The MicroTrain Blog

My background is in Career Counseling. I taught classes on job search fundamentals, resume writing, interviewing, LinkedIn, and networking. When it came time for me to job search, I thought, "I'm an expert on this. If anyone can do this easily, it's me."

As you might be able to guess, my background filled me with a false sense of security. Having confidence during your job search is important, but overconfidence can be a killer.

 In fairness to myself, I did a lot of things right during my job search: 

• I had multiple trusted people look over my resume. I took advice from each and every one of them. I was able to get my resume down to a 1-page powerhouse, and I was proud to show it to employers.
• I made sure that the jobs I was applying for fit well with my skills, expertise, and background. I also tailored my resume and cover letter to every job. I took keywords from the job description, and plugged applicable ones into my resume.
• I networked as much as possible. I then used my network to apply at companies I was interested in working for.
• I applied to 1-2 jobs per day (with the exception of Sundays, which was my day off). I never missed a day. Even after solid interviews, I kept up my quota. I knew that many job seekers put their eggs in one basket after one successful interview, only to have the carpet swept from under them when they don’t get the job. They then feel like they’ve wasted precious days (or even weeks) by not job searching. I carefully avoided this.

I felt pretty good about all of these things I was doing, and yet I was barely getting responses from employers. I got to the point where I had applied to over one hundred jobs. It was at this point that I had to ask myself, “What am I doing wrong?

What Did I Miss?                                     

In short, I didn’t know enough about Applicant Tracking Systems. Being a Career Counselor, I obviously knew that these systems existed, and I thought I was covering my bases in beating them. What I hadn’t considered, however, is that job search trends change at an amazingly quick pace. Quite frankly, my views on Applicant Tracking Systems were outdated.

Here’s what I knew:

• I used keywords from the job description, and I plugged a few of them into my resume. In doing this, I thought that most of my work was done.
• I was careful not to use tables and graphs. These can mess up the systems, and produce garbled information for recruiters and HR professionals.
• I made sure not to put dates before my work experience. This, again, might confuse the system and produce garbled information.

Here’s what I didn’t know:

• I formatted all of my resumes as PDF files. Years ago, this was the advice of all resume experts. “When you submit your resume online, make sure it’s a PDF so the formatting stays exactly as you intended.” I didn’t realize that these systems were made to parse information from .RTF and .DOC files. My 100+ job applications didn’t do much good when they were parsed from PDFs.
• I didn’t use a longer resume when I applied through Applicant Tracking Systems. I still used my 1-page powerhouse resume. The problem with this is that Applicant Tracking Systems look for keywords, and the more you have, the better off you’ll be. I should have applied to these jobs using my longer master resume (one that you can easily create on TheProfessional.me). It would have given me a much better chance of catching keywords when my resume was parsed.
• My Work Experience section wasn’t called Work Experience. I used the phrase “Career Achievements”. Applicant Tracking Systems look for phrases like “Work Experience” to parse information, and they don’t recognize phrases like “Career Achievements”. Therefore, all of my work experience was being garbled in the system.

What’s the Takeaway?

As an intelligent job seeker, it’s easy to waive off job search workshops on resumes, interviewing, LinkedIn, etc. That’s doubly true if you’re a jobseeker like I was: One who thought he knew everything about the subject. The truth is that trends in job-seeking change constantly. You might have been an expert on resumes five years ago, but that doesn't mean you’re an expert now.

Had I attended just one good resume workshop, or even spent a few hours Googling ATS trends, it would've saved me from innumerable headaches, and it would have cut my job search in half. Even if you’re doing 99% of things right in your job search, that 1% can make all the difference.

No matter how much you know, you can always benefit from someone else’s perspective. My advice to you is: Go to job search workshops. Attend job fairs and job clubs. Be the information sponge that I should have been during my job search. If you ever find yourself waving your hand in a dismissive manner and saying, “I don’t need to go to that. I could probably teach that seminar”, stop and think. Why not go? What’s the worst that could happen? You might save yourself a headache, as I would have.

"Finding a job in this economy is impossible."

How many times have you heard someone use an excuse like this when discussing their career?

It’s true that during periods of high unemployment (8.7% in Illinois right now) it’s difficult for even qualified applicants to elevate themselves above the glut of other applications. Coupled with the fact that many companies are scaling back their full-time staff in favor of hiring part-time employees and contract consultants, the picture looks grim indeed.

But there’s hope! You can turn the economic downturn on its head and use it to your advantage by using your interview to make the financial case to hire you.

What’s Your ROI?

When it comes down to it, the key to acing your interview is to convince the employer that hiring you is a fiscally responsible move. Doing this means you’ll have to offer them a positive return on their investment (ROI). In the business world, ROI is king, especially in this economy.

The best way to demonstrate a good ROI is to talk about your record of financial wins and cite specific examples of when you’ve been able to save a company time and/or money. As soon as you start speaking specifics, people start noticing. Even better, examples like these will demonstrate your ability to manage people, money, and processes without citing forced, job-seeking rhetoric or clichéd platitudes.

The question applicants should ask themselves when they’re deciding on experiences to highlight in an interview is whether their positive effects are quantifiable—that is to say: can you put a hard number on the money you’ve saved a company? Verifiable facts are far more impressive in an interview than vague impressions and explanations. If you can’t support your claims with facts, it might be time to reevaluate their value to your argument.

Express Your Impact                                         

When I help job-seekers prepare for interviews, I always ask them a series of key questions to help identify their financial contributions. By answering some of the questions below, you’ll be better prepared to effectively highlight your financial impact to an organization.

• How many people did I oversee/work with?
• How many partners were on this project? 
• How big was the budget? 
• How many calls per day did I make?
• How much money did the organization end up saving due to my actions?
• How much staff time did the refined process end up saving the company?

With some thorough company research and a little preparation, you’ll be able to use your answers to the above questions to synthesize the actual cost savings you’ve affected on your previous employers.

Armed with these numbers and a little charisma, you’ll be surprised how easily you can turn a negative situation into a positive one. Remember, the economic recession hasn’t just affected job-seekers; employers are also looking for any and all available means to streamline their organizations and save money. All you have to do is show them how to do it.