1.)
You should always be on the lookout for another position..(especially
when you are very happy in your current one). Think of finding a career
as dating. Usually, if you are not dating anyone or seeing anyone it is
harder for you to find someone to get that date. However, once you start
seeing someone or dating, it is amazing how many other opportunities arise
from other prospects.
The point is that you have to make yourself attractive to employers. If you are not working, you look unattractive to prospective employers. Why should they hire you if no one else wants you, etc. Plus, some company might string you along for you have nothing else anyway. Why should they hire you, etc. They can also make you wait for you have nothing anyway. |
2.) Never wait until you quit or get fired or caught in a layoff to start looking for you next position. About 97% percent of the people we place in positions are currently working and very happy in their position....until they hear from us about our client(s) position(s). |
3.)
Post your resume on CareersInConnecticut.com - You never know what opportunities
will come up from someone giving you a call or sending you an e-mail.
If you are afraid that your current company will see you name, post as
confidential. |
4.)
Always go on at least 1 interview a year(especially if you are happy in
your current position) There is nothing like confidence when you go on
an interview. If you are happy in your current position this will show
on the interview. Nothing like confidence when you are interviewing. |
5.)
Always be learning new systems, and educate yourself or through classes.
Keep learning and enjoying new ideas. |
6.)
Talk to recruiters to judge their skills and to see if they can get you
going on interviews (There are many awful staffing agency recruiters in
the business who just do not know what they are doing) However, by talking
to them you will at least improve your negotiating skills at the very
least. What harm can a phone call do? |
7.) Recruiters wanting you to come in to interview with them? BE VERY CAREFUL. Many recruiters at those large national chains are very junior and have quotas that they have to bring in 3-5 candidates in to interview them everyday (regardless if they have any jobs for them) I talk to many candidates that tell me how they went to meet with recruiters who never got them set up for interviews at clients and now never return their phone calls. Do this: Tell the recruiter that you will meet them as soon as they set you up with an interview at one of their clients so as not to waste your time. If they do not want to do this, then go to another recruiter. This will cut the waste in your life in dealing with just the cream of the crop recruiters. |
| 8.) You can have your resume be more than 1 page. 1 page resumes are generally for people that just come out of college and do not have that much experience. So called "experts" that tell you to keep your resume to 1 page are wrong. And by the way, the only expert that you can believe, is the person that gets you your next position (and that can be you many times!) It is better to list everything so hiring manager/recruiters can see it. Sometimes if they do not see something on your resume, they will think you don't have it. |
| 9.) PUT GRADUATION DATES ON YOUR RESUME. More and more we see that people are not putting the date they graduate from college or grad school. We know they are trying to avoid age discrimination right off the bat. We always tell candidates that when you go in for the interview, they(company) are going to "SEE" you. And, plus if a company is going to discriminate, do you really want to work for a company like that? |
| 10.)
Do you add value to the corporation? What the value is that you bring
to a company is a very important aspect as to why you might be hired.
Understanding this value that you bring to the table can make all the
difference in getting the position, rather than someone else. |
11.) This is for Temporary/Contractors. Make sure you put the name of the companies that you have worked for....putting the name of the temp agency that places is OK BUT make sure to put the direct company where you worked or just leave the temp agency out of the resume all together. Why? When a company or recruiter is searching for a candidate they search on skills and many times on a company name, etc. (usually their competitor so they get candidates that can hit the ground running) For example, when we (CareersInCT.com and/or ContractStaffingRecruiters.com) are searching for a candidate in the healthcare field (or other fields) for one of our client(s), we search many times on their competitors to get qualified candidates for them. We don't search on temp agency names for that would be useless. Nobody is going to care about the temp agency that put you at the company. They are only going to care about where you worked directly and what you were/are doing. This way a company can tell if you have the background to fill their position. |
If
you have a comment or question, please feel free to contact Mike Toohey
at 203-315-1197or mtoohey@contractstaffingrecruiters.com
OR mtoohey@careersinct.com |
| REMEMBER: YOUR CAREER IS UP TO YOU, NO ONE ELSE. YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELF TO BLAME IF YOU NOT HAPPY IN YOUR CURRENT PLACE IN LIFE AND/OR WORK. It is very sad to see when people wait until they get downsized or go through a layoff to start looking for a job. They put themselves at a huge disadvantage in finding a position. |