Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of participating in Mediabistro’s first-ever Career Breakfast, a Google + hangout where a small panel of HR professionals and career experts gave their insight into various aspects of the job search process. This week’s topic was “What Really Happens After You Submit Your Resume.”
There’s a lot of advice floating around about standing out from the crowd during the application process. I’ve always believed, and my fellow panelists agree, that the best ways are the simplest. First, be qualified. The fanciest song and dance routine won’t get you anywhere if you can’t do the job. Second, have an easy-to-read resume that quickly conveys your experience and skills. A study done at TheLadders revealed that your resume has about six seconds to make a good first impression.
Whether you submit your resume through an advanced applicant tracking system or directly to a human being, the goal is the same. You want to submit a resume that lays out why you’re right for the job. It should be clear and clean: as free of bells and whistles as possible. A great resume won’t guarantee you a job, but a solid, well-timed, customized resume will likely get you an interview, and that’s the first step.
According to the responses I received, our audience got real value from the conversation. I love the opportunity to give insight from the recruiter/hiring manager side. I look forward to participating in many more of these events and helping more job seekers navigate the often frightening and confusing realm of the job search.
David Gaspin is the Manager, Talent Acquisition at TheLadders. When he’s not busy hiring amazing people for TheLadders, he keeps busy by trying to sound important – whether to his team, job seekers, or (for a real challenge) his 5-year old son.
When I learned that the two agencies on the June 3rd episode of AMC’s The Pitch were both located in Manhattan and were vying for a women’s fashion retailer, I knew that this was a unique opportunity that we just had to capture. We headed to Times Square to the offices of Womenkind, a marketing and communications company, which was “built by women to engage women the way women really want to be engaged.”
Sitting down with co-founders Sandy Sabean, Chief Creative Officer, and Kristi Faulkner, President, we listened to what these two women knew about who controls 85% of all purchases in the United States: women. They discussed how their agency translates the findings gleaned from their research into innovative solutions for their clients who want to understand and motivate women. In fact, they frequently tap into their “muses” of dynamic influencers for their insight about what will inspire women to buy – and talk about — brands.
Womenkind will be competing against DIGO, a 14 year-old agency focusing on small to mid-sized companies, which was co-founded by two men, Mark DiMassimo, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, and Lee Goldstein, President. With female co-founders against male co-founders, Sunday’s episode will no doubt be a battle of the sexes on multiple levels: the client, C. Wonder, is owned by Chris Burch, ex-husband of designer Tory Burch and co-founder of her namesake brand. Did you catch all that?
Who will Chris Burch pick as his right-hand (wo)man to represent his concept boutique? Tune in this Sunday, June 3rd, at 11pm ET to find out. An hour beforehand, I’ll be watching Mad Men, my favorite battle of the sexes!
Lisa Hagendorf is the Vice President of Public Relations for TheLadders where she is a huge ambassador of the brand in the office. At the gym. And on the street. She just can’t stop talking about TheLadders. Ever.
Right from the start, it was clear to me that these guys were experts.
On AMC’s new show, The Pitch, two ad agencies go head-to-head for a piece of new business. The ability to win new business can make or break an agency. Pitching a client is a fast-paced, exciting, and often highly stressful experience that only the best pros excel at.
One of the agencies in this weekend’s episode of The Pitch is DIGO, an integrated full service brand and business growth agency. I had the opportunity to head over to their offices in Manhattan and talk with DIGO’s Founder and CEO, Mark DiMassimo, and President Lee Goldstein.
We talked about the pitch process. The job search. And the importance of finding the right fit. Right off the bat, it was clear these guys knew what they were talking about.
As a job seeker, you only have to pitch yourself when you’re in a job search. These guys? They pitch for a living.
Watch the video to hear what they had to say. You’ll be as impressed as I was. And there’s plenty that you can take away for your own job search.
Of course, don’t forget to catch The Pitch on Sunday, June 3rd, at 11 PM ET. If you want to see how the pros do it, that’s your chance to catch Mark and Lee in action!
