Part 1: Resume and Online Presence
- Resume: This document, hands-down should represent your best work. It should be meticulous in details, concise, action oriented and yes, no longer than 1-page (unless you’re 10-15 years into your career). While a perfect resume won’t guarantee you a job, it will not only showcase what you have done as a worker but your meticulous attention to detail and care, which will set you apart (assuming it’s done correctly). To make this process easier, I have attached a standard resume template that I have honed and crafted over the last 10+ years. While you can certainly find others that will have more character, colors or visually appealing, this one is simple, concise and direct to the point. I also err on the side of simplicity because believe it or not, interviewers still like to print out the resume quickly before interviewing, which allows them to jot down notes. If you have a multi colored, designed one, it may or may not render well in all circumstances. To each their own, but I have included mine as a baseline for you to work from.
- Attached to the appendix are two resume renders, the first is a sample of mine with relevant work experience. Use this as your guideline for formatting and appearance. The second is the template. I would make a copy and begin putting your resume together using your work experience and my original as a guide.
- Saving the doc: This is a small detail that often goes unnoticed. Make certain that the name you’re saving on your resume represents the document and is updated. You would not believe how many times I have received an attachment labeled Resume.pdf.asd;flkjasdf or something crazy. I would recommend using the below nomenclature: “First Name Last Month Year” and ALWAYS save as a PDF. Never send a world doc.
I have included an entire section on resume construction along with a formatted version you can use.
- LinkedIn: This should exist as a compliment to your Resume, NOT a carbon copy. The same principles apply, clear, concise and this format gives you room to add extra work, projects, responsibility, use this to add color.
Here are the core components of my LinkedIn:
Summary: High-energy, first-in / last-out sales professional with advanced communication skills, a tenacious work ethic and a drive to succeed anchored by a collegial, team-first mentality instilled through a Midwest upbringing. Proven track record of meeting / exceeding quotas in fast-paced, constantly-changing work cultures and known as a cross-functional collaborator who delivers results.
Proud husband to Cory and Papa to our son Stetson and Hank (30+ lb Boston Terrier dog). Marathoner x1 (LA 16’), Crossfitter, Pathologically Optimistic.
Notice how it’s personalized at the bottom? What a great place to add some color about what makes you unique and different!
- Job Description: this is not a place to regurgitate your resume...please don’t do that. LinkedIn is inherently less formal and gives you more freedom to add color to the information included in your resume. Be simple, be concise, be complementary and don’t go overboard.
- Headshots make a difference! If you don’t a recently updated (last 1-2 years) headshot, I would highly recommend getting them done. Brightly lit, professional pictures make a huge difference. This will cost you some money, be prepared but it’s incredibly worth it. If you don’t have the money for a headshot initially, perhaps find a friend with a great camera (not a phone) and have them take a few. This will work in the interim.
Part 2: Start Applying for Jobs!
Four Ways to Apply for a Job:
- Start with your network: Do your friends, family and trusted mentors know you’re searching for a job? No? Okay, well start here. When you’re looking for work, it’s important that your network knows this as well, so they can keep ears open to positions that are available. Some of the best jobs I found were a result of a friend or a friend of a friend walking my resume into HR and personally vouching for me. This won’t guarantee a job but it will put your resume at the top of the stack! Of course, if you’re currently employed, you want to be careful who you share this with and you ask for strict confidentiality but start with who you know!
- Nervous to reach out to friends, family and mentors? I understand it can be daunting and unsure. In order to help, I have put together a sample email template in the appendix!
- Target Companies: Do you have a list of ‘dream companies’ that you would love to work for? No? Okay, well that’s the next step in this process is identifying a ‘hit list’ of companies you want to target. Most every company will have an externally facing careers page (example: ZipRecruiter Careers Page). Finding a job on a company's jobs page and applying directly is a direct route to the recruiter and HR team and this is most often the portal they check first before going to our 3rd step, job boards. Want to get even more creative? Find the head recruiter on LinkedIn and send a brief note with a connection request. Short, sweet concise. Remember how we talked about dialing in your LinkedIn profile earlier, this is where that strategy shines bright! Remember...don’t be creepy, don’t be weird...be normal, brief and gone. You also probably know this...but don’t hit up their Facebook and other social networks...that’s just weird.
- Example: Hi (Recruiter Name), A quick note to connect as I just applied for (role) and figured I would connect here as well. I’m looking forward to speaking with you and your team about the role and am here to answer any questions should they arise. Thanks!
