Alright Job Seekers, you had your chance last week to vent your frustrations, but let’s hear from the other side!

Today I’d like to hear what recruiters and hiring managers say if asked what frustrates them about job seekers.  I’m sure I didn’t capture everything, so if your answer is “other” then please do add your answer in the comments section.

Oh, and thanks to Bridget Forney for the idea in her comment last week.

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Ok, so I haven’t ran a poll here in a while, and I think it’s time to start one up. A few job seekers have been ranting about their frustrations lately, and while we all have fun bitching and moaning about the job search process, we all hate one part of it more than others.  Fill in your answer in the poll below, and if you choose “other”, please jot down your “other” response in the comments sections.

Thanks, Corn Heads!

Thanks to those for voting in this weeks poll!  Here are the results:

• First Place:  60% – Resume Editing (using existing resume)
• Second Place: 13% –  Cover Letter Creation AND Interview Preparation
• Third Place: 7% – Full Resume Writing (from scratch) AND Accomplishment Creation
• Fourth Place: 0% – Reference Verification

Resumes are important, don’t let anyone tell you differently. Recruiters and hiring managers are flooded with resumes once they post a position and simply can’t spend a long time reviewing each resume.  What does this mean for you?  Well, it means you better have a clear, easy to read, and exciting resume!  The resume needs to grab their attention quickly, and keep the readers attention.  Most resumes I read have spot on content, but the format, grammar, or flow of the resume comes off sloppy or cluttered.

If you aren’t fully confident with your resume, I would suggest talking to the nice folks over at Vertical Media Solutions.  Compared to their competitors, they have much more affordable prices, and offer a much more intimate service in which they will help you develop a strategy surrounding your job search.  Personally, I find the Resume Edit and Accomplishment Creation services are extremely helpful to a job seeker looking for a strong boost.

Go to www.vmsolu.com and check out their services.

Thanks to those for voting in this weeks poll!  Here are the results:

First Place:  71% Yes
Second Place: 29%  No

Not sure how smart it is, but I’ve known hiring managers who make hiring decisions based on cover letters.  I also know hiring managers/recruiters who when tremendously busy will pass on reading the cover letter and go straight to the resume.  So, is it a waste of time?  I surely don’t think so, and neither does blogger Kim Thompson.  Click here to read Thompson’s 10 reasons to use a cover letter.  Not sure how to write one, or what needs to be included in your cover letter?

Here are COTJ’s 7 Cover Letter Writing Tips:

1. Keep it short – Write no more than one page, using three paragraphs.
2. Three paragraph format -  In the 1st paragraph, identify the position that you’re applying for and how you have learned about the opening.  Do some research on the company and also point out why you’re interested in working for them.  In the 2nd paragraph, discuss your qualifications and how they match up to the position.  Use this paragraph to brag about you, talking about how some of your major accomplishments are transferable to the desirable position.  In the 3rd paragraph, thank them for their consideration and include your contact information.
3. Customize each letter – Each letter you send out should be unique, and written with a very specific reader in mind.  Make sure to change the position title, recruiter/hiring contact information, company name, company address, and/or anything else that is different from the last position you sent a letter for.  Keep in mind that although some positions you’ll apply for have similar responsibilities listed, not all will be exactly the same.  In your 2nd paragraph, you may want to tweak how your qualifications match up to the job.  If you skip the customization stage you may turn out looking like a complete idiot when Tom Jones reads a letter addressed to Wayne Newton.
4. Be positive and confident - Your reader will be able to tell from your cover letter.  I swear.
5. Check for typos and grammatical errors - This is a killer.  A killer I tell you.  Ask a friend to proof read specifically targeting typos and major grammatical errors.  A slew of mistakes won’t entice the reader to open up your resume, of course the point of sending a cover letter.
6. Thank the reader - Make sure to do this in paragraph 3.  Thank them for reading the cover letter and your resume.  Assume that they are, or have already read your resume, and maybe they will.
7. Keep your cover letters – File them in whatever way is easiest for you.  Recruiters can take a long time to get back to you, and when they do they may want the cover letter again.

Thanks for reading Corn Heads!

