Here’s our two cents on the topic of Job Searches.
You either sucked or you were unlucky
Why are you out of job? You were either a person whose level of performance deemed you expendable or circumstances beyond your control robbed you of your career. So there you are.
If you are, or are about to be, without a job you need to prepare for the following emotions:
1. An almost overwhelming desire to beat somebody’s a**.
2. Extreme self-doubt
3. New levels of pisstivity (past tense of “pissed off”)
4. Victimized
5. Blind optimism (that your next job is right around the corner)
6. Back to #2
7. Because you dealing #2 again, Back to #1
8. The confidence to deal with the situation
You have to deal with all of these, so inform your close circle of friends that you are going to act like a real horse’s butt over the next few weeks, deal with it and move on.
Your mom thinks you are special, everyone else? Not so much.
Five years ago at a company that very few would actually recognize, I had a great run in comparison with the rest of the people on my team. For some reason this does not impress that recruiter on www.theladders.com who will not return my email.
Doesn’t he know who I am?
I’m that guy that is so good, I didn’t bother to proof-read my resume , because my results speak for themselves.
Do you know how bad it sucks to be a recruiter right now? Because of the overwhelming number of candidates, the amount of resumes delivered for one job at a brand name company can easily break 10,000. That’s 9,923 crap resumes that have to be filtered before finding the qualified candidates.
If you slapped your resume together and did not have at least two other qualified people read it, you’re most likely going to be a member of the 9,923.
A person who gets paid to write resumes will think your resume sucks.
Several of the job boards, including www.theladders.com and www.bluesteps.com will include a free resume critique. I highly recommend you take advantage of this offer.
That being said, people who review resume’s for free will have an “upgrade” package that cost more than “free”, so be prepared for that. Usually the nuggets of knowledge that they throw into the freebie review will substantially improve the average resume.
If you are looking for a heavy hitter type of job, I would recommend you spring for the $1,500 and have your resume professionally done.
Stay away from the free job boards
“Mom, I found the woman I want to marry!!!!”
“Really, where did you meet her?”
“Last night, she was standing on a street corner, down by the overpass. She came up to my car and we started talking and we just connected.”
“Did she ask for money?”
“A little, why?”
No offense to those job boards that are well-advertised and do not charge anything to submit your resume, but stay away from these. Your odds of getting noticed are small, and if you associate yourself with the “job seekers too cheap to pay for a higher-end job service”, you will be labeled as such and will not be taken as seriously.
We welcome any additional tips or tidbits that may be helpful to our Sales Brethren.
4 responses so far ↓
Lynn M // March 25, 2009 at 9:09 am |
That last analogy was….interesting….so mom would be happy with a high-end call girl, rather than the street corner girl? I guess a little…..
Good tips. Anyone “too good” (or too lazy or too careless) to proof-read a resume gives a good prediction about their performance on the job. Also, superstar salespeople don’t often find themselves unemployed. Not that it can’t happen, but companies need sales people to move their product and they are going to keep the best. This is what makes the job of hiring salespeople so difficult. Hiring managers should educate themselves on interviewing skills. It’s easy to set aside those 9,923 bad resumes (that’s obvious) but picking the best candidate out of those you’ve interviewed (or knowing enough to choose NOT to select from those you’ve interviewed if they just don’t meet your criteria) is more challenging.
kdsasser // March 25, 2009 at 10:13 am |
From Guy Kawasaki’s Blog, tips on building your resume
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/guest-post-memo.html
Dave // March 27, 2009 at 7:43 pm |
Thx, nice post:)
Melissa Paulik // September 21, 2009 at 9:07 pm |
It’s interesting to be in sales or marketing and looking for your next gig. You’d think we have it easier because we’re marketing/selling the product we know best. Of course, there is a such a thing as being too close to the product.