Bad Examples From Real Job Seekers

Bad Examples From Real Job Seekers I follow my Austin buddy Liz Handlin, owner of Ultimate Resumes, on Facebook and am entertained by her experiences with job seekers. Heres something she shared on Facebook recently. see my comments below the box. (I [edited] some of this to try to protect anyone who needs protecting, although I imagine this plays out dozens of times each month) Stupid things that people do when interviewing for a job #4,000: [Someone] called to tell me about a guy she interviewed for a job at her company yesterday. She never would have chosen to interview him because he had a 1 page resume with a colorful timeline in the middle of his resume and little useful information. Interviewer: I see that you have a 1 page resume. There isnt much information on here so its hard for me to assess your accomplishments. Candidate: Well I am really trying to push people to look at my LinkedIn page and not my resume. That is where you can see the bulk of my experience. Interviewer: (looks at resume and notices that his LinkedIn address is NOT EVEN ON THE RESUME)  Hmmm. Two main problems (these are Lizs observations and advice): if you want interviewers to see your LinkedIn profile put the address on your resume, and your resume should be comprehensive enough that an interviewer doesnt have to go anywhere else to get a good sense for your accomplishments. Dont create more work for interviewers. Folks, seriously. The MAIN issue here is that the job seeker (aka, the marketer, or person marketing their services) made it HARD for the decision-maker (buyer) to make a decision. Whats worse, they intentionally made it harder! I get that you want people to get to your LinkedIn profile, but consider your audience, and the situation.  If you are in an interview, the interviewer usually has their resume in front of you (so they dont mix you up with the fifty other people they are interviewing/considering).    If your resume doesnt have any meat, what are they to do?  Remember how awesome your LinkedIn profile is? NO! Give them the information they need when they need it, which is on the resume. I know you want your LinkedIn profile to be your resume, but for now, until people catch up to your vision, you need to play the game.  They expect a marketing document from you that has sufficient information (aka, your resume), and they use this marketing document to compare you with your competition, who has a similarly formatted marketing document (aka, resume).  If your formatting is not close enough to the rest, you might be discarded.  If your information is not deep or broad enough, and the others are, you might be discarded. This is called the game.  For now, the rules are established, and they have been for decades.  You can try to make a statement and change the rules, and it might work with some companies and some people, but you risk losing out to others who know the rules of the game. I dont need to talk about the one-page thing, or the graphic in the middle thing, but I do want to address the go to my Profile issue. On my webinars I tell people that they need to understand the concept of channel and destination.  This job seeker was using his resume as a channel to get to the destination (the LinkedIn profile).  He did it poorly, by not putting a link, but still, that was his intention. Are you sure you really want to send someone to your LinkedIn profile as the destination?  Or, are you hoping the LinkedIn profile is one more step in the channel to get to the destination? I cant answer that for you, but for me: MY LINKEDIN PROFILE IS NOT THE DESTINATION I WANT YOU TO GET AT. When I was finishing my basement the heating and air guys came in.  We talked about where we wanted vents, and they said every time you put a bend in the duct work it decreases efficiency (after they bend) by some crazy amount, like 25% or 33%.  In other words, every time the air has to bend (usually at 90 degrees), you lose efficiency.  Put a bunch of bends in one line and you wont get much air out of the vent. This is the same for the channel/destination concept.  Each time you give someone something with the hope that they will go somewhere else, you lose a part of their interest.  Just send them to where you want to send them first, without having them jump through hoops, go around bends, and ultimately get distracted! Bad Examples From Real Job Seekers I follow my Austin buddy Liz Handlin, owner of Ultimate Resumes, on Facebook and am entertained by her experiences with job seekers. Heres something she shared on Facebook recently. see my comments below the box. (I [edited] some of this to try to protect anyone who needs protecting, although I imagine this plays out dozens of times each month) Stupid things that people do when interviewing for a job #4,000: [Someone] called to tell me about a guy she interviewed for a job at her company yesterday. She never would have chosen to interview him because he had a 1 page resume with a colorful timeline in the middle of his resume and little useful information. Interviewer: I see that you have a 1 page resume. There isnt much information on here so its hard for me to assess your accomplishments. Candidate: Well I am really trying to push people to look at my LinkedIn page and not my resume. That is where you can see the bulk of my experience. Interviewer: (looks at resume and notices that his LinkedIn address is NOT EVEN ON THE RESUME)  Hmmm. Two main problems (these are Lizs observations and advice): if you want interviewers to see your LinkedIn profile put the address on your resume, and your resume should be comprehensive enough that an interviewer doesnt have to go anywhere else to get a good sense for your accomplishments. Dont create more work for interviewers. Folks, seriously. The MAIN issue here is that the job seeker (aka, the marketer, or person marketing their services) made it HARD for the decision-maker (buyer) to make a decision. Whats worse, they intentionally made it harder! I get that you want people to get to your LinkedIn profile, but consider your audience, and the situation.  If you are in an interview, the interviewer usually has their resume in front of you (so they dont mix you up with the fifty other people they are interviewing/considering).    If your resume doesnt have any meat, what are they to do?  Remember how awesome your LinkedIn profile is? NO! Give them the information they need when they need it, which is on the resume. I know you want your LinkedIn profile to be your resume, but for now, until people catch up to your vision, you need to play the game.  