You’re getting called for initial phone screens and first interviews, but are you getting call-backs or job offers? If you seem to be hitting a bottleneck after first or second round interviews, you owe it to yourself to objectively take a step back and be open to constructive criticism, change, and improvement. As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but if it is broke, what are you waiting for?

True story –

When I was interviewing on campus for investment banking positions as a college senior, I was lucky to have secured three call-backs to go to New York for a full-day of second rounds (dubbed “Super Saturdays.”) I did not get offers from the first two banks who brought me up to interview. I had one last Super Saturday scheduled with my third and final bank. If I wanted to secure a position through on-campus recruiting, I had to ace this interview. At the suggestion of one of the university career center consultants, I called the interviewers from the first two banks I interviewed with to ask for constructive criticism, explaining that I had one more bank to meet with and wanted to improve my interviewing skills. Everyone I spoke with was more than happy to help out and offer suggestions.

I received consistent feedback that I was not conveying my enthusiasm, and I wasn’t coming across as “wanting it” as much as some others. This was the farthest from the truth, but this was what my body language was conveying. In my mind, I had been acting mature and professional, but it was coming across as cool and uninterested.

My strategy changed for my third and final day of interviews. I went in excited. I leaned forward in my seat, I was animated in my answers, and conveyed to the interviewers (in as many words) that I wanted to work there, that I was excited about their program. And guess what? I got an offer! The only one from that investment banking program to my class, in fact.

The moral of the story –

Had I not called for constructive criticism, I would have interviewed the same way as I did the first two times, and that offer may have gone to someone else.

Fast forward to the present day… as a job search coach, I know how important role playing and mock interviews are and would also recommend taking my own advice. If it’s not working for you, don’t keep doing it. Ask for help and learn what you need to change. Success is waiting for you!

If you’re wondering whether lying on your résumé is worth the risk, just ask Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson. Last week he joined the humbled ranks of public figures who have been caught embellishing details on their résumés. In Thompson’s case, he claimed to have both a computer science and accounting degree when in reality, he earned just the accounting degree.

Thompson falls into the two most common items on a résumé to be falsified: education and professional experience. Unfortunately for those out there who are gambling with tweaking the truth, these are the two easiest facts to verify. While you might think you got away with it if your lie isn’t discovered during reference checking, there’s still a chance you will caught down the road, and many companies today have a zero tolerance policy. They will fire any employee caught lying on an application, even if it’s several years later.

Back in March 2008 when Robert Irvine, a British-born chef and presenter of Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network claimed false credentials, I wrote about the same topic and still feel as strongly about the topic now as I did then. Falsifying information on your resume is setting yourself up for disaster or, at a minimum, disappointment when the job of your dreams is pulled out from under you.

Ask yourself why you are tempted to falsify or enhance your background. If it’s that you’re insecure about your qualifications for a position, there are alternatives, and legitimate ways to position your credentials and downplay a perceived flaw such as the lack of a degree or a short stint at a particular company and still get interviews. Sticking with the truth is still the best method to sound and ethical long-term career management.

Everyone is saying that a LinkedIn profile is a “must” nowadays, but what does that really mean? You set up your profile, but you’re not sure if you’ve done enough or if you included the right keywords. Common knowledge these days is that recruiters and hiring agents are keyword searching LinkedIn profiles for candidates. Here are five suggestions to be sure your LinkedIn profile is working for you, not against you:

1. If you’re in a job search or open to opportunities, you need to not only be found on LinkedIn, but be found there with a complete profile. Signing up two years ago, adding your most recent job, and accepting five connections gives a sloppy, outdated presentation and the impression that you’re out of touch. Round out your profile and aim for at least 50 contacts.

2. The litmus test for LinkedIn success is three-pronged: a professional LinkedIn picture, a strong headline, and a fleshed out summary section. Head and shoulders picture should be in professional attire with no distracting background images.

3. Claim your vanity url to help you share your link. That way, when you email it so anyone, it will look like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurieberenson rather than something like this: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3394889016

4. Your LinkedIn profile will rank highly when your name is searched. What will recruiters or industry contacts find if they click on it? This is your chance to control your online presence. Don’t be caught incomplete or outdated. Take the opportunity to write a strong headline. Your headline follows your name and picture throughout the site, whenever you are listed as someone’s contact. This is prime real estate and a great spot to include a marketing tagline rather than just “Vice President of Sales” or “Director of Business Development.”

