Seattle Job Search Tips

Remember That Your Resume (and LinkedIn Profile) Is Not a Tattoo

Yes, your new resume is lovely. Your LinkedIn profile, breathtaking. However, if they don’t position you as a direct match for a particular role that you’re gunning for, don’t be afraid to modify wording, switch around key terms, and swap bullet points in and out. Your resume is not a tattoo, nor is your LinkedIn profile. Treat them as living, breathing documents throughout your job search (and career).

Tip

If you’re a covert job seeker, remember to turn off your activity broadcasts (within privacy and settings) when you make edits to your LinkedIn profile. If your current boss or colleagues are connected to you on LinkedIn, they may get suspicious about all the frequent changes.

Looking for a Job in Seattle?

Hiring managers can smell desperation a mile away and they don’t like it. If you’re looking for a job, then act like your job hunt is your job. Keep a schedule, create task lists and execute them, and do everything you would do if you had a job. When you walk into an interview with the glow of someone who has a task to complete , you’ll change your interviewer’s demeanor. You cannot fake confidence. If you’re putting out resumes and scheduling interviews, then that kind of confidence comes out when you sit down and talk to a hiring manager. If you’re looking for a job but are currently working, then don’t act like you’re sneaking around. Stand tall and give strong handshakes when you walk through the door of a hiring manager to talk about your next career move.

Job tips to succeed in Bellevue

Be a Problem Solver, Not a Complainer: 

If you have a complaint about something, always have ideas about how to make it better. When you turn negativity into positive action, you will sound professional instead of whiny.

Ask for Help and Offer It as Well: 

No one, no matter how talented, can do it all alone. If you need assistance, don’t be afraid to ask for it. Realize others may require it too but may hesitate to ask, so offer a hand when you can.

Never Say “It’s Not My Job”:

 Be ready to pitch in when you are needed. It may involve doing something that isn’t in your job description, but you will demonstrate that you are flexible.

Seattle, Job Search Tips, LinkedIn Matters

If You’re Not on LinkedIn, You Very Nearly Don’t Exist

Considering that more than 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary search tool, this is not an understatement. If you’re a professional, you need to not only be on LinkedIn, you need to be using it to your full advantage. Don’t believe me? Think about it this way: If tomorrow morning, a recruiter logs onto LinkedIn looking for someone in your geography, with expertise in what you do, and you’re not there? Guess who they’re going to find and contact? Yes, that person’s name is “not you.”

Tip

If you figure out how to harness the power of no other social media tool for job search, figure out LinkedIn. It’s (by far) the best resource we have available today for career and job search networking, for finding people working at companies of interest, and for positioning yourself to be found by a recruiter who has a relevant job opening.

Bellevue Job Search Tips,

Accept That You Will Never Bore Anyone Into Hiring You

Don’t get me wrong—you absolutely must come across as polished, articulate and professional throughout your job search. However, many people translate this into: Must. Be. Boring.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Realize that few people get hired because they had perfect white space on their cover letters, memorized all of the “correct” interview questions or used incredibly safe, common phraseology (i.e., clichés) throughout their resumes. All of this correctness is going to make you look staged and non-genuine. Instead, give yourself permission to be both polished and endearing. Memorable, likable candidates are almost always the ones who go the distance.

Email Etiquette Tip 2

2. Watch Your Tone

Tone is how you, as a writer, can express your attitude in an email message. It influences how it is received. You usually want to make sure to come across to the recipient as respectful, friendly, and approachable. You don’t want to sound curt or demanding. Reread your message several times before hitting send.

When writing to someone with whom you’ve communicated before, begin by saying something friendly like “I hope you are well.” While emojis may help you convey tone more easily, refrain from using them in professional email unless you are writing to someone with whom you have a very informal relationship.

Never use them when writing to a prospective employer. It is always considered poor email etiquette to write an email or a portion of one in all uppercase letters. It will make you look like you are shouting.

Email Etiquette Tip 1

1. Mind Your Manners

Even in a world where we are rushing to get things done as quickly as possible in order to move on to the next task, take the time to use good manners in your email.

Don’t neglect to say “please” and “thank you.”

When addressing people you don’t know well or at all, or with whom you only have a formal relationship, address them by their title and last name, unless they have asked you to do otherwise. For example, say “Dear Mr. Murphy” or “Dear Ms. Stone.” If you are replying to an email and the sender of the original message has signed it with his or her first name only, then you can safely assume it’s okay to address them in the same way.

Quick Tips for Bellevue Opportunities

You need a specific cover letter, or your resume may not get looked at. You only have a few seconds to impress a hiring manager enough to select you for an interview. I know hiring managers who screen every application personally, and they tell me that if you don’t show what you can do for the company in the first paragraph of your cover letter, you’re not going to get an interview.

You should also target your resume to the job. It’s not just your cover letter. Your resume should be edited and tweaked, so it’s as close a match to the job as possible. Otherwise, it may not get picked up by the applicant tracking systems companies use to screen resumes or the recruiter who reviews it.

Jobs by Email

Let the jobs come to you. Use job alerts to sign up and receive job listings by email. All the major job sites have search agents and some websites and apps specialize in sending announcements.

Bellevue Recruiter Tips

Thank You Matters

I once placed a candidate into an engineering role with a company that manufactures packaging equipment. He was competing head-to-head with another engineer, who had similar talents and wanted the job just as badly. My candidate sent a thoughtful, non-robotic thank you note to each person with whom he’d interviewed, within about two hours of leaving their offices. The other candidate sent nothing.

Guess why my candidate got the job offer? Yep, the thoughtful, non-robotic thank you notes. They sealed the deal for him, especially considering the other front-runner sent nothing.

Tip

Consider crafting, original, genuine thank you notes (one for each interviewer) the moment you get back to a computer, following the interview. The speed with which you send the notes, and the quality, will make an impact.

And finally, remember that the interviewer cares much more about what you can do for them than what you want out of the deal. Certainly, they’re going to care a bunch about what you want once you establish your worth. But during the interview, you must demonstrate why you make business sense to hire, period.