They expect a marketing document from you that has sufficient information (aka, your resume), and they use this marketing document to compare you with your competition, who has a similarly formatted marketing document (aka, resume).  If your formatting is not close enough to the rest, you might be discarded.  If your information is not deep or broad enough, and the others are, you might be discarded. This is called the game.  For now, the rules are established, and they have been for decades.  You can try to make a statement and change the rules, and it might work with some companies and some people, but you risk losing out to others who know the rules of the game. I dont need to talk about the one-page thing, or the graphic in the middle thing, but I do want to address the go to my Profile issue. On my webinars I tell people that they need to understand the concept of channel and destination.  This job seeker was using his resume as a channel to get to the destination (the LinkedIn profile).  He did it poorly, by not putting a link, but still, that was his intention. Are you sure you really want to send someone to your LinkedIn profile as the destination?  Or, are you hoping the LinkedIn profile is one more step in the channel to get to the destination? I cant answer that for you, but for me: MY LINKEDIN PROFILE IS NOT THE DESTINATION I WANT YOU TO GET AT. When I was finishing my basement the heating and air guys came in.  We talked about where we wanted vents, and they said every time you put a bend in the duct work it decreases efficiency (after they bend) by some crazy amount, like 25% or 33%.  In other words, every time the air has to bend (usually at 90 degrees), you lose efficiency.  Put a bunch of bends in one line and you wont get much air out of the vent. This is the same for the channel/destination concept.  Each time you give someone something with the hope that they will go somewhere else, you lose a part of their interest.  Just send them to where you want to send them first, without having them jump through hoops, go around bends, and ultimately get distracted! Bad Examples From Real Job Seekers I follow my Austin buddy Liz Handlin, owner of Ultimate Resumes, on Facebook and am entertained by her experiences with job seekers. Heres something she shared on Facebook recently. see my comments below the box. (I [edited] some of this to try to protect anyone who needs protecting, although I imagine this plays out dozens of times each month) Stupid things that people do when interviewing for a job #4,000: [Someone] called to tell me about a guy she interviewed for a job at her company yesterday. She never would have chosen to interview him because he had a 1 page resume with a colorful timeline in the middle of his resume and little useful information. Interviewer: I see that you have a 1 page resume. There isnt much information on here so its hard for me to assess your accomplishments. Candidate: Well I am really trying to push people to look at my LinkedIn page and not my resume. That is where you can see the bulk of my experience. Interviewer: (looks at resume and notices that his LinkedIn address is NOT EVEN ON THE RESUME)  Hmmm. Two main problems (these are Lizs observations and advice): if you want interviewers to see your LinkedIn profile put the address on your resume, and your resume should be comprehensive enough that an interviewer doesnt have to go anywhere else to get a good sense for your accomplishments. Dont create more work for interviewers. Folks, seriously. The MAIN issue here is that the job seeker (aka, the marketer, or person marketing their services) made it HARD for the decision-maker (buyer) to make a decision. Whats worse, they intentionally made it harder! I get that you want people to get to your LinkedIn profile, but consider your audience, and the situation.  If you are in an interview, the interviewer usually has their resume in front of you (so they dont mix you up with the fifty other people they are interviewing/considering).    If your resume doesnt have any meat, what are they to do?  Remember how awesome your LinkedIn profile is? NO! Give them the information they need when they need it, which is on the resume. I know you want your LinkedIn profile to be your resume, but for now, until people catch up to your vision, you need to play the game.  They expect a marketing document from you that has sufficient information (aka, your resume), and they use this marketing document to compare you with your competition, who has a similarly formatted marketing document (aka, resume).  If your formatting is not close enough to the rest, you might be discarded.  If your information is not deep or broad enough, and the others are, you might be discarded. This is called the game.  For now, the rules are established, and they have been for decades.  You can try to make a statement and change the rules, and it might work with some companies and some people, but you risk losing out to others who know the rules of the game. I dont need to talk about the one-page thing, or the graphic in the middle thing, but I do want to address the go to my Profile issue. On my webinars I tell people that they need to understand the concept of channel and destination.  This job seeker was using his resume as a channel to get to the destination (the LinkedIn profile).  He did it poorly, by not putting a link, but still, that was his intention. Are you sure you really want to send someone to your LinkedIn profile as the destination?  Or, are you hoping the LinkedIn profile is one more step in the channel to get to the destination? I cant answer that for you, but for me: MY LINKEDIN PROFILE IS NOT THE DESTINATION I WANT YOU TO GET AT. When I was finishing my basement the heating and air guys came in.  We talked about where we wanted vents, and they said every time you put a bend in the duct work it decreases efficiency (after they bend) by some crazy amount, like 25% or 33%.  In other words, every time the air has to bend (usually at 90 degrees), you lose efficiency.  Put a bunch of bends in one line and you wont get much air out of the vent. This is the same for the channel/destination concept.  Each time you give someone something with the hope that they will go somewhere else, you lose a part of their interest.  Just send them to where you want to send them first, without having them jump through hoops, go around bends, and ultimately get distracted!