8 Secrets of Hiring Managers

This blog written by Alison Green

Hiring managers see a lot of job applicants make the same mistakes over and over again, many of which are easily preventable if only applicants knew how hiring managers operate. Here are eight things that hiring managers wish all job candidates knew - both to help them hire more easily and to end some of the frustration for job-seekers.

1. You can ruin your chances by being too aggressive. When you're searching for a job, enthusiasm helps. But some job applicants cross the line from enthusiastic to annoying or pushy - and in doing so, kill their chances for a job offer. If you're doing any of the following, you've crossed the line and may turn off hiring managers who might otherwise consider hiring you: Dropping off your résumé in person when the job posting instructs you to apply online, checking on the status of your application more than once within three weeks, repeatedly calling and hanging up when you get voicemail or cold-contacting numerous employees at the company to try to get extra attention paid to your résumé.

2. We really want you to be honest. Too many job seekers approach job searching as if their only goal is to win a job offer, losing sight of the fact that this can land them in the wrong job. But if you're honest - with yourself and with your interviewer - about your strengths and weaknesses and if you give the hiring manager a glimpse of the real you, you'll both be able to make a better informed decision about how well you'd do in the job. (Of course, if you just need a job at any costs, this might not resonate with you, but if you want a job where you'll excel and be happy, it should.)

3. You don't get to choose your references. You might think that employers will only call the references on the list you provide, but in fact, they may call anyone you've worked for or who might know you, on your list or not. In fact, smart reference-checkers will make a point of calling people not on your list, since they assume you've only listed people who you know will speak of you glowingly.

4. No matter how positive things seem, you shouldn't count on a job offer. No matter how confident you are that an employer wants to hire you, you never have a job offer until you have a firm - preferably written - offer in hand. That's true no matter what an interviewer says to you, even if they say things like, "You'll be great at this," "We're excited to work with you" or "You're exactly what we're looking for." None of those things means that an offer is coming, no matter how encouraging they sound.

5. The small details matter. Candidates frequently act as if only "official" contacts, like interviews and formal writing samples, count during the hiring process. So they'll send flawless cover letters and then check up on their applications with sloppily written emails that include spelling errors, or they'll be charming and polite to their interviewer but rude to the receptionist. Good employers are paying attention to everything during the hiring process, not just the official pieces.

6. If you can't produce references, most hiring managers will be wary. Some candidates wonder what to do if their past employers have a policy of not giving out references, but most employers will expect you to find someone willing to vouch for your work anyway. Unfair? Maybe, but the reality is that if they have two great candidates and one has references and one doesn't, they're going to go with the one who does.

7. Wondering how to stand out? Use your cover letter. A well-written, engaging cover letter that's customized to a particular opening can open doors when your résumé alone might not have gotten you a second look.

8. Your personality matters a lot. Good hiring managers think a lot about your personality. You could have great skills but not get hired because your working style would clash with the people with whom you'd work. Often, one personality type will simply fit better into a department than another will - and whether that style is quiet, loud, thick-skinned, aggressive, informal or stiff is hard to know from the outside.

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the co-author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results, and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.
http://news.yahoo.com/8-secrets-hiring-managers-135138822.html

Cover Letters

Some people feel that cover letters are a waste of time.  As a recruiter, I have to admit that depending on the position I am trying to fill, sometimes I don't really read the cover letter.  That said, it's a really good idea to assume that everyone will read your cover letter so it should be just as impressive as your resume.

A few pointers: 
DO keep your cover letter short (e.g. Writing Thank you Notes - short and to the point is key).  You probably want to have two, maybe three, paragraphs and they should each be no more than a few sentences.
DO make sure you mention the position and the company name in your cover letter.  All too often I see "your company" and "this position" and it indicates to me that you are spamming your resume to every position posted.  If I think you're doing this, I think you are not really interested in working for my company - so I kick you out of the running.
DO try to find out the name of the recruiter - this can be pretty much impossible on-line so the next best salutation is "Dear Hiring Manager".  Sounds kind of strange but it's really just fine.
DO summarize your skill set in this letter.  One really good way to do this is to look at the job description, or a job description that generally fits the kind of job your are looking for, and based on what you know they are looking for in a candidate, draft your letter to respond to their needs.
DO go ahead and use the same letter for all of the jobs to which you apply but DO double check to ensure you do have the correct company and position name!
DO have someone proof-read your letter.  It's also a good idea to PDF your letter and resume.  It shows up a little better and no concerns about any formatting issues.
DON'T be lazy about this.  We can tell if you put virtually no effort into this and it will count against you! 

