Saturday, October 27, 2012

What Job Seekers can Learn from “The Dog Whisperer”



by Mary Salvino



When Cesar Millan, known on TV as the Dog Whisperer, walks into a room full of canines, the four-legged followers know immediately that he is in charge.  This simple action leads to the question of, “How does he do that?”  The simple answer is that it is a matter of attitude.

While your résumé may illustrate that you are a pit bull on paper, if that attitude does not transmute to your face-to-face interactions with hiring managers, you have lost the career opportunity even before you begin to speak.

If you are like many of those job seekers who hide behind a veil of shyness during interviews, you will need to change your attitude and do it sooner rather than later if you want to be successful in your effort to secure a new career opportunity.  You will have to find a way to demand, albeit in a subtle way, that the hiring manager look up from what they are doing and pay attention to you. 

Attitude is a strange kind of unspoken authority and level of confidence that people trust.  When you combine this kind of assertiveness with the correct tone in your voice, your posture and personal mannerisms, a higher level of poise is conveyed. 

HINT #1 – Lack of head movement.  A ‘level-headed’ position during the interview equates to an ‘executive presence’ in the workplace.  If the interviewer is looking for someone to lead a team, displaying this type of posturing is essential as long as the interviewer does not feel threatened.  As long as the hiring manager feels secure in his/her position, he/she will welcome you into the pack.

HINT #2 – Stop filling in dead air.  Every time you absentmindedly say ‘um’, ‘uh’ or ‘you know’, you sound unsure.  Never be afraid to pause while you search for the correct word.  Well-timed pauses can actually increase credibility.

HINT #3 – Do not end statements with an upward rise in your voice.  Downward inflections of your voice denote assuredness. Upward inflections of your voice denote uncertainness. Are you making a statement or asking a question?

HINT #4 – Control your space.  During interview situations, be cognizant of where you choose to sit, if you are given the choice, how much distance there is between you and the interviewer, and refrain from encroaching on their personal space, i.e. do not put any of your things on his/her desk and always put your briefcase on the floor.  

HINT #5 – Open your posture. Do not cross your arms in front of you. Lean forward in your chair.  If you place your arms on the conference table, as might be the case if you sitting at a conference table to write something down, the arm attached to the hand that is not attached to the hand that is doing the writing should be parallel to the pad of paper you are writing upon.  If you are one who naturally crosses your legs, at the minimum, ensure that the interviewer cannot see your crossed legs, e.g. crossed legs under a table.  

HINT #6 – Maintain eye contact. Dropping your eyes in a business setting may give the interviewer the impression that you have stepped away from the conversation.  Most hiring managers will catch and interpret your eye body language in the following ways:
  • They will accept the fact that most people will look away for a moment or two when they are processing information:
    • Looking up and to the left will be interpreted as thinking about experiences and emotions, i.e. trying to remember a sound
    • Looking up and to the right will be interpreted trying to remember a recent experience and thinking logically
    • Looking down may be interpreted be as submissiveness (unless you are reading your notes.)  Please note that not engaging in and/or avoiding eye contact may be interpreted as disinterest or a desire to leave and holding a gaze without speaking for more than 5 seconds will likely be interpreted as too aggressive and threatening to the interviewer.  It is never a good idea to threaten the interviewer!

Remember that during the interview process, a healthy degree of eye contact is critical for your success. If you look at the interviewer and they are not looking back at you, it means that their attention is likely elsewhere. Even if they hear you, this lack of eye contact reduces the personal connection.  

If you want to persuade someone into doing something in particular, i.e. convince the hiring manager that they should hire you rather than any of the other candidates, the first step is to gain eye contact and then sustain it with regular reconnection.  In this case, as with many others, actions speak louder than words.  If you are unsure of the unspoken messages your are transmitting to hiring managers, you can always try to videotape yourself to spot conversational glitches or habits that may be undermining your credibility.

 





Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Optimizing Your Résumé for Applicant Tracking Software [ATS]




Now that on-line job search technology has made it easier for job seekers to identify and apply for their next career opportunity, employers are using that same technology to help them search for qualified applicants.  Being aware of advances in recruiting technology and knowing how these systems work is very important in creating a résumé that will increase the chances of being selected for the job. 

Applicant Tracking Software [ATS] systems help employers efficiently sort, organize, store and maintain candidate résumés and supporting documents.  The objective of the ATS is to reduce the time and cost of identifying suitable candidates.  By using sophisticated screening and sorting programs, the ATS helps put the resume records into the right buckets.  These programs use a variety of filters and screeners, sometimes called “contextual parsers”, to help sort and categorize résumés. The ATS analyzes the résumé, identifies keywords and word sequences, and extracts the information needed to make a logical decision.  More advanced ATS can even combine many elements of the résumé to create a profile without any human intervention at all. 

