Here’s a great article from Sarah Needleman of the Wall Street Journal. As mentioned in my tweet, shes’ a girl after my own heart! I like what she has to say in this article and certainly is right on a number of points she makes. I’ll pull out and expand upon a number of points that she makes.
Point 1
“Many employers start filling vacancies below the executive level by using a team of recruiters or human-resources personnel to weed out applications that fail to meet a job’s basic qualifications.”
As mentioned in my earlier blog, be aware of who is doing the first line of screening of your resume. If you are not applying for executive level positions this will be your first hurdle to jump. Make sure your resume is succinct and to the point. Think of the screening process that this level of screeners go through:
1) Is your background and experience relevant to the industry their company is in?
2) Is you background and experiences relevant to the function that they are hiring for”
3) Do you come from a known industry competitor? (Very highly valued)
Point 2
“Submit a carefully written cover letter and insert keywords—must-have qualifications usually found in the job posting”
While I certainly agree that it has to be carefully written, I’m not at all a proponent for cover letters. At least not at this level. In my experience, most of the time these are not read. Again, the people doing the screening at this level are junior with a high workload. They are looking for specific pieces of information on your resume. Sarah also states “qualifications usually found in the job posting”. Here’s the catch, job postings are so generic as to be compliant with laws and regulations that more often then not, they do not reflect the actual hiring managers real wants. You are better off customizing your resume to the points I highlighted above in Point 1.
Point 3
“Often human-resources personnel, but occasionally hiring managers, will first interview candidates over the phone to save time and cut costs associated with on-site visits. Those calls last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more. In general, the purpose of the phone interview is to make sure candidates understand the job and that it lines up with their salary expectations”
She is right on this point. If this is the 1st round of phone interviews – it is more likely going to be a recruiter and not the hiring manager that you will be speaking to. As she mentioned, be prepared to talk about your salary. This not place to be cagey and mysterious about your compensation. Doing that will more likely get your candidacy pulled. (Follow my blog further to read about how to manage these compensation questions this early in the process). However, be prepared that this could also be a technical conversation. If you are a programmer, be sure to brush up on your programming foundations and basics. If you are a Project Manager – brush up on your process steps and PMP basics etc.
Related articles
- Employers spend limited time reviewing individual resumes (lexingtonlaw.com)
- Top 5 Reasons You Never Hear Back After Applying For A Job (pure-jobs.com)
Process Mavericks LLC 