#100 Job Hunting Tips
1. You are the CEO of YOU, Inc. Your prime job is to sell your skills to the highest paymaster. So, think and work like a competent CEO.
2. Treat yourself like an enterprise. Your skills are your product and service. You are the Chief Selling Officer of your enterprise.
3. Don’t market yourself like a commodity. Differentiate yourself or go home.
4. Use your LinkedIn account with the same frequency as you use your Facebook.
5. Employers are always searching for talented people. Be seen. Use social media as if it is your billboard.
6. Use your Facebook account like LinkedIn. Project yourself that you are expert in your area.
7. Professionals use Facebook more than LinkedIn. Take advantage of Facebook by projecting your brand.
8. Job hunting is a personal development project and you are the Project Manager. Take responsibility of your results.
9. Job hunting is similar to selling anything. It is selling your skills, ideas, time, talent, energies and expertise. So, learn the basic selling techniques.
10. Starting a job hunting process is like launching a product or service. You are the product and you are the brand manager and sales manager.
11. Do you know your USPs (Unique Selling Points) and UPPs (Unique Pride Points) as a professional? Differentiate or live like mediocre.
12. Your CV is your marketing brochure and Cover Letter is a sales letter. Invest time and energy and passion to make your CV/Cover Letter an immaculate document.
13. Your CV is your ambassador. It sells you in your absence. Make sure your ambassador has charisma.
14. Your CV is your ambassador. If it is poorly drafted, you will be perceived as careless individual.
15. CV is a negative screening tool. Recruiters use it to screen you out. While, reading your CV, recruiters’ fingers are on ‘delete’ button.
16. You can’t afford to be lousy and careless in case of your CV. You fast-track to recycle bin if your CV has typo/grammar mistakes.
17. Two years back, I lost a Head Hunting Contract with a big company. I had forwarded them a few CVs that spelt Career as Carrier and College as Collage. I learned lesson the hard way.
18. Against one advertised job on social media, recruiters receive 100-200 CVs in one day. You have hardly 6-10 seconds time to sell yourself. Recruiters select only 4-5 CVs for the interview stage. Your chances of success are only 2-4%. Can you afford to be casual?
19. Your CV’s role ends when you get interview call. Now, sell yourself in person.
20. A brilliant person with shabby CV will get less interview calls than an average person with an outclass CV. I have observed it so many times.
21. Each spelling mistake in your CV increases your chances of going to recycle bin at least by 20%. Make five spelling mistakes in your CV; you will be in recycle bin for sure. Want to experiment? Do it.
22. Your CV is your Marketing Brochure. Did you ever see brochure of any product that starts with words like “the objective is to find a dynamic client”? Then why your CV starts with “Objective is to find a dynamic organization…”?
23. One of the job descriptions of Managers is to communicate with clients, vendors, seniors and government agencies. Your CV and Cover Letter is a good indication of your written communication skills.
24. Your CV should be compelling, convincing and intriguing. Most of the CVs are like “Don’t-operate-machinery-while-reading-this-CV” type.
25. Like every marketing brochure, CV has to be unique and differentiating. Your content defines your capabilities.
26. Your CV is not a circular or office memo. If you are copying someone else’s content, then where is your uniqueness.
27. God made you YouNique. Why are you trying to be someone else’s copy? Leverage your USPs (Unique Selling Points) and UPPs (Unique Pride Points).
28. Many people ask me to share with them some good CV template. Remember, CV is not a template. It is content. Use any conservative template, it will be okay.
29. Your Cover Letter is your sales letter. It is based on the point “why any employer should hire me?”.
30. Employers/recruiters’ dilemma is that they cannot call every applicant for the interview. They have neither resources nor time. They use your own CV against you to screen you out.
31. The best thing is that you write your own CV. The next best thing is that you get it written by those who know this art.
32. Emails are losing effectiveness for job-seekers due to large quantity of irrelevant and junk stuff. If you can send your CV by hand or by courier, it will increase your chances of interview call.
33. If the recruiter does not open your email for one day, you are almost buried under the heap. To avoid burying, send the CV through courier as well or send the email after one week again.
34. Job hunting is like a movie. Your CV and Cover Letter is the opening script. Make sure you are projected like a hero and not like an extra character.
35. Your Cover Letter should consist of only 4-5 compelling points that “why your company should hire my services”.
36. Don’t get interview calls? Ask yourself, “What have I done differently?”
37. Sending your CVs to recruiters on weekend drastically minimizes your chances of being called for interview. Your CV becomes victim of holiday mood of recruiters and by next working day it is buried under heap.
38. Never send your CV to recruiters on first working day of the week. Best days are mid days. If recruiters’ week starts on Monday, the best days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
39. Always be aware of recruiting seasons. Companies hire more people in the beginning of the year and beginning of any quarter.
40. If you know that recruiter is on holidays, never send him/her your CV. Let him/her return and settle otherwise your CV will be buried under the heap.
41. Apply in those companies which are growing and profitable and have young management. Your chances of success will be more.
42. Never send your CV to multiple emails Ids put in “To” or “CC” or “BCC”. Only the lazy and lousy job hunters do it. Always write a personalized email. Your personal touch never goes unnoticed.
43. Your CV/Cover Letter should not be like “To whom it may concern.” Target company and target the person who is decision maker.
44. As a clever job hunter, try to reach the decision maker directly. If you are able to bypass the lower layers, your chances of success are many times more.
45. Want to multiply your frustration in job hunting? Always send your CV/Cover Letter to HR department. If you are smart, bypass HR guys unless you are applying in HR department.
46. Real decision makers about your selection are Departmental Heads and for senior positions CEOs. Be smart. Approach them creatively or you will be lost in the heap.
47. Your CV/Cover Letter is not a “one-size-fits-all” document. Always customize for each company.
48. If you are applying against a position advertised on net or in papers, extract the key words from advertisement and embed in your CV/Cover Letter. Your chances for being called for interview will increase.
49. Jack Trout says, “Where there is a way, there is a way to differentiate”.
50. Your CV is a business document. Nobody is interested if you are married or single or you love football. Keep all the personal stuff in your heart.
Tips # 5 1 to 100 will follow in next post.
ref:ashrafchaudhry.com