William Beard is the Associate Creative Director of Copy for TheLadders. He loves to travel, always has ESPN.com open, and always takes the cheese option when it’s offered.
I had the privilege of participating in an event called Straight from the Source: Employer Representatives Mentor Women, hosted by Women@Work in Westport, Connecticut, yesterday.
Women@Work, co-founded by Eliza Shanley, is a great organization that is “dedicated to Keeping Women at Work Through All of Life’s Ages and Stages.” They offer a wide range of services which help mid- to senior-level women professionals advance their careers and find jobs. Often times these women took time off to raise their families and are now faced with reentering the workforce in a tight job market.
Every month or so, Women@Work holds an event where they ask individuals from various corporations to meet with its members to discuss two major topics: where they see opportunity in the marketplace, and what key advice they’d give professionals looking to reenter the job market.
I was very excited to attend this event because I could offer a unique perspective – not only could I talk about how I see the job market in the internet space, but I could discuss what job trends TheLadders sees across multiple industries and functions, as well as provide some practical tips to make every person at the event a more effective job seeker.
Eliza opened the event by moderating a short panel discussion with me and representatives from home furnishings retailer Pottery Barn and financial services firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Although we all came from very different industries and company cultures, a few themes seemed universal:
A positive attitude goes a long way. When you’re going in for an interview or even an initial phone screen, you need to be in a good mood and show the interviewers that you want the job. No one wants to work with a Negative Nancy!
Research is key. Employers want to know you took the time to read their website, recent news articles about the organization, etc., and that you have a good understanding of how they work and what’s going on in their world. Prove in your cover letter and during the interview that you’ve done your homework. Whenever possible, find someone you know who works at the company and grab a cup of coffee with them to learn more about the organization and its culture.
It’s more than just skill set. When a hiring manager gets a job requisition approved, they want someone who can not only do the job, but also fit in with the company and team culture. Assume that a portion of every screening and interview is devoted to determining how well you will fit in with the company’s culture and the make-up of your specific team.
After the panel discussion, we broke out into smaller groups where the attendees could sit with each panelist and ask and every question they had about the job market and the search. A lot of this time was devoted to going over the dos and don’ts of resume writing and networking.
This was a really great event. The attendees were very enthusiastic and each speaker brought something different to the table. Thanks again to Eliza Shanley and Women@Work for putting together such a polished event! I look forward to working with this group again.
Amanda Augustine is the Job Search Expert at TheLadders. Always on the go at work and away, Amanda trains and competes in races and triathlons in her spare time.
Last week I attended Mobile Health 2012, with a focus on “Baby Steps for Big Results.” The idea being there’s power in “baby steps” done quickly, for long term behavior change. Hosted by Stanford U’s Persuasive Technology Lab, this year’s keynote speaker was Weight Watchers CEO and ManMeetScale blogger David Kirchhoff.
David took the opportunity to speak of his personal struggles with weight loss and the dreaded word “maintenance.” He shared one of his own baby steps for keeping the weight off when confronted with temptation…he tweets. For example, @dkirchhoff “On a flight back from St. Louis. Just turned down another warm cookie. It’s the little victories…” There’s something about publicly declaring your weakness and celebrating your win.
So what’s this got to do with TheLadders? And why did we attend a mobile health conference? It’s a good question. What I told attendees is that there’s synergy between the trials and tribulations of health and wellness behavior changes and job search behavior changes. What do I mean by this? In my role as a product leader at TheLadders, I witness countless job-seekers struggling with adopting best practices for a faster, more meaningful and more prosperous job search simply because the tasks at hand appear daunting, or they are overloaded with irrelevant jobs and action-less info.
At the heart of the conference…Baby Steps! (Actually, I find this term a little off putting so I’m going to call it “Starter Steps” to steal from Tim Chang of Mayfield Fund, a conference panelist. Starter Steps translate into BJ Fogg’s new program “3 Tiny Habits” as a way to create new behaviors – in health, or in our case, the job search. Fogg states only three things will change behavior in the long term:
Option A. Have an epiphany Option B. Change your context (what surrounds you) Option C. Take baby steps
Unless you’ve ever spotted a unicorn, forget about the epiphany – it’s too difficult. Instead, focus on changing your context and taking starter steps. These two options are practical and can lead to lasting change if you’re following the right program. Fogg warns that few winning programs exist – luckily TheLadders, like Weight Watchers, is one of them, in my opinion.