We know that looking for a job is tedious, exhausting and depressing - we do - but it will really pay off for you if you buck up and put the same great effort into finding a job as we know you will put in when you land a job!

Thank You Notes - They Really Are Important

In Resume 101 – The Do’s and Don'ts of How to get Noticed (for the right reasons).  Part III in our III part Series, I mentioned that the lost art of writing Thank You notes needs to be resurrected.  I realize that not everyone had a mother like mine who forced me to write thank you notes to everyone who ever gave me a birthday or Christmas present the day after I received it, but it is something you need to learn how to do.  And it is OK to send an e-mail but a hand-written note goes so much further!  These do not have to be long:

Dear Mr. Jones, (Typically you want to keep these a bit more formal unless it is for a start-up or other more casual atmosphere - you can never go wrong using formalities, though.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me about the Software Engineering position you have open.  The technologies you are using are really interesting to me and I have been looking for an opportunity to hone my .Net skills.

I really appreciate your explaining to me the project you are working on right now - it sounds like it will really transform how you are running your business.  I hope that I am given the opportunity to come work with you and your team.

Very sincerely,

Mary Smith

If you Google "Professional Thank You Notes After an Interview", you will see other examples but the point is - write them promptly after the interview, and write a different note to all interviewers.  Keep in mind, the interviewers may be forwarding the notes to HR and HR will notice that you just sent the same note to everyone - that won't look good for you.  This is also why I really do recommend a hand-written note, not e-mail.  Do I need to mention that the hand-written notes should be in ink, not pencil?

Oh, and don't do what one candidate did to me recently: he wrote hand-written thank you notes to each interviewer, which was great, but he sent all of them to me in one large envelope and asked me to distribute them, which was not great.

Seriously, Don’t Lie on Your Resume

We’ve all been there.  The job market is tight, you’ve sent your resume to just about every job you see posted – whether you’re qualified or not (that’s a whole other issue!) – and it can be so frustrating that none of the companies or recruiters are calling you back.  You think no one will ever hire you.  You’re probably thinking that if your resume were just a little bit better – maybe if you just extended the dates of employment by just a few months, or if your resume just had a Bachelors of something, or if you maybe put some work-abroad position…  You’re probably thinking – what’s the harm?  Close enough!  No one will ever find out.  It won’t matter.

 STOP.  I know it is really tempting but DO NOT do it.  Companies do conduct background checks.  They will find out.  And when they do, you will most likely be fired for lying on your employment application and for falsifying your credentials before you even walk through the door.  Then you will actually be in worse shape because you will now also feel awful and stupid about what you’ve done.

If you really feel that your resume is the problem, try adding a few words explaining why you left each company.  For example:

Fred’s Coffee Shop – Server – May 2011 to January 2012 (reason for leaving – Reduction in Force) 

That means you were laid off.  If you were fired, especially for cause (a good reason), maybe say that you left for personal reasons.  But whatever you do, DO NOT lie on your resume.  You will get caught and you will be fired.  Think Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo fired for lying about his college degree.  Granted, Yahoo stupidly did not do a background check – but I’ll bet they do now!!!

Keep a Calendar Handy...

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I call a candidate for a phone interview and the candidate asks me if I can send an e-mail reminder for the phone interview.  The answer to this question, in case you are curious, is no.  Absolutely not.  Never gonna' happen.  Still no.

The recruiter is not your admin and is not responsible for ensuring that you calendar your meetings.  The message you send with this question is that the interview is not that important to you; it's just one more thing you need to take care of and you will definitely need a reminder.  The other message you send is that you're lazy.  You should be able to take 30 seconds out of whatever you are doing to make a note to yourself.

