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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
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Hype vs Help
October 29, 1999
I had a rude reminder this morning about the difference between Advertising and Reality. Periodically everyone should have a similar experience, it tends to ground you back into the real world where customer disservice is king.
I have been watching CNBC for fifteen years, trying to gauge the 'right time' to invest. After numerous close calls and endless stock quotes, I finally worked up the nerve to gamble a pittance of hard earned savings on some select stocks. I've been salivating over the rash of Internet IPO's (Initial Public Offerings) over the past few months, and all of them seemed to have outrageous returns on the first day of trading.
Some were up over 400%, and most seemed to at least double in value on the first day. Others had paltry gains of only ten to fifty percent on their first day of trading, and were considered failures by those 'in the know'. Hell, I still think ten to fifty percent gain in one day ranks up there as really, really good. The companies may be familiar to you, with names like AskJeeves.com, Amazon.com, Stamps.com, and MusicMaker.com, to recall just a few.
Seemed like easy money, you know?
And all those online discount brokers promised how easy it was to trade online, just like taking candy from a baby. So I got up at dark-thirty to beat the East Coast opening of the market and proceeded to try and give my money to someone in exchange for some stocks. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. The online brokers wanted me to mail them an application form, even after I had completed one online. Then in a few days I could wire them some money, and by the end of next week they'd be ready to take my order.
Charles Schwab was no better, they couldn't find any information about any of the four stocks going to IPO this week and next week. (For the curious, the stock symbols are AKAM, ITRU, JNIC, and TIXX) And they only purchase IPO stocks for clients with over $500,000 to spend, so that cut me and 99.99% of the rest of the world out of the picture.
Key point in all of this? Job Boards and Recruiters will promise you a great Job, a shiny new career, and more money than you can possibly spend. The Internet is full of promise(s). In reality, it is more often full of something else.
NationJob.com
October 28, 1999
One of the "Top Five" Job sites is NationJob In addition to having over 400,000 available Jobs listed on their site, they have recently added PJ Scout, an automated personal Jobsearch agent. The name is abhorrent (where's PJ's trusty sidekick, 'Pancho'?), but the idea is on target.
First you enter data (name, contact info, keyword skills, salary sought) into their database, then PJ Scout will look for matching Jobs. Depending on how much money you want, your results could be a goldmine or another empty fishing hole. I found no matches for my skills, but over fifty matches for a friend.
We have similar skills (though I'm two degrees ahead), but I keyed in more elementary keyword skills for him. So I suspect the search engine is skewed toward the keywords rather than level of education. It reaffirms my belief that as keywords become the de facto standard used to screen Job candidates, it will become crucial for Jobhunters to analyze Job Postings carefully. Once you get a sense of what keywords Employers are looking for, enter those keywords in your online resume or as your skill-set with search agents.
Resumes (and their contents) are really irrelevant. What matters is the Interview. Since resumes are merely a tool used to get to the Interview stage, their design is NOT to describe who you are and what you can do. They should be designed so that the keywords match the Job requirements. Once you get to the Interview you can explain why you think two years of your experience really means the three years minimum that the Job requires.
NationJob also has a good company resource section available, linking to one of my favorite research sites on the Net, wetfeet.com. Their site is 'chock-full' (as we like to say in the office here) of industry and company background information.
Cover Letter Charts
October 27, 1999
No one reads cover letters anymore.
You're lucky if you can get a Hiring Manager to glance at yours before they skim through your resume. This is a logical outcome of years of sappy cover letters that don't add any meaningful information to the resume. Of course you want to "pursue your lifelong dream at Toxic Chemical Inc," and working at their plant in Bhopal, India will give you "the perfect opportunity to pursue some unresolved spiritual issues".
Instead of offering up a cover letter that adds no real information and won't get read anyway, try something different. Think about what Employers or Recruiters are screening for when they skim your resume - they want to see, in a quick scan, whether your skills match the Job Posting. If you help them accomplish this task your resume will go into the "keeper file".
Clever Jobhunters are starting to morph their cover letter into a chart that shows how their skills match up with the Job requirements. The Job requires three years experience? They want someone with AutoCAD or Photoshop skills? Simply make a chart that lists all the Job req's on one side and how your skills line up with them. In effect you will be targeting your chart to the specific Job, lessening the chance that anyone who skims your cover letter and resume will miss the match.
This can be a distinct advantage when you are emailing this information. The chart will be the first thing an Employer sees when they look at the email. Often Hiring Managers won't read past the first screen, so an easy to understand chart that matches skills to Job tasks will be a real eye-opener. And when you're competing against a field of similarly qualified candidates, any edge you can create may make the difference between being at the Interview or watching it from a distance.
Why Quit?
October 26, 1999
Employees quit their Jobs for a variety of reasons. Typically it involves:
The interbiznet.com staff took a break and came up with these 'Top Ten Signs that you should quit your Job'. And the #1 most popular reason why you should quit your current Job?
Someone offers you more money to do something else.
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October 24, 1999
- K-Workers
- Boomer IT Resources
- Ask Not, Get Not
- Vacations
Public Companies
in Electronic Recruiting
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Materials written by John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.