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How Do Employers Really Decide Who Gets The Job?
I have been a job search coach for nearly 30 years. My job is to make
sure that the candidates I coach win job offers...My candidates are not
necessarily the most experienced nor the best educated. They are not the
best qualified, the best dressed or the best looking. Nevertheless, they
manage to outperform others for coveted job offers. What makes an employer
put his money on one candidate over another? How do you reinvent yourself
into the favorite? Here are some secrets:
Know Who You Are & What You Want
Sounds obvious doesn’t
it? If it’s so easy why do so many of us not know what kinds of work we
want? Why do so many of us misjudge a job offer? Career planning takes
planning (another profound statement), and while this will be discussed in
another article, it is a fact that the candidate who is unable to
demonstrate the strength of career direction offers a weaker presentation.
I don’t want to pay a doctor who isn’t sure he wants me as a patient. I
lack faith in his ability.
Know What The Employer Needs
Researching a company has never
been easier. Just do the "www" thing. Remember, as a candidate you are a
product for purchase and unless you can give the employer a reason to
"buy" you will be passed over for someone, perhaps less talented,
but more aware of what he can do for a company and more able to sell
himself.
Be Aware of Candidate/Company Compatibility
This point comes
directly from the recruiter’s handbook (I’m a 14-year former headhunter)
on how to provide employers with candidates they want. Companies are a
blend of the personalities they employ and the image they are attempting
to project. A candidate’s awareness of this fact will provide him with the
advantage of assessing whether his personality is compatible with a
company’s collective personality and give him a head start on how to
project this compatibility on an interview.
Know the Game
People are amazed to find how the ever-changing
dynamics of hiring are more demanding than ever before. Résumés can no
longer out compete if they are simple one-page profiles, and interviews
that are simple Q & A from employer to candidate will quickly be
forgotten in favor of a more dynamic presentation. There is plenty of
information to teach successful job hunt in 2002. Become a formidable
contender. What worked in 1990 means little in 2002.
Be Unique
Without question this is the candidate’s greatest
challenge. So many candidates are qualified and companies collect
thousands of résumés per day. If a candidate can rise above the others
with a strong résumé, a compelling point on the interview or a
professional follow-up strategy, thus touching the nerve center of an
employer’s preferences, he will become unforgettable and get hired!
Help Is Affordable & Available
The money lost being
unemployed for 30 days normally far exceeds a good job coach fee that will
put you back to work sooner and with better quality. The biggest reason
good candidates remain unemployed is because they are being outperformed
or making strategic presentation/search/interview mistakes. Great people
are being denied and it is not necessary. Knowledge is power and the job
market is making vast improvements. I didn’t write my own will and I
wouldn’t dare cut my own hair. Get help!
| Janice
Worthington is President of Worthington Career Services,
Ohio’s oldest resume preparation firm and one of the oldest in the U.S.
With 14 years of corporate recruiting experience, Worthington Career
Services opened its doors focused on applicant empowerment in 1973. She is
known for advising some of America’s highest-ranking industry leaders.
Please send Janice your questions at janice@worthingtonresumes.com
. For more information on Janice, please visit her website at
http://www.worthingtonresumes.com/!
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