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How NOT to Write a Resume

You can learn a lot about how to do something right by first learning what NOT to do.

Take resumes, for example.

I review about 200-300 a month, and most have at least 2-3 mistakes. Yet, all those hundreds of mistakes can be grouped into just a handful of categories, which you would do well to avoid.

Before sending your resume to employers, send it to at least 2-3 friends whose judgment you trust. Ask them to read it for grammar and punctuation, but also for unintended meanings. Revise as needed.

Job Vacancy Indonesia Mistake #4: Jumbles of Jargon

Some resumes pile on the buzzwords in a vain effort to impress. Like this:

"New-media pioneer working with technical and business professionals to create new ways of presenting content and impactful tools for producing content and organizing workflow."

We'll pass on "impactful" for now -- what does a "new-media pioneer" do, exactly? I've got a picture in my head of covered wagons and HD-TV, but I don't think that's right ....

Again, you can nip most crud in the bud by reading your resume out loud and then sending it to a friend for honest input. Because friends don't let friends embarrass themselves.

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