The competition for available jobs today is too fierce. Yet, you can beat the competition and actually get hired in the job you really want.
Here are TEN secrets to consider:
1. – If you are using e-mail, be sure that your cover letter, CV and computer are virus free. Computer security is so stringent these days that anything that even looks suspicious will get deleted and therefore never read.
2. – Take all the cute responses or your musical taste off your answering machine and mobile phone.
3. – Executive search firms or headhunters are like real estate agents. Real estate agents work for and get paid by the sellers, not the buyers. The hiring company, not you, pays headhunters and recruiters. Therefore, never tell a headhunter something you do not want the other party to know or hear. An example of this would be telling a headhunter that you want to try and get a salary of £35,000 but you’ll settle for £30,000 if you have to. The headhunter has a fiduciary responsibility to keep the hiring company informed on everything they know.
4. – When an advert requests your current salary or your salary requirements they are doing this to eliminate candidates. Therefore do not send it. In sales, a good sales person never discuses price until he/she has established value. Without value, a buyer will always think the price is too high because they have no frame of reference. The same holds true for a hiring manager. Until you establish YOUR own value, the hiring manager may think your salary is too high.
5. – Get your references in-line ahead of time, but never put your references on your covering letter and you don’t have to put down your references on your CV either.
6. – Never write anything too personal like age, marital status, kids, health, religious or political affiliations. Any community service relevant to your job or that show leadership skill would be good to list.
7. – Best time to respond to an ad? Be the first CV received. Your information will get more time because the hiring manager did not have to read 100 other CVs the same day.
8. – If you never hear from a company that you sent your CV to, send another cover letter and CV in about 2 months. Many times, the position was not be filled because there was no qualified candidate or the company and candidate could not come to terms on salary package, hours of work etc. This means they have to start from scratch. Your CV may arrive just at the right time.
9. – Use a standard flat envelope instead of folding your CV into thirds to fit into a normal letter envelope if not sending electronically. Why? These days, many letters are scanned so that employment software can look for keywords that match employer requirements. Folding your letter and CV decreases your chances of being scanned properly because the fold may distort some important words.
10. – Most people think that answering blind ads opens yourself up to the possibility that you might be sending your cover and CV to your current company. While there is that possibility, the ad hopefully gives you enough information to recognize that. What most job hunters don’t realize is that blind ads will usually only get about 50% of the responses that a traditional ad would get. What that means is that you are competing with half the number of people you normally would.
