OK as part of my plan I wrote about my resume summary rather than an Objective, I summarize using bullet points to attract whomever is reading. Make sure you capitalize on percentages and number factors as this gives the reader some kind of idea how much you were involved, how much you saved, etc. Numbers and percentages are gold mines to many people. They can actually tell how much your experience is worth based on this. But be truthful. Many will say, I have no idea. Sit back and think about what you have done in your position.
If you were an electronics tech and you worked on 10 boards a day on average, multiply that by the number of electronic techs in your department let's say for example you have 5 that would be on average 50 boards being worked on in any given day. Again multiply that by 5 days a week or the number of days you work. Using 5, that would be 250 boards on average a week. Multiply that by 4.2 weeks a month and you have on average 1050 boards a month. Now if you want to add dollars to that. Do you know how much the boards and components cost to work on? How much does it cost to repair, maintain? If you don't have this information a simply rule to follow is if you make $10.00 an hour and there are 5 techs in your department and you work on average 8 hours a day, again 5 days a week at 4.2 weeks a month. Your estimated dollars for working on these boards are $8400.00 a month to work on 1050 boards a month. You want to add a percentage of how much you work on? Do it based on an average of 1050 boards go through your department monthly and if 1050 is the norm figure you're using as 100%, you're working on 210 boards a month,that is 20% of all boards per month you're working on. Now if you want to make this more sustainable how many of these boards have you worked on that you saved in that one month that would have been otherwise scrapped? If you scrap out 50 that leaves you with 160 useable boards that you have refurbished. Roughly that is 76.2% you have saved the company per month. Get larger numbers and percentages by calculating things on an annual basis.
So here's a simple way of obtaining those numbers and adding them to your resume. You're not lying. You're simply using the information available based on what you do. Now you have percentages and numbers to add to those bullet points.
* Saved company 76.2% in product refurbishment per month.
* On average refurbished 210 electronic boards per month minimizing scrap outs.
* Reduced waste by $500.00 or 23.8% in scrap while maintaining required inventory of 160 units per month.
It's not lying, it's being creative. You can stand by your testimony because it's what you yourself did each and every day!
Regarding dumb-ing down resumes. I've had many people tell me based on my experiences that I need to dumb-ie down my resume. No way will you get hired with all that experience. That's just it, I have experience and my education stems from what the employers have given me to learn whether college courses, in house training etc. But, I can support everything I have done. I tried dumb-ing down my resume one time. I have to say if you have a lifetime of achievements and experience it becomes rather hard picking and choosing what to leave off and leave on. However, I always read the job description and applied my resume to that job. That's a chore in itself. Yes it takes discipline, but remember this is currently your job. You are the CEO of your job seeking business. No different than if your boss in a job said do it for me. Discipline and time is the cost you pay. I quit dumb-ing down. It makes no sense. One resume depicts the last 11 years which was in the building products industry. The second resume I have created and used includes the last 27 years, building industry and oil and gas service industry. One depicts much experience over time in many avenues including progressive responsibilities and my growth whereas one depicts my experience in management, materials and distribution. They somewhat go hand in hand. But based on reading the JD I usually figure out what's important and which one to send. Yea it doesn't make much sense to send my 27 years of O&G experience to a job that is in the building industry, but I might rob a few lines from my management part and add it to the bottom line of my building experience since I realize the JD requires some time of a particular experience. Again, I'm not lying that I did not do it, I can explain it when I get in an interview if I'm asked.
The adage listed by many recruiters and headhunters is don't stay on job boards because if one recruiter calls you for a job someone else might have cherry picked your resume for their system and the recruiter doesn't know about it so when the company tells the recruiter they already have you on file they lose or you might have applied to a company and the recruiter says let me know so I don't submit it in case they have it. Well my take is this. I have submitted over 1700 resumes to companies in 2010. Am I suppose to remember everyone I have applied to, to satisfy the recruiter. I realize they have a job, but if you found me and wanted me, then do what you have to do. If that means, you cannot submit me, well then I won't get submitted. In my experiences, I don't depend on recruiters. I use them as added arsenal to my job search, nothing more. I will talk with them. I will be professional with them and treat them as the person they are, but I do not depend on them. If I have any opportunity at all, I will go directly to the company or at least work with the corporate recruiter. Just as recruiters say it is not their job to give me advice on what I did wrong or how to get better, it is not my job to help a recruiter get a paycheck and it is not my job to do their job.
I know that sort of statement will cost me on many recruiters list. Oh well, I'm not worried. I've had this discussion with many recruiters who I'm friends with and understand my professionalism.