5. Copying and pasting your entire resume is not an effective shortcut. It will lead to a disaster! Pasting your entire resume will overwhelm your profile. LinkedIn profiles are written and formatted differently than your resume. Shorter paragraphs, tighter phrases and sentences. First person is acceptable in LinkedIn, but never on a resume.

Learn how to optimize your profile for recruiters, leverage your network, and identify job leads with the following value-packed eBook:

Maximize LinkedIn for Job Search

Take advantage of my Special LinkedIn Promotion valued at $90!

Buy both the eBook and one coaching session for just $50. Email me today to schedule: laurie@sterlingcareerconcepts.com .

You may also find these posts helpful:

7 ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile

Will the best networker please stand up!

Photo courtesy of Victor1558 via www.flickr.com

My advice to you is two-fold: Practice, practice, practice, and put your business “hat” back on.

What do I mean?

If you’ve been a SAHM and immersed in mommy life, anything remotely close to “Tell me about yourself” most likely leads to a conversation about your children. Refocus and remember that this is an employment interview. Do not mention or refer to your children, parenting, or family responsibilities. You may read that last statement and think to yourself, “Of course, I won’t. Why would I do that?” This is where the practicing comes in.

For many parents, it becomes second nature to talk about your children or mention your family in conversation. You go out to dinner with other moms and talk about school. You meet a new parent at the park or at karate class and compare notes on extra-curricular activities and camps. You go on a date night with your spouse and end up talking about the kids (hopefully not all night), but when it comes time for a job interview, parenting, family, and children are off-limits. Be on your guard and resist the temptation.

I’ve had clients who are the epitome of professionalism, success, and multi-tasking, but when faced with an early morning interview after a long night awake with a crying baby or a teething toddler, even the best of us can slip and mention what’s (understandably) on the forefront of his/her mind.
The key to success is to prepare and rehearse answers ahead of time and be on your guard for slip-ups. The response to “Tell me about yourself” needs to be a 30-60 second summary of your recent professional life and what you bring to the table in this role. For instance:

“I’ve been in the digital marketing space for the past five years, most recently with a boutique agency where I was requested for two of their largest accounts. My strengths are e-commerce platform design, social media, and search engine marketing.”

Dipping into “I’m a mother of two” or “I had a baby six months ago” is not what the interviewer is looking to learn and can only raise red flags in terms of your concentration, commitment, and readiness to return to the paid employment marketplace. Unfounded concerns with no merit—agreed—but the thought is still out there. You may also risk further stumbles as you maneuver to get the conversation back on track. Discussing your personal life has no place in a job interview.

The key to interviewing success? Preparation, planning, and “righting” your mindset. You can do it!

If you are a stay at home parent preparing to return to the paid workforce, and this post resonates with you, email, call, or tweet me. We can custom design an interview coaching session or package of sessions to prepare you and put you in the proper frame of mind to ace your next interview!

Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies by Joshua Waldman (For Dummies, 2011)

My friends and family know – I’m always seen with a job search book in hand. The book I took along on my beach vacation last summer was Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0 by Jay Conrad Levinson and David E. Perry (Wiley, 2011). I tell you this not so that you think I’m a book nerd, but as a point of reference. I love reading about the career industry and am always on the lookout for great books in the careers space that will benefit either my clients as job seekers or myself as a careers professional. Some books become out of date very quickly, and I find you can get more relevant information by following some of the top bloggers in the space. Other books are academic in their approach and don’t lead the reader towards implementation. Then there are the occasional books that are packed with actionable, relevant advice. Susan Whitcomb’s Job Search Magic and Interview Magic are two of my classic recommendations in the space. Waldman’s Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies falls into this category as well.

Here are six takeaways from the book –

1. What to post on your Facebook page to attract hiring managers (page 235) and how to use apps and Facebook ads to separate yourself from the pack (page 238-244).

2. Sign up for an account with www.tweetmyjobs.com to be alerted when job opportunities that match your requirements (job type and location) are shared on Twitter.

3. A list of job search-related Twitter hashtags (page 214). Twitter newbies are often stumped by hashtags.

4. A 3-step process for how to identify and follow local recruiters on Twitter (page 211-212).

5. Websites to use to search for your name mentions online (page 108-109).

6. Tips on how to engage and connect with hiring managers via social media (pages 291-302).

My clients know I don’t often recommend books to buy, but if you are committed to incorporating social media into your job search, this book is worth your time and money.