You should join a future session of Fogg’s Three Tiny Habits to try starter steps for yourself, and while you’re at it, check out Stanford’s Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change.
For more from the audience and participants of Mobile Health 2012, check out the #mh2012 Twitter stream.
Chantal Botanais Director of Consumer Product Development at TheLadders. She’s a pragmatic leader whose mantra is “Insight, creativity & innovation are what make good products great.” She’s #lean and #agile, and a Real Madridista.
As any of our career experts will tell you, having a great personal brand and a clear and concise elevator pitch to deliver your professional value is key. Get your pitch right and it could be just what you need to unlock networking opportunities that could lead to your dream job.
We’ve teamed up for a co-promotion with AMC’s new series the The Pitch to announce our first Twitter contest! Share your super-brief elevator pitch on Twitter using the hashtag #mypitch and you could win a 3-month Premium membership on TheLadders.
How to Enter
1. Follow @TheLadders on Twitter
2. Learn more about crafting your elevator pitch from our selected articles.
3. Tweet your personal elevator pitch with the hashtag #mypitch
4. If your #mypitch tweet is a winner, we’ll DM you with info on how to redeem your free membership.
Now onto the technicalities: The contest, beginning on Sunday, May 6 at 12:00:01am ET and ending Wednesday May 16 at 12:00:00am ET, is open to legal residents of the United States. Winners will be notified on or around Thursday, May 24. Contestants must be at least 18 years old and have a registered Twitter account. For full details, see contest terms and conditions.
That’s enough from me—now I want to hear from you! See you on Twitter.
Kate Addicottis lead copywriter & voice behind @TheLadders. When not tweeting, Kate creates content to engage members and attract new ones. (At exactly 140 characters, the preceding bio is Twitter-ready.)
Mother’s day is here, and I wanted to talk to you guys about something I call Mom guilt. I’m not talking about the guilt trips our Moms all treated us to when we didn’t clean our room as a kid, or now when we don’t call as often as they would like. I’m talking about the massive guilt every working Mom feels every day. Guilt that we are not spending enough time with our kids, coupled with guilt that our work may be suffering from not having our undivided attention 24 hours a day.
The author, Holly, and her daughter, Juliet.
TheLadders recently released a survey to more than 250 women who are, or soon will be, working mothers. The results had me nodding furiously while answering a work email, changing my daughter’s diaper and submitting my sales forecast all at the same time (yes, moms multi-task). Balancing a career and a family is a huge struggle for 87% of respondents, with 55% admitting that “excelling at both is overwhelming.”
In addition, when it comes to balance, 13% “struggled at first, but now it’s under control,” 16% “always put family first and work has suffered for it,” and 3% “always put work first and family has suffered for it.” I can only assume that the other 13% that said they “Successfully manage both aspects” actually slipped on baby drool and tripped into the computer, selecting the wrong line by mistake.
Either way, the survey results are enlightening, and while I still feel that pang of guilt when missing little milestones in my daughter’s life or needing to run out of work early once in a while, at the very least this survey assures me that I am not alone.
You can read the full survey results here. And don’t forget to call your Mom!
Holly Esposito is a Senior Account Manager at TheLadders, and Juliet’s mom. If you see her running down Canal Street in New York, please make way… she needs to get home to relieve the baby sitter by 7pm.
Money isn’t the only “green” candidates care about when considering a job offer. Professionals are more concerned with the eco-friendly practices in the workplace (or lack thereof) than hiring companies may think. In a recent survey we found that 72% of respondents would choose the more eco-conscious company if they had two equal job offers. When asked how important it is that their company is green, the majority of professionals said it was very or even extremely important to them.
