Staying Positive After Interview Rejection

Rejection is hard, but it's a part of life. As a recruiter, one of the most heart breaking things is desperate and depressed candidates.  This is because they won't get hired, making it a horribly vicious and unfair cycle.  This is why your internal monologue is so important.  If you have been rejected or are having a difficult period in your life, do everything you can to find a way to stay positive and optimistic.

I saw a great YouTube video, and the message about accepting your feelings and controlling your thoughts really resonated with me.  Identify what you're feeling and allow yourself to feel it, but control your thoughts and think positively.  If you didn't get that dream job, it's ok to be upset and disappointed, but it's important to remember that there could be a million reasons you didn't get the job, most of them having nothing to do with you.  So let the emotions take their natural course in and out of your system and don't let them control your attitude or take over your life.

You are good enough!

• Don't let rejection make you feel unworthy or lesser than others, everyone gets rejected. Instead of being hard on yourself, that job just wasn't the right fit for you.  Everything happens for a reason and the right job for you will come along.

Be realistic!

• There is always room for improvement.  If you got a rejection, look at it as an opportunity for improvement.  Do you need to revise your resume? Brush up on your interview skills? You are not perfect, no one is, so take rejection as an opportunity to test your resume and practice your interviewing skills, and then adjust accordingly.

How do you stop the negative emotions from taking over your thoughts? Share your tips in the comments below! :)

Congratulations You're A Grownup! Now What?!?

So you're graduating from college, old enough to drink, smoke, and and fight for your country. Congratulations!! You're now entering the workforce, possibly for the first time ever. So what the hell are you supposed to do now?!

Step 1: Create a resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile.

• Make sure this is reviewed by someone else and free of spelling and grammatical errors
• Post your resume to the job boards: CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc.

 


Step 2: Get a Wardrobe!

• Whether you were the best dressed in school or liked to experiment with fun and crazy styles, Corporate America wants a specific look.  You can still keep your individuality and style, but in most cases it needs to be toned down or made a little more conservative.
• Natural make-up and hair color is preferred. Cover up your tattoos for the interview

Step 3: Network!

• Stay in touch with your classmates, professionals, and other people you've met in college, they can be excellent resources for you down the road. 
• Attend local organizations' chapter meetings as a guest, see if it's of value for you and if it is, join!

Step 4: Accept Internships or Entry Level Roles

• You have to get your experience somewhere, and most jobs want 1+ year of experience.  
• The best thing you can do is intern while you're still in school.  If it's too late for that, look for paid internships and entry level positions, a lot of companies offer room for advancement if you prove yourself.

Step 5: Be Realistic

• So you graduated from college along with millions of other students nationwide.  You are not alone, so stay positive, accept that you're probably going to get a few rejections, and be realistic about money.  
• Unless you are a computer programmer, you are not going to make $60k+ right out of college.  You have to work up to that.

The Big Lie Colleges Tell

Get this degree or certificate and get a job no problem! 

Start making $60k+ after college! 

We'll help you find a job!

Whether you're going to a private, public, vocational, or for profit school, they always tell students these lies.  I won't go as far as saying that all counselors and professors intentionally lie, chances are they're just out of touch with reality.  However the reality is, that just having that degree or certificate won't get you very far.

As a student, you need to take your career in your own hands and utilize every resource out there. Visit your campus' career center and talk to a counselor about your career path.  Write your resume and include all your clubs and volunteer work. Go to career fairs.  Even if you're a Freshman or Sophomore, go to career fairs.  Figure out what to wear and what to say, how to present yourself to the companies that attend.

Find an internship in your field. This is the most important thing you could possibly do while in school.  This will be your experience when you graduate.  That part-time fast-food or retail job is not going to count for your professional experience. Don't get me wrong, it's good that you've done that, it shows some level of responsibility and work ethic, but it's not enough.

This applies to all industries. Recruiters don't care if you just graduated with your degree in business, marketing, communications, or nursing.  How does that separate you from the other graduates that year? How does that make you stand out? It doesn't, it only meets the basic requirement of the job.