Continuing on with my search, yes I used many job boards and applied to many jobs from sending resumes and cover letters. As I've stated before I do have a standard cover letter that can be utilized for standard jobs, but for my career oriented submits, I personalized each cover letter to depict my interest, what they are looking for and letting them know I meet their requirements. I've included a couple of cover letters for examples.
Cover Letter #1
Dear Hiring Authorities,
Thank you for considering me as a candidate for the above referenced opportunity as (Position)for your (City), (State) office. Our concurrent goal is for you to fill this important position and for me to demonstrate that I am best qualified to assume its responsibilities. After living in City for the last 10 years, I look forward to relocating myself back to the geographical region and feel my qualifications would be a good fit to meet (Company name).
Although my career has prospered in the adhesives, building products, and oil industries, I am not restricting myself to those exclusively. I am confident, as an experienced professional the knowledge, skills and abilities I have developed are universally applicable and effective. My proven work ethic will allow me to gain the necessary knowledge required to become a contributing and valuable member of your company’s team.
I am eager to meet with you in person to discuss your objectives and to explain how my ability will meet those needs and more. I look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted at the numbers listed above or my email address (email address @). Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours,
(name)
Cover letter #2
Dear Hiring Authority,
I see you are seeking a (position title) position for your (town), (state) office that was published on (company's)career site. My work history extends over 17 years working in the oil service industry with a technical background for (the company I worked for); whereas I have held numerous positions with progressive responsibilities. Throughout my career my experience also reflects in quality, inventory, and management.
With this experience, progressive growth and responsibilities I feel my skills working in this environment meets your requirements for understanding of processes, ISO quality systems, and analytical skills, verbal and writing skills including years working in the quality department of (company name). I feel I would be a great addition to your team. I can offer computer skills, strict attention to every facet of details required, great communication and exceptional organizational skills along with my extensive experience working with certainty and having the ability to work independently without supervision.
The (position name) position sounds exciting and given the opportunity to contribute to your success would be an exciting career move. Because a single correspondence is limited in fully representing my range of abilities, I would like to request an interview to better determine my contribution for the (position title) position. If there is any other information I can supply you with please do not hesitate to contact me at my email address (email address @) or I can be contacted at (phone number). You are welcomed to view my profile on Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/in/denmorgan. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
(name)
These are just 2 examples of my customizing my cover letters for positions I have applied to. At times I have received numerous calls, whereas other times I might not have received any. But I am confident in saying you have to indicate things that will allow you to stand out.
I'll break for now and move on to Part 5 shortly. More to come.
Showing posts with label resumes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resumes. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
My Unemployed Experience - Part 1
Many people have wrote publications, books, papers etc. on how to get a job; the things that are right and wrong, how to miss opportunity, what to write on a resume and so on. I am going to attempt to write what I went through, the things I did, my attitude, my experiences, etc. in hopes that instead of this being a "what should you do", to tips that have worked for me and where I've been and where I'm headed in hoping to give someone out there some sort of idea or ideas that might help them. No doubt this will be a longer post than most.
I hope to at least just give some ideas over the norm and just maybe someone will be lucky enough where this may help them succeed through their endeavor.
First off let me begin by saying I fell into the 13 million that have been unemployed that has been thought of as the rubbish that employers will not look at because you carry the title of unemployed. I was not laid off, nor did I get fired. I was not the rubbish of the pile if that is what people are thought of. I resigned my position after 10 years with a national company only to move back to my home state to aid in helping age and ailing parents. Someone has to help, and if that's says I'm one of the types that was gotten rid of then employers are really just labeling people at their own regard without any consideration or compassion to someone who is very loyal to their employer.
If you must call it unemployed I guess it must be said I've been for 19 months. I do not like to think of it as unemployed. I would rather think of it as an interim journey in my career path.
When all this began, I had started my search somewhat early. The things I began doing was becoming a member of several job boards like Monster.com, Career builder.com and had a membership with The Ladders. It was slow going because back around 2007 things were not as bad as they are today. But, I wanted my feelers out there. I had received numerous calls from several recruiters about certain positions in different geographical locations. I was pretty green about everything including telephone interviews. I remember getting a call from Ran-staff, one from a bug place in Houston, and one interview as far as Britain. I was ecstatic. Couldn't believe I was out there. Still being green, I probably messed those up and never heard back from them.
As my search started to make more sense to me, I began trying to keep up with recruiters on The Ladders. Now understand recruiters were not very prevalent when I started looking. I saw them, red the comments about them and how they looked for you and how to leave them comments, but I never ever worked with one. I thought it's the typical gambit but was very dumb to the system. I notice many were saving my profile, why I had no idea, but was intrigued.