Much has gone around the past couple of weeks about the unfortunate new trend of employers asking for Facebook passwords either during the interview process or from their existing employees.

A recent article by ZDnet.com summarizes recent updates well:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/petition-investigate-employers-asking-for-facebook-passwords/11481

There are multiple blogs and articles that have been written on the topic. I came across two articles written by career professionals that do a good job of providing job seekers suggestions.

By John Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/145231405_Job_Hunt__Employers_ask_for_workers__Facebook_passwords.html

and by Louise Garver of Career Directions, LLC:

http://www.careerdirectionsllc.com/privacy-violation-asking-for-facebook-passwords/

The bottom line with this recent (some say inevitable) turn of events –

It’s smart to proactively keep your Facebook accounts clean and professional and free from content that might negatively impact your career. Use the age-old grandma test as a litmus test before posting, sharing, or commenting – “would you want your grandmother reading this?”

Towards the end of his article, Challenger offers great several scripts to use if you are asked for your passwords during an interview. I like his suggested response of “Is there something specific you are seeking? I would be happy to tell you more about my personal interests and activities outside of the office.” And then pause and wait for a response.

Challenger’s other suggested response of “I understand you want to make an informed decision, but I would prefer not to provide that information,” is a confident, professional, and completely acceptable way to respond. Some companies may not push past the initial resistance. If they do insist, you will have to make your own judgment call as to whether you want to share that information. Offer to friend them could be a good compromise for both parties.

Today, employers are reviewing your online presence. Google yourself. If old posts or out-of-date information comes up, see if you can take it down or update it. If you can’t remove outdated info about yourself, create new content (Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, articles, etc.) to try to “bury” the old information, and keep in mind the following specifics for Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook

• Clean up your “digital dirt.” Tech-savvy employers are going to start by Googling you and looking you up on Facebook. Remove questionable material from your profile.

• In a job search, lock down your social media profile privacy settings. Also remove any unprofessional photos you have on your Facebook account.

• When job searching, make sure you change your Facebook timeline cover photo to something presentable, since it’s visible to everyone.

• You can use Facebook for professional and business networking, not just for social purposes. But be aware of the type and volume of personal information you’re sharing.

• Tag your friends in status updates to thank them for help with your job search — that way, their friends and contacts will also see the message.

Twitter

• Be sure to have your photo or a professional avatar for your Twitter profile. The default blue “Twitter egg” is not compelling.

• Many companies are looking at candidates on Twitter these days. Make sure your content includes keywords or phrases your target employer may be searching for.

• Make it easy for your potential employer to find out more about you when they come across your Twitter profile by including a link to your LinkedIn profile.

• Check out www.TwitJobSearch.com, a job search engine for Twitter.

Social media is a very important element in job search today. It is a leading resource for recruiters and hiring managers. If social media networks are still a challenge for you when it comes to job search and professional online profiles, give us a call. We can help!

Many New Year’s resolutions involved career matters, and it’s common to dust off your résumé at this time of year. Well, now it’s mid-March, have you taken a look at it? Does it need updating? Does it include your most recent position? Does it include categories and formatting commonly seen on résumés today? What follows will give you some insights into how a certified résumé writer reviews a résumé.

Summary section… Objective statements are very passé. Nowadays, your résumé should start with a branding statement (which can be in the form of a sentence or a headline with a possible sub-headline when appropriate) that leads off a summary paragraph and a keyword-rich list of core competencies and strengths. The summary paragraph should be no longer than 5-6 lines or else you begin to lose the reader’s interest, and it should be personalized so that it describes you.

Opponents of résumé summaries say that they are too generic and a waste of space. The goal is to lead off with a strong branding statement/value proposition followed by a summary of your unique background and strengths. If the summary paragraph could be pulled from one résumé and pasted on top of the résumé of a similar professional, then it’s not personalized enough. Including the list of core competencies helps your résumé when searches are entered into applicant tracking systems for particular skills.