Fun fact: for the 2013-2014 school year, US colleges and universities are anticipated to award 943,000 Associates Degrees and 1.8 million Bachelor's Degrees.

Mom and Dad don't want you to work, you need to focus on school? That's great, but a 4.0 GPA and no relevant work experience will not get you a career, and you'll stay living with mom and dad probably for a lot longer than any of you would like.  College is supposed to help prepare you for the real world.  What better way to do that than start applying what you've learned to the real world?  Still not buying it? Have them contact me.

What about all the young professionals who decide school isn't for them and don't go or end up dropping out?  How do they find jobs? Experience. They might struggle because a lot of jobs require some kind of higher education, but experience in many cases will trump the degree.

I'd love to hear from you! What are your success stories?  Tell me in the comments any internships or experience that helped you start your career or land your dream job!

Resume Tips

In honor of the Game of Thrones Season 4 premier, I'll be tweeting resume tips all weekend - Game of Thrones style ;)  

Follow me @Natasha_29. 

Mini Rant: Buzzwords - Just Stop It Already

You are not a guru or ninja, so just to just stop it already. It may have been cute a few years ago for the first five people who used these terms.  The people that thought of them were creative, but when most people start adding these "buzzwords" to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes it gets annoying and truly does not add any value.  It's not important, it's not creative, and it doesn't mean anything so just don't include it.

What are some buzzwords that you can't stand?

Do You Love Your Job?

The vast majority of people are not happy at work.  According to the latest Gallup Poll from October 2013, "87% of workers are emotionally disconnected from their workplace".  While the numbers are better in the U.S., there's still a huge population unhappy with their work.  So what do you do?  People spend more waking hours at work than at home, that's more time with your coworkers and boss than friends and family.

You should enjoy what you do for a living, and if you don't, you should think about making a change.

• Think about what tasks or activities you do that you really enjoy.
• What things do you absolutely hate to do?
• Where do you want to be in 5 years?  I know it's an annoying interview question, but think of it this way: what type of work do you want to be doing? Are you a numbers person or a people person, or both?  Do you enjoy interacting with others?  Do you like working on your set tasks or do you prefer working on tons of projects?  These answers will help steer you towards a job you'd actually enjoy
• What type of company do you want to work for?  Fortune 500, medium/small business, start-up?
• What about industry?  Is there a specific sector you're interested in or passionate about? 

You don't have to have all the answers now, but thinking about these things will help get you started, because no one should stay in a job they hate.  If you're ready to find something new, dust off your resume, look at job boards, and talk to your network to see what kinds of jobs are out there.

What do you do to stay engaged at work?  Let me know in the comments!

Mini Rant: How to Not Get a Job (Full Voice Mailbox)

Okay so here's the thing if you're looking for a job, your resume is out on job boards, and you're talking to potential employers and companies: clear your mailbox!

One of the most frustrating things as a recruiter is contacting candidates and not being able to reach them because I can't leave a voice-mail. Delete your old voice-mails and listen to the new ones so you know who's calling you and you can return calls for job opportunities.

There is absolutely no reason to have a full voice mailbox is especially if you're already talking to potential employers and need to hear back from people. This prevents you from getting a job in many situations because time is everything in your job search and you can lose out to another candidate very quickly. There's absolutely no reason to have a full voice mailbox when it's on your phone and you can literally press one-button to delete the message.

What are your pet peeves when dealing with recruiters? Let me know in the comments!

Shine and Graphical Resumes

While technology has grown at light speed over the past several years, resumes haven't changed much in the past several decades.  They can be boring and plain, but when you try to make yours unique and interesting, it gets rejected.  Graphical resumes and apps like Shine by Boluga, might look awesome, but they aren't generally accepted by recruiters and hiring managers.

