Tag: get a job

Making Informational Interviews Work for You

Informational interviews are an invaluable tool for today’s job search. While you never actually ask for a job during an informational interview, many do lead directly or indirectly to employment opportunities down the road. In part one of our series on information interviews, we look at why you should do informational interviews. Read More

Picking the Right Size Target for Your Job Search

We talked about the problem of having a job search target that is too narrow.  But equally problematic is having a target that is too broad, or a scattershot attempt to land any jobs. Instinct tells you that having a big target gives you a better chance of hitting something. Yet with job search, a huge target is not the best way to assure success. Here are some of the reasons why:

  • Selling yourself as “I can do anything” makes you look like a dabbler who has done lots of things but is not deeply competent in any one
  • Selling yourself as “I’m willing to do anything”  makes you look desperate rather than appealing
  • Lack of clarity around your strengths makes you less memorable
  • People in your network find it hard to help if you are not clear what you’re looking for
  • Lack of focus makes you less credible
  • Pursuing jobs outside your area of expertise or well below your level is likely to leave you frustrated
  • Applying for anything and everything, even jobs that are not a good fit, wastes your time and energy, taking away focus on finding jobs for which you are truly a match

How do you assure you’ve got the right size target?  Read More

Are Keywords Overrated?

There’s a lot of talk about keywords and how they can help your job search. Job seekers are told to load up their resumes with keywords so that applicant tracking systems (ATS) will “find” them.  In fact, some resumes feature a huge block of keywords.

The reality is that keywords are just one of many tools in your job search.  Here is where keywords bring the most benefit: Read More