Being green isn’t just important for attracting new talent. Your current employees might be unhappy with you lack of your eco-conscious practices, as well. Some 35% of respondents would not consider their most recent company to be green. An additional 17% were not sure whether their company can be considered green, which leaves only less than half of respondents considering their company “green enough” for their standards.
It’s not all bad news, though. Given a small incentive, we also found that a whopping 75% of respondents would change their daily routine to contribute to a greener company environment. We also found that it actually doesn’t take that much to make your workplace just a little bit greener. While many companies already reduce their paper usage and recycle and reduce trash, there is an opportunity to buy greener supplies, encourage employees to turn off their computers and lights and turn down that AC when not needed.
Benjamin Grohé is the Product Manager for new consumer products at TheLadders. When he is not coming up with innovative ideas to delight our customers, he is celebrating his European heritage by cruising the streets of New York City on his new Vespa or playing football (the REAL football).
Chad and I first began working together because he was looking to make a career transition. After several successful years in sales at his former company, Chad’s position was eliminated in a downsizing. Chad was ready to go from the start and immediately began interviewing for positions. Interviewing was one of Chad’s strong points and this proved to be true since in October he received two job offers. However both companies that offered Chad positions were very vague about commission structure and had a very low base salary. After much back and forth, neither company could provide the commission structure he wanted, and Chad ended up turning down these opportunities.
I helped Chad to focus on positions where his strengths could shine. With all of his background in consumer technology, I pointed out to Chad that this was not only his passion, but also his expertise in the eyes of a recruiter. My search with Chad focused on consumer technology, but we also wanted to focus on companies with strong morale and quality products. After living in Japan for a number of years after college, Chad really respected the culture’s high regard for the customer. I immediately agreed with Chad on this and mentioned how here at TheLadders we have signs in Japanese recognizing the importance of the customer and doing the best business possible.
I discovered the Account Executive position online and Chad immediately recognized it as a position he had already applied to. We were both excited because this seemed like the perfect fit! Soon after, Chad was phone screened and began the interview process. The business and sales model was a little different than Chad’s past employers and there would need to be extensive training to get Chad up to speed. He worried this might eliminate him from moving forward in the interview process.
After Chad was brought in for the in-person interview, it took almost two and a half weeks to hear back. At one point the recruiter called Chad to see if he had heard anything. Finally, on December 23, Chad was extended the offer and he accepted.
I was very excited when Chad got the offer. He put in the effort on his end and we worked hard to ensure the offer was not only a quality company, but also had a definitive compensation structure in place. I was so happy to have worked with such a hard working client and assist him in getting this offer.
Moira Danaher is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) at TheLadders. After working with a variety of clients in different industries, functions and locations, Moira’s specialty is the job search and helping clients to land their next positions. Moira loves helping clients and making a difference in their lives.
How do recruiters and hiring managers actually make decisions about candidates?
One thing we know they use is your resume. But how? What is it about one resume that gives a recruiter the information they need to make the right call?
In order to find out, we needed to see how recruiters reviewed resumes. To do this, we conducted a comprehensive eye-tracking study of recruiters while they reviewed resumes.
If you’re not familiar with eye tracking, it’s a line of research that uses technology to record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task.
We brought in recruiters and recorded them as they viewed online profiles, different types of resumes, and other forms of candidate information.
Here’s some of what we discovered:
How much time does a recruiter spend reviewing a resume?
Unfortunately, not much. Most job seekers think recruiters spend 4 to 5 minutes reviewing a resume. The truth: recruiters spend about 6 seconds before they make the initial “fit/no fit” decision. That means prioritizing information is essential.
Does a professionally written resume make a difference in what a recruiter learns about the candidate?
The results of the study revealed that the recruiters were able to easily find and focus on the important information they were looking for in a professional resume much faster than regular resumes or an online profile.
Are online profiles effective?
No. Online profiles have pictures, and unfortunately, recruiters tended to focus on them for the simple reason that pictures naturally draw the eye. We found they kept recruiters from locating the most relevant information, like skills and experience.
Will Evans is Manager, Experience Design for TheLadders in New York City with 15 years industry experience in interaction design, information architecture, and user experience strategy.