If you are in graphic design or some kind of artist, you may be able to do a lot more than the average Administrative Assistant or Operations Manager.  However, to the average person looking for an office job: do not use graphics.  They take up room that can be used to show your skills and experience, and don't add anything of value to your resume.  And please, for all that you consider holy, do not use multiple colors on a resume.  It is distracting, tacky, and will be changed before it is ever seen by a hiring manager.  Maybe the HR/Recruiting industry will catch up to technology one day, but they are slow to do so.  For now, if you want to use graphics I would recommend one or two and sticking to black, maybe navy blue.

Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are on graphical resumes or what ways you make your resume stand out :)

10 Commandments of Resumes

1. Thou shalt not Bold ALL
Bolding is great for headers like company and job title, but if everything is in bold, you're just yelling at me, and I don't appreciate it

2. Thou shalt not use multiple colors.
Annoying and tacky, don't do it

3. Thou shalt not use tables

Tables	A lot of templates come in tables, they're nearly impossible to edit or change formatting and usually waste a ton of free space on a resume
	They frustrate recruiters to no end.

4. Thou shalt not include a picture
Profiles, headshots, watermarks, anything, don't do it.  It's tacky, unnecessary, and recruiters will laugh at you.

5. Thou shall restrain from stating the obvious
"References available upon request"; "looking to use my skills to benefit your company". two words: NO DUH

6. Thou shalt not use meaningless buzzwords
detail oriented, hard worker, team player... these phrases don't mean anything significant on their own and are on almost every resume.  Instead, explain what you do to show these characteristics.  Do you mentor new employees, manage several tasks, volunteer for ad hoc projects?  Put these things on your resume instead.

7. Thou shalt not bear false witness
Do not, under any circumstance, lie on your resume.  It can, and eventually will be found out. Plus it's just bad karma

8. Thou shalt use bullet points
Paragraphs are hard to skim through and recruiters won't take the time to read through everything.  Change your formatting to bullet points so your skills and accomplishments can shine

9. Thou shalt review thy resume for spelling and grammatical errors
The fastest way to be rejected is to have tons of spelling and grammatical errors on your resume.  Your resume is your first impression with a company, and if you don't care enough to proofread it, you're probably not going to care enough to be accurate on the job, so I'll pass.

10. Thou shalt not spend hundreds of dollars on a resume writer
I got into the resume writing business because I found out that resume writers charge $200-$700 per resume.  I find it outrageous to charge people who are looking for jobs such high prices.  I charge anywhere from $89-250 to create or revise a resume and do not charge extra for additional corrections or revisions.  If you're looking for help with your resume please comment below or email me at info@insiderecruiter.com

Do you have other resume commandments or completely disagree with one of mine?  Let me know in the comments!

New Year, New Career?

The time for New Years Resolutions has come again, and one of the most popular resolutions is to find a better job/make more money/start a career.  It's a great resolution, but it often becomes one of those resolutions that die sometime between February and March.  So what do you do to make sure this resolution comes true?

Reflect.  What happened in 2013?  What do you like about your current/past job?  What do you hate? What are your biggest strengths?  Are you good with numbers, or do you prefer to talk to people?

Plan.  A popular interview question is where do you want to be in 5 years.  Most the time the answer is "I have no idea!", but if you stop and think about it, and dream big, you can find your career path.  Go on Indeed.com and search job titles that you'd like to have one day, and pay attention to the requirements.  Will you need more education for that job?  What kind of experience will you need to have in that job?  Then make it happen.

Take Action! Getting a job isn't easy, even if you're currently employed.  So increase your chances, make sure you have a strong resume and it's posted to job boards like Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Craigslist, and eBay Classifieds.  If you're not sure about your resume, have someone else look at it (like yours truly who revises resumes and cover letters insiderecruiter629@gmail.com)

Does your profession have a forum or network website that you can post your resume on?  Are there groups or organizations you can join to network? What are the job titles you're interested in?  Are there specific companies that you would like to work for?  You can usually attend a meeting or two as a guest to see if it's the right fit for you.

Check In.  Every month, see what progress you've made.  If you've received more call backs and gone on more interviews, then you're on the right track.  If not, reassess your strategy, and keep applying.  Make 2014 the year that you take a big step in your career.