Thanks to those for voting in this weeks poll!  Here are the results:

• First Place:  50% Other (listed below)
• Second Place: 42%  Monster
• Third Place: 8% CareerBuilder
• Fourth Place: 0% Yahoo! HotJobs

Job Search Websites Listed in other:

• Dice.com
• idealist.org
• Careercast.com
• linkedin.com
• Naukri.com

This survey fails to show it, but Monster and CareerBuilder are losing traffic to Yahoo! HotJobs.  As reported by John Zappe, from June 2008 to June 2009, Monster and CareerBuilder have seen a smaller % in unique visitors to their job search websites than Yahoo! HotJobs.  Maybe what’s most surprising is that CareerBuilder has actually experienced a -1% change from June 2008 to June 2009.  Monster has grew 6% in unique visitors, while HotJobs is leading the big three websites with a 23% change.  

Other search engines noted are Indeed, SnagAJob, and Simply Hired, Inc.  In one year’s time Indeed has enjoyed a 59% increase in  unique vistors.  SnagAJob sits close with a 48% jump, and Simply Hired, Inc witnessed a 35% increase.  While these three search engines are becoming more popular, the big three still lead in total monthly unique visitors.  To read John Zappe’s entire article, click here.

Quickly, I’ll add in my comments:

1. Utilize each of the Top 3 to your advantage.  Post your resume to all, or skim through the openings on each one, just make sure  your reaping the benefits free job searching.  Many companies will only chose 1, possibly 2 of them to post their openings.  If you are a religious Monster.com user than you may be missing out on CareerBuilder, or Yahoo!
2. Start using websites that target your niche.  Review my quick article on Niche job sites.
3. Find a search engine that is exclusively for your location.  For instance, you can go to www.phillyjobfest.com if you live in the Philadelphia area.  Here is some quick information on Philly Job Fest.

Thanks to those for voting in this weeks poll!  Here are the results:

• First Place:  42% Flexible Work Schedules/Company Culture
• Second Place: 25%  Competitive Benefit Package
• Third Place: 17% Competitive Salary
• Tie for Fourth Place: 8% Short Commute and Financially Stable Company

Todays worker wants more than just a nice salary, and organizations are rapidly catching on to that fact.  Google is quite arguably the most desirable and most popular technical company to work for.  While it’s global, house hold name certainly keeps their recruiters happy, Googles innovative offices and company culture create one of the strongest word of mouth recruiting campaigns.  Did you know that some Google offices have an indoor bike lane for employers?  For some pictures of “everyday life at Google” CLICK HERE. Ok, so maybe this sort of office environment is not for every company or industry, but they back it up by providing a very competitive benefit package.  Their benefit packages include everything you’d expect from a giant like Google, but once you get through the basics, take a look at the “beyond the basics” and “way beyond the basics” benefits categories.   CLICK HERE to view the glorious benefits of working at Google.  If you didn’t click on the link, I strongly suggest you do right away.  It’s an eye opener, and maybe depressing depending on the status of the benefits your receiving.

Now just a quick comment on our two last place categories to wrap this up.  Job seekers will happily accept positions that have more than average commute times if the offering company is one with a culture/environment that meets their needs, as well as offers a competitive salary and benefits package.  With this in mind, it’s easy to see why “Short Commute” only scored an 8% in the poll.  However, I was surprised to see “Financially Stable Company” drop down to 8%, considering the state of our current economy.  Maybe once you’ve been burned, you’ll change your mind.

Thanks again to those for voting.  Have a nice week corn heads.

Thanks to those for voting in this weeks poll!  COTJ asked readers to share how many hours they spend preparing for an interview, here’s how it went:

• First Place:  64%  0-1
• Second Place: 27%  1-2
• Third Place: 9% 2+

Candidates should always spend at least one hour preparing for an interview.  In my opinion, preparation builds confidence, and confidence creates a persuasive candidate who can get just about anything from the interviewers.  Pretend your interview is like a final exam from college or high school.  You can either cram your preparation into one big session a day before the interview, or maybe spread it out over time.  Think about what has worked for you before and continue to do that.  Here are some factors you should consider when preparing for your interview:

• Put strong effort into really knowing your resume.  Your goal is to able to explain in detail your highlighted points in the resume without looking down.  This alone can take an hour, but it will prove you know yourself, as well as prove the experiences are real.  The constant eye contact with your interviewer(s) is also important.
• Study the company.  Go through the company website to check out their history, as well as where they plan to go.  Maybe they have a new product or service that you can bring up at the interview.  Spend at least 15-30 minutes just researching the company so you can talk intelligently about what they do.  Interviewers love this.
• Spend 10-15 minutes preparing some questions that you can ask the interviewer.  Here’s a previous article I’ve wrote about this – http://cornonthejob.com/2009/07/12/questions-you-should-ask-at-an-interview/
• If lucky enough, you might even be told what to expect on the interview.  If they let you know which method of interviewing will be used, then research it online, and put in time practicing sample questions.
• Write down a list of projects you’ve worked on.  Think of the positive times, and successes you’ve had in your career so far and write those down!  Write down a few negative experiences as well.  You may be asked to talk about a situation that didn’t go so well for you.  They will be looking for what you’ve taken away from that experience and what you’ve learned about yourself.  This ones important, prepare a nice list and memorize it.
• Practice, practice, practice.  Study your resume again, and once you feel confident,  practice with a friend.  Go through your resume and try to keep your head up making eye contact the entire time.  Practicing will also help you get comfortable speaking in front of others.  Interviewing is a form of public speaking, maybe not as intense as talking to a large group, but it can be intimidating.  If you feel you need help in this area, I know a great communications specialist!  Go to http://www.RonicaCommunications.com/ and see if the services offered can help give you the confidence you need to communicate/sell yourself effectively on the interview.

There is nothing wrong with just ‘winging it’, but preparing yourself will ensure you’ve done just about everything you can to rock their socks off at the interview.  Do it…

Wonderful, the results are in!  Thanks to those for voting on our very first Poll of the Week!  COTJ fans were given three incredibly exciting topics and needed to pick which one they most wanted to learn about.  In the end, our results went like this:

• First Place:  64%  “How to answer the question, What is your biggest weakness?”
• Tie for Second Place: 18%  “Resume Tips” and “Using Twitter as a job search tool”.

Thanks, again for voting.  The other two topics will be covered at another point in time, or thrown back into a Poll of the Week in the future.  OK, moving along to what you’re waiting for, this week’s answer!

First, I must say that this question is absolutely awful.  Appears like I’m not alone in this belief, because recruiters/interviewers are finally taking this question out.  In my opinion, using this old school interview question is quite lazy.  The purpose of this question is to see if any of the skills or behaviors that are critical to the position are on the candidates “weak list”.  In my opinion, other interview techniques are much better at determining this, specifically Behavioral Interviewing is the best at doing this.  To read up on Behavioral Interviewing click here.  Along with being useful, this is also a question that many candidates expect and practice for, and now job seekers have a new weapon…me!  Here is our Do and Don’t list for answering a question regarding your biggest weakness.

The Don’t List

• Do not answer with one of those popular canned responses you’ve heard before like, “I work too hard”, or “Sometimes, I care too much about my projects”.  Experienced interviewers (hopefully aren’t asking the question) have heard it all, and your answer will do nothing to make you stand out.
• Do not say, “I don’t have any weaknesses”.  No ones perfect, we all have weaknesses.  Successful people pick careers where their weaknesses won’t come into play.
• Do not lie and make up a fake weakness.  You may say something that triggers another question on that weakness, and then your caught in a run down.  I only suggest lying to those incredibly experienced liars, con artists, or the man Leonardo DiCaprio played in “Catch Me If You Can”.  Do you concur?

The Do List

• Do answer this question honestly.  Before your interview spend time thinking about areas that you need to work on.  Possibly you have an area that you can work on easily, that will be perfect to bring up in the interview.  If one of your weak areas is public speaking, start taking public speaking classes, or even start small and give presentations to friends.  You can also sign up for a project or committee at work that gives you the opportunity to talk to small groups.  Then not only have you worked on your weak area, you can also bring this up on an interview when asked about it.
• Do review the job description before your interview.  This gives you a chance to see which skill sets are needed.  If more than a few of your weak areas show up, then I’m not too sure why you’ve applied in the first place.  This also gives you a chance to think of your weak areas that do not show up on the job description.  Talk about one of those weaknesses, and again show how you are looking to improve on it.  The recruiter or interviewer will take note of it, but won’t cross you off the list since your weakness is not a critical skill set for the position.

We can only hope that as another decade passes, questions like these will be replaced with better interviewing techniques.  For now, use these tips above and your weakness will pass with flying colors.  Do you concur?  I love that movie.