- Job Boards: Now that your network is aware, and you have targeted your employer list, let’s talk about job boards! This is a space I know very well as I spent over 4 years working in the job board space and am familiar with the different boards and how to use them to maximize your job search. When you first start searching for jobs, it can be a dizzying amount of options re-routing to random boards all across the internet, which can be confusing. The good news is, the jobs are almost always not exclusive to one board* and I recommend using the top three. While this isn’t an exhaustive list and depending on your profession, there may be niche job boards that you can access, I would start here as normally these boards will have the majority of jobs listed on them.
Job Board Set Up Checklist:
- Create a profile...pretty simple, right? Go to the site and sign up
- Upload Resume, Cover letter and corresponding documents.
- Pro Tip: Re-upload your resume every 1-2 weeks, many recruiters pay significant amounts of money for ‘fresh resume’ alerts. These alerts happen when a new resume that matches set criteria is entered into the system. Prepare for recruiters to reach out. If not, don’t get discouraged!
- Download Mobile App: This is super important and often overlooked. Make sure to download the app and sign up for applicable alerts. Normally, you can opt to receive push notifications within the app AND / OR SMS text message alerts when fresh jobs that match your criteria are posted. Most job boards have ‘easy apply’ or ‘1-click apply’ which allows you to submit an application directly without ever leaving the app, which is why it’s super important to have all your information up to date and ready to apply. Don’t overestimate the value of being the first resume on top of a recruiters stack. Knowing recruiters, they get so excited to see resumes coming in. Make their day and apply early!
- Recruiters and Head-Hunters: I get asked periodically the value of working with a recruiter and headhunter. I definitely think they can add value to the process, but you must be careful. A few things to keep in mind, do you trust this person? Do they apply you to the positions you are keen on? Are they listening to your feedback post-job and making changes to how they market you? It can work, just be careful.
For each of the below boards, you should:
- Create a profile and upload your resume: This step serves two purposes, first, it gives you the ability to quickly apply directly through the app when on-the-go, you just apply and associate your saved resume to the job. Second, all job-boards will have an option for recruiters to search the database to surface candidates that they can proactively reach out to for jobs, you want to be included in this pool as well.
- Download the corresponding app and sign in using your credentials.
- Set up alerts (either push notification or SMS text message): This allows you to be the first to know when a job is posted that matches your search. The technology has evolved so far that there is machine learning in the backend that is matching job descriptions up to resumes and then sending out alerts, so you can receive alerts for jobs that you haven’t yet seen or known about, without having to sit and search job boards all day.
- Apply to a wide variety of jobs: Be aspirational, yet realistic.
- Don’t get discouraged: Searching for a job is tough, hard work. In many ways, it’s a lot like dating. You put yourself out there and may not get the position. That’s okay and to be expected. The key is to keep your head up, don’t get discouraged and keep moving forward!
Job Board Overview:
- Indeed: by far the biggest and will have the largest amount of jobs. The interface is relatively simple and straightforward. I would absolutely set up an account here, download the mobile app, upload your resume and begin applying for positions.
- ZipRecruiter: I’m biased since I spent a large part of my career here, but I absolutely love the mobile app (ranked #1 job-seeker app in iOS and Android) and the ability to set up SMS text message alerts for applicable jobs.
- LinkedIn: We’ll talk extensively about the value of having a well laid out LinkedIn page later on (trust me, it’s important) but most folks think of LinkedIN
- Google Jobs: I’m also biased since I worked on this initiative at Google, but this is a teriffic resource, especially if you’re a veteran. Simply go to Google and search for a job. If you’re a veteran, you can plug in your veteran code in order to be matched with applicable civilian jobs.
- unless you’re searching for a very niche position, Doctor, Over the Road Truck Driver and there are some specialized boards that if you’re in one of those industries, you should know about.
Part 3: Interview and Post Interview
Overview: For any interview, you want to go through a structured preparation process, which I will walk you through:
Step 1: Begin by prepping to answer questions about you and your resume. I have compiled a list of questions below that will help you begin thinking through how to respond. I always coach people to go through these questions, record yourself or practice with a friend or partner and solicit honest feedback.
Interview Questions: In order to adequately prepare for the interview, it’s important that you become comfortable clearly and concisely answering questions about yourself. Chances are you won’t be asked all of these questions...okay, I guarantee you won’t. The point is, I want you to feel COMFORTABLE walking into the interview knowing you have your bases covered and can answer any question they throw at you! Also, I want you very comfortable discussing your background.
- So, tell me about yourself?
- Tell me about a time where you overcame obstacles where others stopped?
- Tell me about a time where you thought you were right about something and ended up changing your mind?
