|
Client Services
Candidate Services
Career Services
Background & Credit Check Services
|
|
|
|
Career Tips
Make yourself more marketable….
ISSUE: Unstable Work History
TIP: Many employers will hire you, they just won’t pay our fee. Once you obtain a
job, stay there at least 2 years. We can then market you to our best clients!
ISSUE: Only have casual attire
TIP: First impressions are vital. Interview Attire is required. Women: Jacket/Skirt/Slacks/Hosiery
- Men: Jacket, slacks, dress shirt & tie
ISSUE: Can’t provide professional references
TIP: We are paid by our clients to submit the most highly qualified candidates. You
must be able to provide professional references from all past employers.
ISSUE: Poor Credit
TIP: This can prevent consideration for positions with financial institutions or
others that involve handling money. Be sure to check your credit report annually
to prevent errors!
ISSUE: Gaps in employment
TIP: Sound explanations are required for any gaps in employment. Always give positive
reasons for gaps and have exact dates. Working project or temporary assignments
while looking can make you more marketable by filling in gaps!
ISSUE: Need substantially more money
TIP: Your salary depends on your relevant skills and experience. If your salary requirements
are based on personal requirements, you may need to also work part-time to supplement
your income until you can increase your salary demand.
ISSUE: Terminated from last job.
TIP: We are paid to identify top talent and many of our clients won’t interview someone
who’s been terminated for cause. Consider temporary or contract positions which
could lead to direct hire or interview on your own where there is no fee involved.
ISSUE: Cannot pass a criminal background check
TIP: Most clients require some sort of background check. If you cannot pass a criminal
background check we will be unable to represent you.
Hints that Help
Applicant Tracking Systems and Webinars...
We came across the below article from The Ladders titled How to Reapply After a Rejection. The article speaks to how to reapply to a position from which you originally
submitted your resume through an applicant tracking system. This article further
shows the importance of doing just this when submitting your resume to an applicant
tracking system, and the aftermath of what you might experience by not tweaking
your resume to reflect buzz words used in the job you are applying for.
However, it’s refreshing to know that if you do not, there is hope after all
in reapplying for the same opportunity and hopefully experiencing a different
result the 2nd go around!
How to Reapply After a Rejection
Don’t give up! Here’s how to tweak your resume and try again.
By Lisa Vaas
She was a senior human-resources professional who was laid off in summer 2009
from her job at large hospital in Texas. After the layoff, she did everything
she knew from her years in HR would help her land a job. She woke early every
day, put on her business suit, networked like mad, lunched with contacts ... the
whole nine yards.
Still, no job offers came; just those cold-as-silicon, automatically generated
rejection letters. You know the kind: vaguely worded, anonymously sent e-mails
saying they’ve received your application and will contact you if they see a fit.
Yeah, right. Don’t hold your breath.
The HR pro didn’t. Instead, she contacted Laurie M. Winslow, principal at Talent
Innovations Group. Winslow looked at her resume, saw that it did a good job making
the case that she was management material, reformatted the document and used the
HR pro’s list of connections until she found one who knew a senior management
member of one of the companies to which she had already applied. She then told
the HR pro to resubmit the new resume to all those automatic online application
sites.
The job seeker did reapply, changing her e-mail address so it wouldn’t appear
to be a duplicate. She was hired for one of the positions for which she was originally
rejected.
Was it the contact that did the trick, or was it the reformatted, resubmitted
resume? Probably both, but what really matters is that she bounced back, tweaked
her resume and reapplied.
It’s not you, it’s your resume
We contacted HR professionals who work with resume applicant tracking systems
(ATS), and all of them said the same thing: If you’ve received a computer-generated
rejection letter for a position for which you believe you are qualified, you should
understand that your resume has been rejected, not you.
In such cases, the issue may be that your resume lacks specific keywords and
search terms or the format caused a problem for the software. In that case, Winslow
said, a smart applicant “will immediately contact the recruitment office of the
rejecting organization. If they cannot get through to the appropriate recruiter,
I would advise that they speak with a sympathetic administrative assistant —anyone
who can guide them as to the best way for them to replace the resume currently
in the ATS with one containing the correct keywords and phrases. And once their
customized resume has been submitted, I would encourage them to contact the appropriate
recruiter (or sympathetic administrative assistant) and request that their updated
resume be reviewed for the open position.”
