November 22nd, 2009
Remember, your resume is a marketing document...it's an ad for you.
A quick Google search comes up with 2,920,000 entries for “resume tips”, with many results linked to even more sites. Some of the suggestions appear good, but many appear to us (and we work with resumes and job hunters day-in and out) as bad advice. For one thing, you run into many “resume factories” using cookie-cutter templates. Some of these factories are outside the U.S. and are not attuned to what’s going on in the market. Also, let’s be clear: one size does not fit all. A search for books on Amazon comes up with hundreds of books on resumes and job hunting. Some of these seem to be from people who never even looked for a job in their lifetime, except maybe in academia.
I have spent over 50 years in the Human Resources field. I have personally reviewed countless thousands of resumes, and my firm has helped thousands get jobs. Each year, AA-Careers has a booth at every Job Fair in the Santa Clara-San Jose area and we provide a FREE Resume Critique to thousands of people. The lines sometimes stretch outside of the show, and it is very common for there to be a one hour wait for assistance. After each show, our staff discusses how very few resumes really are done well.
Why read on? Our clients are having good success with job hunting campaigns, even in this economy. Here’s my perspective: different styles of resumes work in different areas of the country, and vary by career type and years of experience. But several things really help. Read more…
Categories: Job Hunting, Resume Writing Tips Tags: | 
No comments
November 18th, 2009
The job hunting pendulum swings to...GREEN...
Many patterns in our society act like the swing of a pendulum, first one way and then the other. The highs usually go too high, and the lows sink too far. The same pattern fits hiring trends.
In the not to distant past we had the swing of the dot-coms, companies were being started almost every minute of each day. During that period, we had an office in San Francisco. When our lease expired, the landlord looked to triple the rent. We looked at other locations in the city and the first question the building owner asked was “Are you going public” and then requested as part of the lease he would require stock option. Many of the “old companies” were forced to depart the city, and then came the swing of the pendulum, companies folded, jobs disappeared, and now ten years later many of those building remain vacant.
Then we entered the 21st century and the hot industries were bio-tech and health-care. The Bay area saw a growth of schools training people in the medical field, even the EDD started training people for entry level jobs in the medical field. Unfortunately, after a few years, the number of people looking for jobs far exceeded the needs of the industry and today many of these people are now seeking a new hot field. Read more…
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting Tags: clean tech, green careers, pendulum, SF bay area | No comments
November 16th, 2009
Searching for a job in the Great Recession...
In a recent article by Dan Burrows in Daily Finance, the lead on the story is “Bernanke between the lines: We’re in for the mother of all jobless recoveries”. The government’s “bail out” and “stimulus” programs seem to be working. The “too large to allow to fail” mantra and policies have saved many companies, which now – after huge layoffs – are beginning to show a profit and the stock market is on its way to complete recovery.
But, what happened to the second part of the government program to develop new jobs? So far, that is a failure. Unemployment has risen nationally to 10.2%, and it’s more like 17.5% if you count the people who have given up looking for a job. Over the last two years, 8 million people have seen their jobs in the private sector just disappear and in some cases they re-appeared in some distant country.
A few weeks ago, AA-Careers ran a job ad on Craigslist. When we ran the same ad 3 years ago, we received 48 resumes in a 30 day period. The November, 2009 result? This time, we received over 650 resumes in less than a week. We learned a few things from that ad – and these are the most commonly made mistakes: Read more…
Categories: Hiring Trends, Job Hunting, Resume Writing Tips Tags: Hiring Trends, jobless recovery, Resume Writing Tips | No comments