Another question you should never ask a recruiter is if he can send you the job description.  It is o.k. to ask for the recruiter to tell you the name of the company again so you can go find the posting to which you applied, but never, ever ask the recruiter to send it to you.  You found it in the first place, go find it again.  And by all means, do find it.  Do not enter into any interview unprepared.  Refer back to Resume 101 – The Do’s and Don'ts of How to get Noticed (for the right reasons).  Part II in our III part Series.

You need to keep in mind, you are one of perhaps 30 people a recruiter is going to call in a day.  You are applying for one of perhaps 20 open jobs.  That the recruiter called you at all is somewhat miraculous - do not blow it by asking to recruiter to do any work for you.  Good luck to you!

Four Things That Can Send Your Resume into the Trash

By Charles Purdy, Monster Senior Editor

You may be the perfect fit for a job -- but a hiring manager is never going to find that out if he trashes your resume after a mere glance. Even in this age of online professional networking, a great resume is still the foundation of a successful job search.

It's common knowledge that spelling errors and grammatical bloopers are trash triggers (and these simple mistakes top many recruiters’ lists of resume pet peeves). But is there anything else that job seekers are unwittingly doing wrong? We asked some recruiting managers and career experts about the resume errors that cause them to crumple and toss a resume at first look -- and some of their answers may surprise you.
1. Your Resume Is Badly Formatted


Looks matter. Career expert Abby Kohut lists misaligned indentations and double spaces as a couple of the things that make a resume start to look like it belongs in the garbage. The fix? Use tabs for indents, and search your document for stray double spaces.

Also beware of being too creative. "I don't like it when I receive resumes with funky fonts," says Mona Abdel-Halim, co-founder of the Web-based resume tool Resunate, who echoed other experts we spoke to. "It is not professional and it makes the resume harder to read." When choosing resume fonts, opt ones that are widely used and readable, such as Calibri or Arial, and use no more than two fonts with their associated bold and italic styles.

2. Your Resume Is Immature

Other hiring managers we talked to said they had immediately trashed resumes with pictures on them -- for example, of cartoon character Bart Simpson (in the case of one applicant for a technical writing job) or of a kitten (an applicant for a customer service job). Cute resume additions like these are for kids -- not professionals.

3. Your Resume Is Too Templated

Longtime recruiter Mike Monroe says that unaltered, familiar resume templates from word-processing programs annoy him. "This won't automatically put you in the trash, but it tells me that you have put less thought into your resume than your competition," he says.

Jessica Campbell, an HR manager for talent agency Voices.com, says one of her pet peeves is "when a candidate has used a template resume," but hasn't updated it before sending it. (And if you use Word's Track Changes feature to edit your resume, make sure to accept all changes in the final version before submitting it.)

To prevent your resume from ending up in the trash for this reason, customize your resume for each job you apply for using the language of the job ad and highlighting your most relevant experience.

"When the resume is not tailored to the position, it shows you don't really understand what the employer is looking for and are just hoping your resume fits some of the criteria,” says career expert Heather Huhman, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships: The Truth About Getting from Classroom to Cubicle. “To avoid this mistake, show the employer how you fit those [criteria] through your previous experience, skills and expertise."

4. Your Resume Is Sneaky

Kohut says she immediately distrusts people whose resumes have no dates on them. “Gaps are not a problem,” she says. “The problem is when you try to be deceptive."

David S. Williams, founder and CEO of salary consultancy SpringRaise, agrees, saying that if you are or have been unemployed, don’t try to hide it. “You may be doing yourself a disservice because you may be a strong candidate for a position, but you tried to hide your current status," he says.

A better tactic is to be straightforward on your resume, and then use your cover letter to tell the story of your career's progress -- including information about how you maximized your time away from the 9-to-5 routine. And do remember to write a cover letter -- not doing so is another guaranteed way to get your resume thrown into the trash, according to the experts.

Prepare Your Elevator Speech - Monster.com

Prepare Your Elevator Speech - Monster.com