Taking extra care will help you land jobs

Employer’s impression starts from your first click so have a marketing plan and follow it. Our SuccessFinder program provides you with insights into the “product” that you are marketing – YOU. It helps you land jobs. Sell your strengths and know how you’ll manage your weaknesses. It will help you decide if you are the right fit. The employer will be making their assessment if you're the right fit. It is essential that you have to make sure the same. Success happens when it is the right fit for both.

Technology allows us to pursue new opportunities faster and more efficiently than ever. Your marketing plan needs to focus on getting into the "A pile" and staying there. You need to market yourself to employers (and their automated systems) at every opportunity. Understand your behavioural DNA and show how you will leverage your natural talent in your role.

Key Findings

Below is some finding for a CareerBuilder and Harris Poll survey:

• 54% of candidates don’t customize their résumé for each job — Jobs are all about the right “fit.”
• 45% of applicants don’t include a cover letter – Introduce yourself and showcase your talent in a relatable way. It is an opportunity to sell yourself beyond your résumé.
• 84% of applicants don’t personalize the cover letter with the hiring manager’s name — it increases your chances of getting noticed and shows you’ve gone that extra step and invested time in getting to know the company.
• 53% of employers say a résumé doesn’t provide enough information for them to assess whether someone is a good fit for the job.
• 37% of applicants don’t follow up after they applied — Circling back after submitting a cover letter and resume can help you stand out among the competition.
• 57% of job interviewees don’t send thank you notes after an interview — Send an email after each contact with the employer – information call, phone screening calls, screening interview, first interview, and last interview.
• 63% percent of employers said one of the top questions they’re trying to answer when looking for candidates is"what are their soft skills?"
• 54% of employers re-engage with past candidates who were not given job offers — Don’t burn bridges. Also, recruiters often reach back into the talent pool they know.

What Job Seekers Must Know

The seven facts every job seeker should know about job hunting:

1) It may take longer than you think to land the job. The average time it takes to find a job – from the moment a job search begins to the point of accepting an offer – is typically at least two months. Depending on the field and location, it can take even longer, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t get hired right away.

2) Companies aren’t done with you if you don’t get the job offer. Fifty-four percent of employers re-engage with past candidates who were not given job offers. Stay connected by joining an employer’s talent network or signing up to be automatically alerted to new job openings through job sites.

3) Your resume is not enough. More than half (53 percent) of employers say a resume doesn’t provide enough information for them to assess whether someone is a good fit for the job. If you’re just providing a resume, you may lose out. They want to see a cover letter, a professional portfolio where applicable, recommendations and links to social media profiles.

4) Companies are looking for skills that may surprise you. Yes, companies want to know your work history and the hard skills associated with a particular job function. But, did you know that 63 percent of employers said one of the top questions they’re trying to answer when looking for candidates is “what are their soft skills?” Make sure to highlight these less tangible skills associated with a personality such as having a positive attitude, being dependable and working well under pressure.

5) The competition may be putting in more hours than you. On average, job seekers spend 11 hours a week searching for jobs. Are you putting in more or less time than the competition?

6) You may not work in your field of study. 1 in 3 people (36 percent) doesn’t work in a career related to their degree. Keep an open mind. Employers focus on relevant skills and whether or not you seem trainable enough for the job, so you likely have more career options than you imagined.

7) Employers will pay more. With competition heating up for positions at all skill levels, two-thirds (66 percent) of employers plan to offer higher starting salaries this year. Job seekers are in a better negotiating position, so you want to avoid taking the first offer in most cases.

What Employers Must Know

The seven facts every employer should know about the candidate job search experience:

1) Candidates are less likely to jump through hoops. The market has become more employee-centric and candidates are quick to drop off if the application seems too cumbersome. One in five candidates said they are not willing to complete an application that takes them 20 minutes or more, and 76 percent want to know how long it will take them to finish an application before it starts. However, the majority of job seekers said they would be willing to endure a lengthy application process if the company is offering a higher base salary.

2) Candidates move on quickly. An inefficient, slow-moving hiring process will kill your recruiting efforts. Sixty-six percent of job seekers said they will wait less than two weeks to hear back from the employer before considering the opportunity a lost cause and moving on to another.

3) If you’re hard to find online, candidates will be too. Most candidates (64 percent) said after reading a job posting, they will spend time researching before applying. If they can’t find the info they need on the company, 37 percent of all candidates will just move on to the next company or job listing. Your company career site and social presence must be strong.

4) Candidates expect more information in the job listing. It’s not enough to describe the company and job. The top things candidates said they want to see in a job posting include:

• Salary – 74 percent
• Total benefits package – 61 percent
• Employee ratings – 46 percent
• Contact info of hiring manager – 40 percent
• Work from home options – 39 percent
• How the company provides work/life balance – 35 percent
• Photos/videos of the work environment – 31 percent
• Team structure and hierarchy of the role – 27 percent
• How many people applied – 25 percent

5) Millennials may swipe left if your mobile capabilities are weak. 1 in 10 millennials said they would drop a company out of consideration if they couldn’t apply to a job via their mobile device. So if your site isn't mobile ready, your pages take too long to load or you have poor navigation through mobile, you could be losing fresh new talent.

6) You may not be covering all your bases. Consumers audiences are very fragmented. Job seekers use up to 16 sources in their job search. Are you everywhere they are?

7) You may not know how good or bad your process is in the eyes of candidates. Only 31 percent of employers claim to have tried applying to one of their company’s open jobs to see what the process is like. Put on that job seeker hat and go to one of your jobs, and go to your career site, and interact with your company through the eyes of the job seeker so you can make improvements where needed.

The Secrets of Your Career Capital and How to Leverage It

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years”. -  Bill Gates

The more career capital you have, the greater the freedom you have to follow your passions. A common mistake is to expect instant gratification or to underestimate the ingenuity and perseverance required to make big things happen.

Passion built on commitment, mastery, and pride is the key to a satisfying career. In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Commitment and mastery take grit.

Angela Duckworth masterfully captures the power of passion and perseverance in her New York Times Best Seller “Grit.” There is no domain of expertise that has been studied where world-class performers have put in fewer than ten years of consistent, deliberate practice to get where they are. Find out how gritty you are with her Grit Scale.

Closing tips:

All employers want to know “What are their soft skills?” — This shows the importance of highlighting less real skills (they already know they are good—that's why you're being interviewed) associated with a personality such as having a positive attitude, being dependable and working well under pressure. If you know your superpowers and provide examples during the interview, you gain a significant advantage over your competition.

Use social media is an asset, use it wisely — Recruiters using social media to screen candidates. Use it to your advantage. Find out who you know at a potential employer and ask for a referral, or learn about the latest company news to make for a more engaging conversation in an interview.

Practice your conversation skills with as many people as possible before an interview — Excellent written and verbal communication skills often make the difference in who gets hired. Consistently highlight your skills in your cover letter, resume interviews and thank you note. Less is more. Use Simon Sinek's golden circle approach. Start with WHY then HOW then WHAT. We lose folks in the details of WHAT before we've engaged them with WHY.

Be patient — The right fit is important in the long run. Recruitment processes are long. New hires are a significant investment. The average time it takes to fill a position – from the moment a job search begins to the point of accepting an offer – is typically at least two months for staff and four months or longer for executives. Depending on the field and place, it can take even longer, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t get hired right away.