Job entries… It’s important to differentiate between responsibilities and what you were tasked with doing, from your accomplishments and achievements so that what you want to highlight can stand out. When the reader’s eye scans down the résumé, too many bullets will make them incomprehensible. Often times, they are not all “bullet-worthy.” Items that describe your responsibilities, the situation you stepped into, your areas of responsibility do not require a bullet. You can group them into a paragraph format and then reserve the bullets for true accomplishments or statements that show how well you performed in your role.

Quantifying everything that can be quantified will strengthen your job descriptions and accomplishments. Read through your bullets and ask yourself follow up questions about how many or how much or over what period of time. Quantify, quantify, quantify!

Early Career… Once you’ve been working 15 years or more, initial roles from earlier in your career can be minimized. Your résumé is first and foremost a marketing document. It does not need to include every detail of your career. In most situations, the work you did 12-15 years ago (or more) in these roles is not as relevant as your work in more recent years. There are ways to summarize and include your earlier roles with less detail.

Other categories to consider…
Continuing development – classes, seminars, conferences
Community involvement or volunteer activities
Memberships or leadership roles in professional associations
Software skills (with the caveat that once you’re at a certain level professionally, then focus on specific software to your industry, not necessarily Word and Excel)

Format… While content is king, formatting is eye-catching and an important part of the equation, and boy, have résumé formats changed! If you haven’t updated your résumé in a couple of years, it’s most likely time to take your format up a notch or two. That said, please steer away from Microsoft templates as they shout “cookie cutter” and will do absolutely nothing to help you stand out in the applicant pool.

So there’s an insider’s approach on how to assess whether your résumé could benefit from an update. Making the improvements may be something you want to handle yourself with a little research and elbow grease, or it may be smart to partner with a certified résumé writer for the professional touch. Either way, it’s critical that your résumé be up to par for a 2012 job search.

You’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You read that those sites represent the “new” networking. So then why aren’t you swamped with interviews? Yes, social media has created a place for itself in today’s job search and the professional networking arena, but that is in addition to the tried and true methods from the past, not in place of what you’ve done previously. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not advising you ignore your online profile as my stance has always been and will continue to be that your professional online presence should be strategic and deliberate. The key is to know when to log off from the virtual world and check back in to the real world. To conduct an effective job search, you should incorporate as many of the following offline networking tools into your repertoire as appropriate:

• Join a professional network and attend its networking and continuing education events.

• Get up, get out, and volunteer. You’ll give back to the community, you’ll meet people and make new connections, and you’ll feel good in the process.

There is no true shortcut to effective networking. It takes hard work and persistence. Logging on to post, tweet, and connect can lead to a false sense of productivity. If that’s all you’re doing, you’re overlooking the importance of in-person networking. Contact me if you’d like help setting up and working through your job search plan. Accountability to a job search coach may be just what you need!

A few ground rules to start: all things being equal, a company is much more likely to hire someone they like than someone they don’t. That’s why it’s key to find ways to build rapport with your interviewer. Equally true, nobody can be good at everything so anyone who tries to sound in an interview like they’re great at everything is more likely to raise disbelief than garner respect.

Proper preparation and strategy helps dissipate the inherent stress in interviewing. Follow along with these seven suggestions to put your best foot forward in your next interview:

1. Confidence is contagious. You need to be able to look in your interviewer’s eyes and know for a fact that they’re going to be better off hiring you than anyone else.

2. Two things that will impress an interviewer: Putting forward a strong case as to why they should employ you and showing why you are interested in their company.

3. Use verbal mirroring: match the interviewer’s tone of voice and the kind of words they use. If they talk fast, chances are they want to hire quick-thinking people.

4. Remember the C.A.R. strategy in interviews. When asked for an example of your work, think (what was the) Challenge, (what) Action (did I take) and (what was the) Result.

5. Don’t talk too much in a job interview. It’s a delicate balance, but you run the risk of boring the interviewer if you go on and on about yourself.

6. Use the “Big to Little” interview strategy. First mention a “big picture” accomplishment, and then tie in a more specific, targeted achievement.

7. Subtly take control of the interview. Give complete answers to the interviewer’s questions and then segue into topics that you wish to discuss. (“Yes, I do have experience writing proposals. And, I also have secured more than $100,000 in grants. Would you like to know more about my grant-writing skills?”)

One last word of advice: visualizing success in the interview is important. Picture yourself interviewing. You are relaxed and confident. You hit it off with the interviewer and get the job!

Give us a call to inquire about our interview strategy coaching that will help you ace the interview.