The advantages of a summer job search are really quite astounding. Most of the year your resume will be one of hundreds or possibly even thousands, all hopeful to secure the opportunity for a job interview. The competition is fierce, especially with an economic downturn creating record job loss rates throughout North America. What if your resume was only one in thirty instead of one in one hundred? 

Unknown to many, July and August are the best months for job seekers. Why? Because 70% of your competitors withdraw from their job search! Whether this consistent phenomenon is due to those who would rather spend their summers at the cottage or those who don’t believe a successful job search is possible during these months, the fact is, should you decide to stay in the race, your opportunity to reach the finish line just got that much greater!

Now is the time to ramp up your job search and take advantage of the summer months. You’ve just blown away 70% of your competition and all you had to do was stay in the race!

The days of a paper resume are gone! If you were considering stuffing your resume in an envelope and affixing postage, think again. HR professionals and recruiters alike expect a properly formatted, professionally written resume with an accompanying cover letter to be submitted online. Your online proficiency doesn’t stop there. You must also have a significant personal and professional online presence. The best way to find out what the majority of recruiters will discover about you is to google yourself.

Maintaining a consistent and professional name for each of your online profiles is important. Unless you have a very unusual name, it may not be in your best interest to use only one initial with your last name as you could end up lost in a sea of people with the same handle or possibly mistaken for someone with a less than stellar reputation. Consider establishing your online presence using your full name, Harold J Smith, rather than H Smith to differentiate yourself. Eliminate all of the dots and dashes and numbers that are often automatically generated and use your proper name. Most online networking sites give you the option to customize your URL and generate one based on the user name you choose. How does this relate to your resume? A resume written in 2009 must contain your Linkedin address with your contact details.

Also included in your resume is your email address. The question to ask in 2009 is not whether or not you have an email address on your resume, but how old is your email address and is it professional? Today there is no excuse! Email addresses are easily acquired and they’re free. If you haven’t updated yours in years or you’re still using the one you created using a nickname, create a new one that can be used professionally. Recruiters are interested in forward thinking individuals who stay current. An AOL address is perceived as outdated and a Hotmail address lacks professionalism so update your resume with an appropriate email address.

First impressions are key to your success and the contact information you provide on your resume is your first impression on paper, or rather, on the computer! Without an impressive resume it is unlikely you will be given the opportunity for a job interview. If you want to be taken seriously in your pursuit of an executive position and increase your chances of a job interview, submit a professionally written resume with at least one online address and a professional email address.

Not sure if you have a resume that will get your foot in the door? Don’t take any chances! Contact us for a free resume critique today!

We are pleased to have Bob Woodcock speaking at the Toronto ExecuNet Meeting on November 25, 2009.

Bob Woodcock……….Leadership that guides & inspires
Managing Director, Predictive Success Corporation    

“Maximizing Your Behavioural Fit To Your Desired Role”

Further to Bob Woodcock’s presentation, “Maximizing Your Behavioural Fit To Your Desired Role”, he has offered to complete a Predictive Index profile along with complimentary feedback for anyone that will be attending. 

Bob Woodcock is a high energy and enthusiastic leader! Identified as a high potential leadership candidate with a  multinational, “50 Best Managed Companies” organization, Bob led a team of 100 to record performance levels, using Predictive Index as a talent management tool.

A certified Predictive Index analyst, Bob has successfully increased employee engagement, reduced turnover and built high performance teams working with a variety of companies across a broad range of industires. The lessons learned by managing in today’s business environment and as an entrepreneur for 13 years are transferable and repeatable. Bob’s mandate is to help build new leaders at every level of the organization. He can be reached at bobw@predictivesuccess.com

Register today for November’s ExecuNet meeting with Bob Woodcock!

Maintaining your online profile today is a critical element in managing your career. But does your company have a completed online profile? Recently I was searching Linkedin for a specific company and although I found the organization, there was no company information, which would not be so bad if there was a link to their website. NO, not there either. And two of the three partners in this organization did not provide a link within their profiles to the company’s website!

It was not long ago that your entire online focus was an email address and possibly a website that was designed, hosted and maintained by someone other than you. Today, there are millions of people online with profiles on Facebook, Linkedin, VisualCV and Twitter, just to name a few and many who are maintaining their own websites and blogs. The resources available to “connect” or engage in online networking are free and easy. But you may be missing out on opportunities because the information in your profile or your company’s profile is lacking pertinent details.

Social networking sites are resources that have the potential to connect you to millions of people and generate opportunities beyond imagination. It is true that your talent could have an impact on the opportunities generated but the fact that one YouTube video could be viewed by 30 million people within 3 days attests to the power and the influence of social media today!

If you have created an online profile, is it complete? Have you included contact details? If you are associated with a company, do they have a completed online profile? You’ve just announced the publication of your new book. Did you include a link for anyone interested in purchasing it? Are you looking for connections but have your settings set to hide your profile or not to accept introductions?

Review all of the information contained in your online profile, the online profiles of the companies you are associated with, websites, blogs, etc. to ensure the information provided is complete, relevant and accurate.  Accessing information that is incomplete or being drawn into something of interest only to find out it is not available leaves a bad first impression.

Do you have a completed LinkedinProfile? If you are questioning the significance of a presence on Linkedin, please take the time to review the 2009 Social Recruitment Survey Results from Jobvite.

You may not be in career transition today but there’s no guarantee that you won’t be next month, next year or the year after that. Here are a few results from Jobvites’ survey: 

80% of the companies surveyed are using or planning to use social networking to find and attract candidates this year. 95% of those using social networking sites for recruiting are using Linkedin. Those using Facebook increased from 36% last year to 59% this year. Twitter is now ranked third with 42% of recruiters using it to source candidates.

Since Twitter was not even ranked last year it is evident how quickly an online presence has evolved into a critical  job search tool that rivals that of a resume!

If you wish to succeed in your job search it is imperative to add an online presence in addition to your professional resume and cover letter. According to these survey results, I recommend starting with Linkedin!

Mark Anderson, ExecuNet President and Chief Economist says, “Conditions have clearly changed. We can now see the first clear signs of a recovery indicated by responses, (from recruiters) that are similar to what we saw coming out of the last recession in the second quarter of 2003. Executive recruiters expect hiring to increase as we move toward the end of the year”.

As recruiters see signs of new hiring from their client companies the negative outlook earlier this spring is slowly turning around. Those job seekers landing jobs are spreading the word and a large percentage of those still seeking work are seeing their networking contacts evolve into influencial leads as they move into their new roles. What goes around comes around.

Your consistent effort to introduce who you are, share your area of expertise, announce the position you are seeking and offer your guidance and support will likely be the reasons you are considered for your next potential job opportunity.

Do you have a professional resume? Do you have a significant online profile? Are you actively networking? If you answer yes to all of these questions you may be landing your next job sooner than you think!

If you are in need of assistance contact Elite Resumes for certified, professional executive career management services.

At one time your name and address were most likely limited to one of each.  Today, or in the very near future you will have multiple names and addresses to contend with. For this reason, it is extremely important to establish consistent and professional contact information.   

The first address you have, aside from your home address is most likely your email address and I recommend creating a “handle” that is professional and one which you will continue to use in the additional addresses that you will be creating. If you have a common name such as John Smith, you will need to be a little more creative in order to identify “you” and create a unique address. Get rid of fisherman@ or joker@ or drunk@ and create johnesmith@ or jesmith@ or johnedwardsmith@ or johnsmith3@ or jsmith3@. In order to avoid the potential for data entry errors with your email address test it out first. Write it down and key it in. Often times you will find email addresses that you find yourself guessing whether it consists of a dash, or is it an underscore? Does it contain a number 1 or is it the letter i? Avoid any characters that could be questionable. A simple date entry error could mean a lost opportunity! Further, if you have a hotmail address, maintain it for your personal email and create a new @rogers or @sympatico or @companyname to establish a professional email address.   

Further names and multiple url addresses could be related to any or all of the following sites, which are just to name a few:  Facebook, Twitter, Naymz, Plaxo, Vimeo, Friendfeed, LinkedIn and VisualCV. All of these sites offer an opportunity to create your own online profile. Give consideration to the name which will be included in the url that is automatically generated with each new profile! Most sites generate a url consisting of the login name you choose when creating your account. Many generate a url ie: www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith3454h5yz, which you then have the option to customize. Take advantage of this and eliminate the gobblygook and dashes. However, you will still be limited to the availability of the name and a common name will need to be changed, as it was necessary to do so for your email address. It may not always be possible but make the effort to be as consistent as possible with your login names and url addresses. By doing this, it will make it much easier for you to maintain these sites in the future and it will increase your chances of being found. Consistency will reduce the risk of errors, lost searches and it will enhance your google ranking.    

There are different types of cover letters and the “pain” cover letter is one type that has evolved as a sign of the times. It is a very specific and powerful document addressing a particular issue relating to a company experiencing problems or pain with relevance to your particular realm of expertise. Regarding sales, it could be a company that is experiencing a drop in market share or a reduction in sales. For a Production Engineer, it could be a company experiencing continuous break downs on their manufacturing line. Once the issues have been identified and if you feel confident in resolving the problem, write a detailed letter to the President, CEO or senior executive with the responsibility for that particular function and issue. Outline how you see their issues and present a brief synopsis on how your skills and knowledge can rectify their problems. Be detailed giving examples of how you have increased market share, driven sales or realigned production line operations with minimal investment from your previous employers.

The pain cover letter shows you are proactive, someone looking for new challenges and ready to tackle critical business issues and it is an intriguing way of luring a potential employer into calling you for an interview. They will want to know in greater detail what contributions you will make.

You will need to go hunting for these opportunities, staying current with news and business magazines to discover the companies that are experiencing troubles. Then position yourself as the chief problem solver and go in with gusto explaining how you will tackle their dilemma.

The pain cover letter offers another perspective to your job search. It works. Make it work for you!     

Who do you know? Who do they know? Who knows you? 

If you have invested the time to utilize the vast number of social media resources available today, you may find the answers to these questions quite remarkable, even extraordinary. The opportunity to create an extremely valuable and influential network of people to establish your “social media status” has never been this accessible! Do you want to be known as “The Smartest Man in the World”? Google it and you will see one man who understood the power of social media to create his personal brand clearly and visibly, establishing his online status. As the smartest man in the world it was an easy decision for Saul Colt to embrace the world of social media with the same passion he exudes in his personal brand. You will find Saul Colt on Facebook, Twitter, Naymz, Plaxo, Vimeo, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, ……and that’s to name a few.

In the past, allocating millions of dollars to advertising in newspapers, radio, TV and billboards could establish an impressive corporate brand. As an individual, you were limited to creating your personal brand within a small group of colleagues, family and friends, unless you were a movie star or entertainer. Today, you can establish a significant brand, recognized by millions, ONLINE and it’s FREE!   

An individual’s online profile or an organization’s online profile is the starting point to connect with millions of influential individuals and share a brand, share knowledge and establish a notable status to create a world filled with opportunities! It has been described as “an evolution of individual power” as we have never seen the potential to create such a far reaching network of influence as exists today! 

Last June, Jeremy Hansen saw an ad in the newspaper and applied for the job. After countless interviews, a battery of medical tests and a series of 20 training tests he has just been selected as one of two candidates to become Canada’s newest astronaut!  In doing so, Jeremy Hansen has realized his dream job, a dream he has held since he was 5 years old! 

The Canadian Space Agency received 5,351 applications in response to their national astronaut recruitment campaign which was eventually reduced to 16 candidates, consisting of 5 CF-18 pilots, two doctors, an engineer who was an Olympic kayaker, a researcher in how species survive in extreme environments, a professor of physics and astronomy and a nanotechnology researcher. 

To find out more about Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques, the first new recruits to join Canada’s elite corps of astronauts since 1992, check out the following links:

The London Free Press, “Jeremy Hansen became a pilot at age 17″
The Toronto Star, “Two out-of-this-world Canucks”
canoe.ca, “Fighter pilot, medical doctor, Canada’s newest astronauts”

Are you interested in pursuing your dream job? Contact Martin Buckland for job search strategies, career coaching and professional resume writing services.