- Tell me about your proudest professional accomplishment?
- Outline a time when you saw a problem and took initiative to solve it? What steps did you take?
- Tell me about a time when you worked with a colleague who had a different personality than yours?
- When was the last time you had a conflict at work? How did you handle and address it? What was the outcome?
- How would one of your previous bosses describe your work ethic? Character? Integrity?
- Tell me about a time when you did something right when nobody was looking or noticed?
- Tell me about your first job?
- Tell me about a presentation that you gave that was successful? How did you pull it off?
- Tell me about a time where you weren’t successful? What did you do?
- What professional accomplishment are you most proud of? Why?
- Tell me about a time you worked on a team project. How did it go? What role did you play?
- When was the last time you were competitive? How about another time?
A few things to keep in mind when answering questions. You want to make sure you have a framework for the answer, so you don’t spend the majority of your time explaining what happened and not enough time discussing results. I recommend using the S.T.A.R method / framework, outlined below.
S - Situation: Set the scene and provide the necessary details of your example
T - Task: Outline your relationship to the situation. Were you the leader, team-member etc
A - Action: What did you DO in order to address the situation
R - Result: Transition to this by saying “As a result” and then share the outcomes.
Action Item: It’s time to pause, stop reading and actually begin practicing. A few things you’ll need:
- A good friend, partner or someone who can record you and provide honest feedback
- Your resume
- A timer - Why? Because interview answers should be 30 seconds - 2 minutes long….and you have no idea how long you actually speak
Exercise: First, familiarize yourself with questions from the list, feel free to add extra questions based on your industry that you anticipate to be included. Set up the camera, start the timer and answer 1-2 questions. Caveat: This is difficult! Your answers won’t be great, you will fee clunky, you’ll spend a lot of time answering questions. Don’t be discouraged, continue to repeat the process and hone in your answer. Use your resume as a guide.
Now, equally important is your evaluation of the job. The interviewer will always give you time to ask questions at the end and whatever you do, come prepared with questions! To get you started, I have compiled a list of a few questions that I like to ask in interviews. I would encourage you to customize and add extra questions to this list and as the interview process continues, revisit this lit as you prepare for subsequent rounds.
Questions You Ask
- What is your favorite part about the team culture here?
- How am I measured and evaluated? How frequently?
- What characteristics does the ideal candidate have here and how do you go about attracting that candidate?
- Assuming I get this job, what will it take to earn an excellent performance review a year from now?
- What roadblocks and challenges do you anticipate that I face?
- What is your vision for this team?
- Interview Questions List
Interview Best Practices
- In-person
- I won’t go into extensive detail about choice of clothing, there are loads of resources available, what I will say is that what you wear matters.
- Phone Interview
- Skype / Video Call Interview
Part 4: Negotiating the offer
- Best practices for negotiating
Part 5: The first 90-days
Appendix: Sample Email Templates:
Email Template Close Friend or Mentor
Hi (Name)
A quick note to let you know that I’m currently looking for a new job (confidentialy). I wanted to reach out as I value your friendship and mentorship in my life and let you know as well as enlist you to potentially help as I look in the near future.
Since we last spoke, I have gone ahead and updated my cover letter and resume (attached). Dont’ worry, I’m not asking you to proofread and edit my resume (the worst job ever) but I did want you to have my most updated information in case you come across a job or just so you’re aware of what I bring to the job market.
I would love to catch up soon via phone or text, let me know a good time for you!
Thanks!
- Mark
- Cover Letter
- Resume
- Action Verbs:
- Led A Project:
- Executed
- Orchestrated
- Oversae
- Planned
- Produced
- Controlled
- Brought a Project to Life
- Administered
- Created
- Designed
- Developed
- Devised
- Formed
- Introduced
- Launched
- Saved Time or Money
- Conserved
- Decreased
- Diagnosed
- Reconciled
- Reduced
- Yielded
- Increased Sales, Efficiency Satisfaction
- Accelerated
- Achieved
- Advanced
- Amplified
- Boosted
- Capitalized
- Delivered
- Enhanced
- Generated
- Sustained
- Managed a Team
- Aligned
- Cultivated
- Directed
- Enabled
- Facilated
- Fostered
- Guided
- Hired
- Inspired
- Mentored
- Shaped
- You Supported Customers
- Advised
- Advocated
- Coached
- Consulted
- Informed
- You Wrote or Communicated
- Composed
- Conveyed
- Convinced
- Publicized
- Reviewed
- You Achieved Something
- Attained
- Awarded
- Competed
- Demonstrated
- Earned
- Exceeded
- Reached
- Showcased