Here’s the background on this story (in case you live in Antarctica and you don’t pay attention to the fluffy news articles in-between the infrequent real news articles):
A few weeks ago, John Travolta was presenting at the Oscars. Travolta was there to introduce Idina Menzel, the singer of Disney’s mega-hit single from Frozen, “Let it Go”. If you don’t have kids, the name “Idina Menzel” and the song “Let it Go” are probably meaningless. However, if you know anyone under the age of 20, you've probably heard the song a million times. In fact, if you’re reading this and you’re under the age of 20, “Idina Menzel” probably means a whole lot more to you than “John Travolta” does.
Anyway, Travolta walked to the podium and very confidently introduced some fictional human named “Adele Dazeem”. His conviction and confident body language made some people think the teleprompter had the wrong (or in this case, made-up) name written on it. As it turns out, Travolta just biffed the name and went with it. Immediately afterward, Travolta was ridiculed on nearly every entertainment and news outlet in the universe. The next day, a “Travoltify Your Name” generator was made available via Slate.com (“Jeff Lareau” is turned into “Jak Lopeez”). Everyone under 20 will now think of Vinny Barbarino as “that weirdo who decided to make up a name at the Oscars.”
Keep in mind that most presenters at the Oscars seem a little bit nervous. It’s understandable because they’re standing in a full room of their peers and colleagues, while simultaneously being broadcast live to millions of people around the world. Presenters stutter sometimes, they’re a bit shaky, and they fall down if their name rhymes with Dennifer Plawrence. For the most part though, everyone comes out of it unscathed. For example, a few years ago Will Smith tripped up over his words, laughed at himself, and then corrected it. The next day, there were no “Will Smithify this sentence” word generators. Why? Because Will Smith noticed his error, laughed, and corrected it. He handled it like a human, not like an alien from Battlefield Earth.
You’re probably thinking, “What does this have to do with my job search?” Well, I’m glad you asked. Interviews are high pressure situations. People flub, they trip over their words, and they say “um” and “uh” a lot. If you say the wrong thing, it’s okay to stop yourself and correct the error. If it was a big error, it’s okay to laugh at yourself and say something like, “Well, THAT didn't come out right!” Errors and misspoken sentences create a tension in the air that makes the listener feel awkward. Admitting fault, making a joke out of it, and correcting the error will relieve the tension in the room quickly without making the interviewer think, “Did he just Travolta that sentence?”
The fact that John Travolta made a mistake is not a big deal. People make mistakes all the time. However, the way he decided to handle that mistake may have cost him a few film roles. No one remembers an error unless it’s handled poorly, and had John Travolta simply said, “Introducing Adele Dazeem, err, I’m sorry, Idina Menzel!”, no one would remember that he messed anything up.
Stay confident in your interviews, and don’t be afraid to acknowledge a slip-up!
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.