The primary goal of writing the résumé should be to satisfy the human reader, but a human will not even see the document unless it is categorized correctly. Listed below are some ATS basics that help ensure that your résumé will scan properly and ultimately be read by a human:

Filters:
All résumé databases ask applicants to fill out an initial screen of information.  The required fields of information include the following:
1. Location/contact info (address to determine commutable distance)
2. Career level (student, entry, experienced, manager, executive)
3. Education level (high school, certification, vocational, degrees though doctorate)
4. Occupational area (accounting, engineering, legal, sales, etc.)
5. Industry (or industry segment)
If this initial information screen is not provided, the ATS will work properly and be unable to classify the information using the logic built into it.  ATS also capture information on things like language proficiency, salary level, GPA, employment status and résumé source (employee referral, job board, or company website.) N.B. Leaving information out will cause the filter to overlook your résumé. Filtered résumés are then listed in order of relevance, with the most recently submitted résumés on top.  The freshness of your résumé is critical to getting to the top of the list.  If the system allows you to make changes to your resume, change it often (maybe every 2- 4 weeks) to increase your ranking and visibility.  

Keywords:
When using keywords your résumé, always use both the unabbreviated and abbreviated word/jargon/terminology Given that it is difficult to predict the exact search term used by the ATS, spelling out the terminology and using acronyms on the same line is a smart way to go.
HINT:   Review job descriptions, job postings and advertisements for jobs you are seeking and make a list of the skills required.  Look for terms, jargon and buzz words that are industry and job specific.  Having multiple columns of these words will help you to focus on the ones that are the most important.
HINT: The more technical your profession, the more important keywords are. 
HINT: A Keyword Summary section is not recommended because it is perceived by recruiters to be manipulative
HINT: Utilize software programs that create ‘word clouds’, i.e. that isolate important keywords as they can be very helpful when trying to decide which keywords to include in your résumé  These programs give prominence to words that appear more frequently and present the results visually.  

Avoiding the Black Hole:
ATS systems do not like special situations thrown at them.  Here are some general tips to help ensure that your résumé uploads properly and scanned without a hitch:
1. Stick to standard or system fonts
2. Use generic .RTF or .DOC file types.  Avoid PDF, DOCX, WPD, WPS or HTML.
3. Special characters used for bullets like arrows can cause problems.  Standard bullets are fine.
4. Graphics of any kind, or JPG, PNG, BMP images should not be used.
5. Avoid using borders, headers/footers, shading or symbols
6. Do not use hidden keywords or words with small text colored white so it does not appear to a reader
Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Is Your Résumé Lost in the Abyss of ATS [Applicant Tracking Software]?

 By Mary Salvino

Companies use Applicant Tracking Software [ATS] to keep track of the hordes of résumés they receive on a daily basis.  Where once these unsolicited documents may have headed straight to a filing cabinet, or perhaps even straight to the trash, résumés that are submitted electronically allow employers to keep résumés handy and searchable in an active file.

How ATS Work:
  • Company receives the document
  • Document is scanned (dated, coded and placed in the appropriate file – administration, financial, technical, etc.) by computer software
  • Document is retrieved if and when the hiring manager submits a search request to the database operator using a keyword search to find resumes that match the desired criteria

Advantages for the Job Seeker:
  • Computers are impartial
  • Your résumés will never be misplaced
  • Computers will keep the document on file
  • Résumés can be accessed by any department in the organization

Disadvantages for the Job Seeker:
  • Computers will only ‘find’ résumés that meet the manually inputted search criteria [key words]
  • If you submit more than one résumé, as you might if there is more than one opportunity for which you are qualified, most ATS will only search the résumé with the most recent date stamp

What to Expect When Filling Out On-line Application Forms:
  • Completing the forms can be extremely time-consuming, complex and frustrating
  • The majority of ATS will not ‘allow’ job candidates to leave boxes empty – Fields [Boxes] left empty usually result in applicant/application rejection
  • Some ATS restrict the number of characters allowed to be entered in a field [Box]
  • Typically the job description and list of skills required is exhaustive
  • The job will rarely state what the job pays but the system usually requires that you complete a salary history
  • The job may require that you state and support via documentation your Grade Point Average [GPA]
  • The companies that utilize ATS also favour a policy of, “Don’t call us; we’ll call you.”
  • Overly formatted résumés and résumés embedded with pictures, headers/footers, tables, graphics and logos can be incompatible with most ATS software - If you are on an ATS that gives you the option to either upload or cut and paste into a text box, it is always better to upload the document
  • ATS identify from where or whom your résumé has been submitted – N.B. If given the opportunity, always chose to have your documents submitted to a company via a human and follow-up with an on-line application only after being directed to do so. Employee referrals are one example of applicant sourcing that most employers rank very highly.  If an ATS has ranked Candidate A as being 80 percent qualified for a given job requisition and has a source note that indicates [flag] that the candidate as also being an employee referral, it will raise that candidate’s ranking.
  • Older ATS do not recognize the difference between a candidate who has taken a course in a particular subject area and those candidates who are currently working with or in the subject area or industry
  • Spelling and grammar matters! – If, for example, a keyword is spelled incorrectly, the ATS will not find it and ‘allow’ the application to continue on to the next filter.

At the end of the day, employers are only interested in three things:
  1. The 'successes' you have achieved over the last five years
  2. Your qualifications and training
  3. How you will save or earn money for the organization


Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca