Yet there are six things that I believe do so much harm that I can't sit still any more and allow you to make these mistakes any more. Time will be too short for many of you and even in markets that will not suffer the effects of a slow down, correcting these mistakes is critical to making sure that you don't lose opportunities that you really want.
This is the first in a series of articles designed to help you avoid many of the mistakes people make when they look for work. I am not presenting them in any particular order.
#1 Way People Sabotage Their Job Search: Flipping Resumes to Job Ads Like They Were Flipping Hamburgers in the Kitchen of a Fast Food Restaurant.
Think of that image for a moment. A fry chef kid at a fast food restaurant is preparing orders for lots of people. Lots and lots of people. He or she has to turn them over and is flipping so many of them.
Well people keep submitting the same resume to job after job as though the job requirements in every position they are applying for are identical. They do nothing to emphasize particular skills that the employer might care about. They just keep sending out the same resume again and again without tweaking it.
The broken watch is right twice a day and sending the same resume again and again will get some interviews but miss far more.
Don't you really want the interview when you send the resume? If you do, tweak your resume to make it obvious that you fit the ojb, instead of just sending the same resume again and again.
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2008 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.
To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezines, Head Hunt Your Next Job and/or Natural Selection (his free recruiting ezine), or to find out about his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com.
If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff or locating consultants, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).
