Steve’s job search

Steve’s Job Search 2012: Be Your (Best) Self

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So my job search series continues.  Honestly, I may wrap this up into a booklet.

Anyway, for those of you following along, I lost my job late May 2012.  I then went on an intense job search, trying all the techniques I knew.  I found a job in 3 weeks – and also learned quite a bit.  Now I’m writing all my findings up in what is proving to be a disturbingly long-winded series.

One lesson I’ve been realizing for awhile, but that became very apparent, is that you want to be yourself on the job search – your best self.

What I mean by being your best self is that on interviews and searches that you essentially are yourself, but bringing out the best qualities of yourself.  If you’re gregarious, go for it.  If you’re calm and methodical, don’t try to go gonzo and speed yourself up. Bring out your real strengths, and the ones you show when you’re truly being yourself.

As for your negatives?  Own them.  Admit to your mistakes and flaws – and show how your good traits make up for them.  Don’t wave them in people’s faces in some lame attempt at false honest, just admit to them and go on, or apologize if they come up.

Think of it as being the you you want to be able to be all the time – for your interviewers.

This has a lot of advantages:

  1. It’s honest, without falsehood or self-flagellation.
  2. You’ll quickly know if you fit in with the people you talk to – and find fits you may not have expected.
  3. You’ll be natural and people can really assess you.
  4. Interviewers are used to B.S.  They’ll be happy to see someone being real.

I noticed that when I just “was me” the amount of interviews I got and leads I got skyrocketed and many were high-powered.  I even had people who didn’t hire me call me back to help them with recruiting or ask advice.  I’d like to think it’s because I’m awesome, but also I’m sure some of it was that we found the right fit (a few people got disinterested fast), and some of it was they were relieved to not have someone drop a load of B.S. on them.

If you think about it, it makes sense.  If you can fake your way through an interview to get a job, are you really going to be the right person?  If you’re not being yourself, perhaps you come off as false and deceptive.

Be your best self.  It’s honest, productive – and frankly, easier.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Steve’s Job Search 2012: Resumes

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And more on my 2012 job search and what I learned . . .

Resumes are vitally important to a good job search.  In fact, they’re even more important because:

  1. They communicate a level of skill.  A bad resume and a bad cover letter just make you look bad.  There’s no excuse to have a bad one with so many tools out there.
  2. They communicate about you.  If you’ve  ever seen a dull, inhuman resume, you know no one cares because it’s a pile of text.  A resume and cover letter say who you are.
  3. They help out recruiters and HR people.  Your resume is not there to convinece people to hire you, it’s there to help people hire you.  Keep that in mind (the convincing part is part of the whole job search picture).  The resume should help people get a handle on you.
  4. A good resume is also scannable and analyzable, be it by software or people.  That’s part of #3.

I knew I was onto something in my job search when people complimented me on my resume.  I’m not bragging – this has been the results of years of perfecting it.  It let me know I’ve been on the right track.

It also tells me that these people have seen some terrible resumes.

So here’s what I found works:

1) A format of it’s own.  Unless you’re an artistic type, your resume doesn’t have to be all fancy, but it shouldn’t be a dull pile of points.  Add some lines, boxes, spacing, etc. to make it look like something.  Newspapers, newsletters, guides, instructions all look like “something” – you need to find a something for your resume.

A quick trick here – find a template that works.  Is your resume better like a newsletter, manual, guide, chronology, etc.?  Find something and make it work.

2) Communicate a narrative.  This is something I heard several times – your resume must coherently tell your story.  I’ve written on this extensively, and am telling you again.

If you don’t know your story, find one first.  But a resume must illustrate what you’re telling about yourself.  If there’s no story, there’s your problem.

“I want a job” is not a story, or at least not a unique one.

3) Hit the high points.  A resume must include the skills, titles, buzzwords, and so forth that say you can do the job you applied for.  Make sure they’re in there.

4) Helps the recruiter.  Look a recruiter is there to get the right people into the jobs.  Ask yourself what they want to see, put yourself in their shoes, truly feel what it’s like to be a recruiter.  If you can’t do that (more on that later), then you will have a problem.

As alway’s there’s my Epic Resume Go guide!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/