What Color Is Your Parachute? (34 page)

WHAT—NOTHING ABOUT RESUMES?

You may be starting to wonder why we haven’t talked about resumes. This book doesn’t include anything on resumes for several reasons:

• There are many other places to get help writing a resume (career centers, resume books, career websites).

• Resumes are not a very effective job-search tool, and they’re even less effective for younger workers who don’t have a great deal of experience in the jobs or fields in which they most want to work.

• Many people depend too much on a resume to get them a job. It’s more important to identify your best skills and interests.

• You can do information interviews without a resume. In fact, you’ll be able to write a better resume after you do information interviews.

If you want to learn more about how and when to use resumes in your job search, check out
Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job
by Jeffrey J. Fox (Hyperion, 2001) and Tom Jackson’s classic,
The Perfect Resume
(Broadway, 2004).

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

A job hunt can be very rewarding, but rarely is it easy. It demands physical, mental, and emotional energy. It’s important to remember that searching for a job is like anything else—it takes time to do it well, so be gentle with yourself in the job-search process.

INTERVIEW TIP

Employers prefer job candidates who have done one or more
internships. Why? New hires with internship experience become productive faster, require less training to become productive, and are less likely to quit. They have done the job and know what it’s like.

Because it’s so demanding, a job search can wear down the confidence of even the most positive person. To deal with this, we suggest that you don’t focus on whether or not you’ve gotten the job you want. Instead, keep track of how many phone calls, information interviews, hiring interviews, or new contacts you make each day. These numbers mean that you’re conducting an effective job search. You also may want to consider creating an “advisory board” for your job search. Arrange to meet once a month with people who are very good at getting jobs they like (perhaps someone you met while doing information interviews), people who know a lot about the industry or field you want to work in, or people who are supportive even when things are challenging. Ask two or three people whether you can meet with them once a month to get their advice, suggestions, or simply their support during your job search.

Be sure you take care of your physical needs too. Eat right, get enough sleep, drink eight glasses of water a day, and avoid negative people, as this can negatively affect how you look and your energy level. Exercise four or five days a week, listen to motivational tapes, see good friends, and watch movies that make you laugh or give you hope. If there are other things you enjoy doing that help you take care of yourself, be sure to incorporate them into your off (job-search) time.

Tips for the Hiring Interview

Hiring interviews can be stressful. They’ve often been compared to blind dates, because people applying for jobs often go on interviews without knowing anything about their “date” (the interviewers and the company, organization, or agency where they’re interviewing). The more prepared you are, the better your interviews will go. Think about the following scenario:

You are an employer. You are interviewing two applicants for one job. The first seems either scared or bored, you aren’t sure which. Her answers are brief. When asked why
she wants the job, she replies that the pay is good and it’s an easy commute. The other applicant begins by thanking you for the interview, then tells you about the classes she has taken to prepare for this work and the internships she’s done to help her hone her on-the-job skills. When asked why she wants the job, this applicant tells you that she wants to work for your company because of its great reputation and hopes you’ll hire her. But if you don’t, she is going to keep applying for jobs like this because it’s what she loves to do and believes she is meant to do.

PARACHUTE TIP

Take a trip to the company or business before your actual interview day. Figure out how long it’s likely to take you to get there at the same time of day as your interview. Learn where to park, what bus to take, where the building entrance is, and so on. If you do this before the interview, you’ll be less stressed the day of the interview. The less stressed-out you are, the more confident you’ll seem.

Which applicant would you hire? Commitment, appropriate qualifications, and enthusiasm will make you an outstanding candidate. So learn as much as you can about the job you want, the company you want to work for, and which of your skills make you a good candidate for the job. Also study the following tips for before, during, and after the interview. They’ll help you make a great impression.

Before Your Interview

Interviewing isn’t that hard. It’s a matter of knowing how to talk to someone in a focused manner. The more homework you’ve done about yourself, the job you want, and the organization where you have an interview, the better the interview is likely to go.

Before your interview, think about these two basic questions:

  1. What do I still need to know about this job at this organization?

  2. What information do I need to communicate about myself?

To prepare yourself for your interview, practice answering typical interview questions. (See the
resources section
for books and other sources on possible interview questions.) It’s helpful to remember that all interview questions are variations on the following questions:

• Why are you here?

• What can you do for us?

• Can I afford you?

• What kind of a person are you? Do I want you working for me?

• What distinguishes you from nineteen other people who can do the same tasks that you can?

THINGS TO AVOID IN AN INTERVIEW

• Arriving late

• Bad personal hygiene

• Excess cologne

• Inappropriate clothing

• Lack of initial eye contact

• Mispronouncing your interviewer’s name

• Rudeness of any sort

• A weak handshake

• Keeping your iPod or MP3 player hung around your neck

• Not turning off your cell phone

You can think of these as the questions behind the actual questions you’ll be asked. No matter how a question is phrased, if you know what’s
really
being asked, you can choose the best information about yourself to answer the question. Select examples from your experience to show that you’ve used the skills the job needs or to show that you pick up new skills quickly. Let’s say you’re interviewing for a job as a receptionist at a medical office. If you’re asked, “What can you do for us?” tell your interviewer that you’ve had experience answering phones and taking messages at the insurance office where you worked part-time in high school. As a candy striper, you learned a lot of medical terminology, as well as how to work with people who are ill.