From there I began searching many avenues on The Ladder to land my big job. I started adding myself to other job boards. I'll add a list of all the boards I've been on, many I'm still out there.
My key points at this time was ensuring I had a top resume that would grab attention. I worked many hours drawing different ones up and fine tuning them. I even had critiques from some sites and no one is ever the same. What one says is wrong, another said that's not the problem, this is. So I never paid anyone to ever do my resume. I spent many hours using older books I had and researching on the internet all about resumes. Some helped some was a waste of time.
After tuning my resume to what I thought was a winner I started posting it to all these boards. I was always following these boards, always fine tuning something or updating my resume and experiences on these sites.
About the time I came to having to resign, things became much more serious and much more involved. I had already many contacts from AOL, I spoke with from back home and around the country. Everyone was sending me ideas and places I need to get attached to. I followed and attached to local newspapers online. I made every possible attempt to make contact with anyone and everyone.
After moving back to Louisiana I started to make me a game plan. I had resumes printed out, standard cover letters, reference list made, hard copies of all my recommendations made, a brag book assembled of all my successes throughout my career. Everything ready and waiting for that big interview.
I do remember recruiters on LinkedIn as well as many people I spoke with how they suggested not to take temporary or minimum wage jobs. They indicated that temp jobs interfere with your worth and many employers will not look at anyone who is doing temp jobs since they look like job hoppers, can't keep a job, and it dummied you down and who in their right mind would hire someone who is in a starter job or fill-in job for a higher role. As we can see those thoughts have changed throughout the industry and now you're encouraged to have something no matter what it was. I had actually turned down a couple of very low jobs that came with no benefits, no full time opportunities, minimum wage etc. Hey I didn't want to look like an underachieving professional who's luck couldn't land him anything but the bottom of a pit.
LinkedIn became home. Although I stayed active on Career builder and Monster, I continued monitoring and changing constantly many job boards I was on. I was determined to be noticed. I received over time numerous calls and invites to interviews out of town which I went to. I remember the how I was told I'm still in the running, I'm still in the cross hairs but.... Yea buts. How depressing they did become since it appeared you were right on the line of being made an offer and at the end it was nothing more but a "but".
That didn't stop me though. I actually had the attitude of "wait, I can play that game also". So I did. As I continued going to interviews and speaking to people who would call over the telephone, their promises became nothing without a guarantee. I kept them on my cross hairs but unless they came through with more I became less concerned. I did all the traditional things from dressing appropriately as a professional, going to the interviews and acting professional, answering everything they asked, asking for the job, filling out email thank you's to those that I was able to obtain a business card from and sending out handwritten thank you cards once I returned from the interview. Following this got me close but no cigar.
As I continued to post and change things on several job boards to keep me floating to the top, I received many phone calls from our friends in India type recruiters, but after listening to their pitch if it could be understood, I never much fell prey to any of it and canceled such relations before they started.
Although many avenues I utilized from continuing seeking in newspapers, newspapers in areas geographically I wanted to be in and filling out and email and even mailing, yes USPS mail sending to various companies that would ask that it be mailed in. I have spent many long days in my job efforts. Seriously, getting up in the early morning at 5:00 AM and turning in around 10 or 12:00 at night. Giving all I have. You have to become serious about your search. Sure you can follow the adage of don't take life so serious, but when you're forced to find something because you have nothing serious becomes the name of the game.
As I indicated LinkedIn became an avenue I continued to grow and still do today. I have spoken to headhunters and recruiters on their take and suggestions during many discussions. I have alienated many with my way of handling things to making many see my way as not being so daunting just a different avenue I chose to follow. A long time friend as he became on LinkedIn Rick Farquar was a headhunter from the west coast, about 62 years old I believe spent many hours speaking with me over the telephone as well as in discussions talking about different avenues. He always had a favorite saying,"if you can't change something, then change yourself". Meaning if the current plan you have is not working, seek out new avenues. I guess that's where my way of thinking came into being. To heck with tradition let's play.
I went into a deep depression for about 7 months. No I wasn't sick, I was just losing ground thinking nothing will ever come to being. Over those 7 months I continued looking but the want was dieing out. I lost focus.I didn't speak to very many people, whether around me in life or the internet. One day I woke up and realized nothing will happen unless I make it happen. It took some time but I was coming out of my pity mode and started working again. I was pressing forward, returning to links and discussions and I was getting much needed support. I didn't feel I was out there alone.
