Currently more than 6.1 millions Americans have been unemployed for more than 60 months. It’s no surprise that books on how to land a job are selling well. A new book has just been released called “Cracking the New Job Market: The 7 Rules for Getting Hired in Any Economy.” by R. William Holland.
Holland reports some useful statistics on were people are now finding new jobs based on a CareerXroads survey. Job boards now only represent 13% of external hires. 27% come from referrals from existing employees, vendors and past employees. Company career web sites accounted for another 22%. So don’t rely on Job boards and head hunters as much as you have in the past anymore.
The book gives all the usual advice such as focus your résumé to be specific to each employer you apply to. Your résumé should not be about you.
"Your résumé is not just a summary of what you have accomplished. It is a promise of what you can accomplish for someone else," he writes. That’s where value creation comes in.
How to create value? Put yourself in the shoes of the employer, Holland says.
If your résumé isn’t written specifically for the job you’re seeking, a do-over is in order. Here are Holland’s tips:
- The school you attended and your college major are much less important to an employer than what’s in it for them. Because the job market is overcrowded, allowing your credentials to speak for themselves won’t work any longer.
- Ask yourself what you can do to create more value for the employer than your competitor can. In other words, translate your background into what a company needs.
- Never assume that the connection between your experience and the company’s needs is obvious. Connect the dots for the hiring managers. Learn what skills they seek by trolling the company website, reading industry magazines and checking the job posting carefully. Look for key words in the job description and on the company website — verbs and adjectives that describe the person they are seeking and the values the company espouses.
- Use active verbs to state your accomplishments, and include the result of your work. If you did it "in a limited time" or "short-handed" or "on a limited budget," make sure they know that.
You can read more at USA Today
You should also add quantitate results of how you have helped other companies, such as how much money you have saved them. Providing numbers helps. Holland also covers how to find your dream job using social media such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. The book covers everything you would ever want to know about landing a dream job, so be prepared for some long hours reading it.
About Charlie Sheehan
I started A Dream Job as a resource for those seeking an exciting, fulfilling and rewarding career. You spend most of your Lifetime at work so why not make your job "a dream job".
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