Read on for more tips about how to tweak a resume and reapply after receiving
an automated rejection letter.
Best practices for jumping back into the ATS:
Winslow advises her clients to change the e-mail address they use to submit their
applications, since e-mail is the primary identifier used by common ATS software
to sort resumes, and changing it will probably convince the ATS it’s a new application.
(More-advanced ATS programs, like Taleo, use multiple candidate identifiers, Winslow
said, but multiple applications are still OK, so long as the content remains accurate.)
And it doesn’t hurt to reach a human on the other side of the ATS. Winslow recommended
applicants use LinkedIn or other networking tools to find a contact within the
company to whom they can speak about why you think you’re a good fit for the position.
“Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call,” Winslow said. “Use LinkedIn
or whatever networking tool you have to reach out and say, ‛Hey, have you really
looked at this application?’ ”
Tell them that you’ve reworked your original resume to show more accurately why
you’re the best candidate for the position and that you’d like to reapply, but
make sure you don’t put anyone on the defensive by insinuating that they made
a mistake.
Where to restrain your tweaking:
When looking at a resume, recruiters look to make sure that, if there are multiples,
no significant data has been altered. To avoid appearing flaky at best and fraudulent
at worst, keep the work history consistent, and don’t change company names for
which you’ve worked, titles you’ve held, education, or months and years at the
companies. Bottom line: Executive summaries and bulleted lists of key skills and
achievements are the areas to tweak, not work-history sections.
“As long as those things [in the work-history section] stay the same,” Winslow
said, “if you just change the resume format to something more usable and more
applicable to the job description, there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as
you don’t falsify information.”
Tiffani Murray is the manager of technology and metrics for the talent-acquisition
department of a major beverage manufacturer. Murray’s position includes managing
the ATS for her large company, which uses the Peopleclick software application.
Murray’s advice for applicants who initially get rejected and who want to modify
their resumes is to pay attention not only to the resume — make sure the keywords
replicate the job posting, for example — but how the data is collected in the
system. For example, some company career sites merely allow you to upload your
resume, while others require users to fill in specific fields, such as job title
or skills.
In their rush to complete the online application, many applicants might skip
over these and other fields with multiple selection boxes, she said. On the second
attempt, Murray stresses the importance of applicants taking the time to fill
in all of the information requested, even if it’s listed as optional. “I recommend
this because in many of the systems, these fields of information become searchable
for the recruiters on the other side,” she said. Fill it all in, even if information
such as years of experience or degrees is listed on your resume. It’s impossible
to know when a recruiter might sort by this information to filter out applicants,
and filling in all fields will ensure you don’t erroneously get caught in a screening
filter.
Please take a look at the upcoming webinars appropriate for all career levels…
July Webinar’s through www.MySpecializedCareer.com
Monday, July 19th 12pm-1pm(EST) Where Should I Network?
Wednesday, July 28th 3pm-4pm(EST) How Can I Change My Profession?
Pre-Recorded July Webinar's found in the Library
7/8 What Should You Take to an Interview?
7/13 Answers to Difficult Interview Questions
~ Stella & Joey
Join Joey on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joey-lerch/2/aba/744
Looking for help with your resume? For your benefit we have partnered with Storeyline
Resumes & HR Consulting.
- Resumes & Cover Letters
- CV's
- Interview Skills
- Outplacement
- Policy & Procedure
- Recruiting & Hiring
www.storeylineresumes.com
(724) 832-8845
Your Resume in 24 Hours
Mention that you were referred by Specialized!
Individual Career Coaching & Transition Management
A'vanti Coaching Forward
http://www.avanticoach.biz/
|
"Some companies just focus on numbers but Specialized Staffing
took care to match my abilities and personality with the clients
needs."
Carol
Searching for a job?
In her book, “Don’t Interview, Audition!” author and recruiting
expert Barb Bruno shares job search secrets from top recruiters. Click Here! |