As I began to continue to grow my contacts, I was back reviewing areas on Career and Monster again sending out my coveted resumes that I spent much time tweaking and fine tuning. I was getting interviews and phone interviews on an average of 1 to 2 a month. I learned what I was sending in needed to be better researched so following advice I started following an 80/20 rule. If I had 80% of what the job description entailed, I sent it in.
I started being more active in LinkedIn's discussion threads and began delving into the question and answer forums. One thing Rick was big on and I caught on to that quickly was, never bad mouth while on a thread. Whether it's your old boss, old company or even other posters. There are many people who sit out of the treads watching and you might be the one they're watching. They may be viewing you to see how you react to certain discussions and what your contribution might be and even as much as the way you type(talk) and your English as well as your punctuation skills. How knowledgeable are you in the discussion. How knowledgeable are you in the question and answer forum. I spend a lot of time researching topics for appropriate answers in the forum where I've achieved around 32% best answers including good answers. Now of course it is all subjective based on what the author of the question thinks is best, but it shows that you are contributing, socializing, being professional and being a part of the system. You fit in with the culture.
The bottom-line to this is make contact with folks, communicate, give answers, talk it up. Let people know you're out there. Keep yourself at the forefront of discussions taking interest in different discussions so people will get to know you. Who knows, it only takes one to recognize you and put you on the road to prosperity.
In our next segment I will discuss and lay out my plan that I have used over time that I continue tweaking and always putting out there. Again you never know who's going to be the right person that seeks you out.
I hope to at least just give some ideas over the norm and just maybe someone will be lucky enough where this may help them succeed through their endeavor.
First off let me begin by saying I fell into the 13 million that have been unemployed that has been thought of as the rubbish that employers will not look at because you carry the title of unemployed. I was not laid off, nor did I get fired. I was not the rubbish of the pile if that is what people are thought of. I resigned my position after 10 years with a national company only to move back to my home state to aid in helping age and ailing parents. Someone has to help, and if that's says I'm one of the types that was gotten rid of then employers are really just labeling people at their own regard without any consideration or compassion to someone who is very loyal to their employer.
If you must call it unemployed I guess it must be said I've been for 19 months. I do not like to think of it as unemployed. I would rather think of it as an interim journey in my career path.
When all this began, I had started my search somewhat early. The things I began doing was becoming a member of several job boards like Monster.com, Career builder.com and had a membership with The Ladders. It was slow going because back around 2007 things were not as bad as they are today. But, I wanted my feelers out there. I had received numerous calls from several recruiters about certain positions in different geographical locations. I was pretty green about everything including telephone interviews. I remember getting a call from Ran-staff, one from a bug place in Houston, and one interview as far as Britain. I was ecstatic. Couldn't believe I was out there. Still being green, I probably messed those up and never heard back from them.
As my search started to make more sense to me, I began trying to keep up with recruiters on The Ladders. Now understand recruiters were not very prevalent when I started looking. I saw them, red the comments about them and how they looked for you and how to leave them comments, but I never ever worked with one. I thought it's the typical gambit but was very dumb to the system. I notice many were saving my profile, why I had no idea, but was intrigued.
From there I began searching many avenues on The Ladder to land my big job. I started adding myself to other job boards. I'll add a list of all the boards I've been on, many I'm still out there.
My key points at this time was ensuring I had a top resume that would grab attention. I worked many hours drawing different ones up and fine tuning them. I even had critiques from some sites and no one is ever the same. What one says is wrong, another said that's not the problem, this is. So I never paid anyone to ever do my resume. I spent many hours using older books I had and researching on the internet all about resumes. Some helped some was a waste of time.
After tuning my resume to what I thought was a winner I started posting it to all these boards. I was always following these boards, always fine tuning something or updating my resume and experiences on these sites.
About the time I came to having to resign, things became much more serious and much more involved. I had already many contacts from AOL, I spoke with from back home and around the country. Everyone was sending me ideas and places I need to get attached to. I followed and attached to local newspapers online. I made every possible attempt to make contact with anyone and everyone.
After moving back to Louisiana I started to make me a game plan. I had resumes printed out, standard cover letters, reference list made, hard copies of all my recommendations made, a brag book assembled of all my successes throughout my career. Everything ready and waiting for that big interview.
I do remember recruiters on LinkedIn as well as many people I spoke with how they suggested not to take temporary or minimum wage jobs. They indicated that temp jobs interfere with your worth and many employers will not look at anyone who is doing temp jobs since they look like job hoppers, can't keep a job, and it dummied you down and who in their right mind would hire someone who is in a starter job or fill-in job for a higher role. As we can see those thoughts have changed throughout the industry and now you're encouraged to have something no matter what it was. I had actually turned down a couple of very low jobs that came with no benefits, no full time opportunities, minimum wage etc. Hey I didn't want to look like an underachieving professional who's luck couldn't land him anything but the bottom of a pit.
LinkedIn became home. Although I stayed active on Career builder and Monster, I continued monitoring and changing constantly many job boards I was on. I was determined to be noticed. I received over time numerous calls and invites to interviews out of town which I went to. I remember the how I was told I'm still in the running, I'm still in the cross hairs but.... Yea buts. How depressing they did become since it appeared you were right on the line of being made an offer and at the end it was nothing more but a "but".
That didn't stop me though. I actually had the attitude of "wait, I can play that game also". So I did. As I continued going to interviews and speaking to people who would call over the telephone, their promises became nothing without a guarantee. I kept them on my cross hairs but unless they came through with more I became less concerned. I did all the traditional things from dressing appropriately as a professional, going to the interviews and acting professional, answering everything they asked, asking for the job, filling out email thank you's to those that I was able to obtain a business card from and sending out handwritten thank you cards once I returned from the interview. Following this got me close but no cigar.
As I continued to post and change things on several job boards to keep me floating to the top, I received many phone calls from our friends in India type recruiters, but after listening to their pitch if it could be understood, I never much fell prey to any of it and canceled such relations before they started.
Although many avenues I utilized from continuing seeking in newspapers, newspapers in areas geographically I wanted to be in and filling out and email and even mailing, yes USPS mail sending to various companies that would ask that it be mailed in. I have spent many long days in my job efforts. Seriously, getting up in the early morning at 5:00 AM and turning in around 10 or 12:00 at night. Giving all I have. You have to become serious about your search. Sure you can follow the adage of don't take life so serious, but when you're forced to find something because you have nothing serious becomes the name of the game.
As I indicated LinkedIn became an avenue I continued to grow and still do today. I have spoken to headhunters and recruiters on their take and suggestions during many discussions. I have alienated many with my way of handling things to making many see my way as not being so daunting just a different avenue I chose to follow. A long time friend as he became on LinkedIn Rick Farquar was a headhunter from the west coast, about 62 years old I believe spent many hours speaking with me over the telephone as well as in discussions talking about different avenues. He always had a favorite saying,"if you can't change something, then change yourself". Meaning if the current plan you have is not working, seek out new avenues. I guess that's where my way of thinking came into being. To heck with tradition let's play.
I went into a deep depression for about 7 months. No I wasn't sick, I was just losing ground thinking nothing will ever come to being. Over those 7 months I continued looking but the want was dieing out. I lost focus.I didn't speak to very many people, whether around me in life or the internet. One day I woke up and realized nothing will happen unless I make it happen. It took some time but I was coming out of my pity mode and started working again. I was pressing forward, returning to links and discussions and I was getting much needed support. I didn't feel I was out there alone.
As I began to continue to grow my contacts, I was back reviewing areas on Career and Monster again sending out my coveted resumes that I spent much time tweaking and fine tuning. I was getting interviews and phone interviews on an average of 1 to 2 a month. I learned what I was sending in needed to be better researched so following advice I started following an 80/20 rule. If I had 80% of what the job description entailed, I sent it in.
I started being more active in LinkedIn's discussion threads and began delving into the question and answer forums. One thing Rick was big on and I caught on to that quickly was, never bad mouth while on a thread. Whether it's your old boss, old company or even other posters. There are many people who sit out of the treads watching and you might be the one they're watching. They may be viewing you to see how you react to certain discussions and what your contribution might be and even as much as the way you type(talk) and your English as well as your punctuation skills. How knowledgeable are you in the discussion. How knowledgeable are you in the question and answer forum. I spend a lot of time researching topics for appropriate answers in the forum where I've achieved around 32% best answers including good answers. Now of course it is all subjective based on what the author of the question thinks is best, but it shows that you are contributing, socializing, being professional and being a part of the system. You fit in with the culture.
The bottom-line to this is make contact with folks, communicate, give answers, talk it up. Let people know you're out there. Keep yourself at the forefront of discussions taking interest in different discussions so people will get to know you. Who knows, it only takes one to recognize you and put you on the road to prosperity.
In our next segment I will discuss and lay out my plan that I have used over time that I continue tweaking and always putting out there. Again you never know who's going to be the right person that seeks you out.
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