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Michelle A. Riklan
Certified Resume Writer, Career Coach, LinkedIn Profile Writer, Trainer, Facilitator, Author, Columnist, Speaker
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Career Newsletter
Volume II, Issue 8 August 2013
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Riklan Resources, LLC 522 Highway 9 North #290 Manalapan, New Jersey 07726 (800) 540-3609
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Greetings!
Welcome to our career newsletter!
Keeping it Clean on Facebook
 Summer is almost over. Did you have a good time at the beach, partying with friends 'til kingdom come? Great! It's always good to relax and have fun during summer.
Now to serious matters, how many of those I-party-like-a-rock star pictures did you post on Facebook? Those pictures might be a good way to boost your online popularity among friends, but it can also tarnish your reputation amongst potential employers.
Career Builder, with the help of Harris Interactive, surveyed about 2140 hiring managers and recruiters this year, and found out that 2 out of 5 companies (including several big name organizations) check social media accounts before hiring an applicant.
Forty-three percent of recruiters and hiring managers surveyed confirmed that they found something, which led them NOT to hire an applicant.
What are Employers Looking for on Your Social Media Accounts?
They're usually checking if a candidate is a professional (65%), well-rounded (35%), good fit for the company culture (51%) and honest about the qualifications cited in their resume (51%).
Here's a quick list of things to delete, hide or set as "private" on your social media accounts:
- Racy photos - Pictures of yourself wearing swimsuits or posing provocatively won't help your chances of getting hired.
- Bad English or Text-speak - 30% of recruiters turn down applicants who often post status updates with poor grammar.
- Bad mouthing previous employers and racist remarks - 30% of survey respondents confirmed they don't like applicants that bad mouth their previous employers online, while 28% said profiles with scathing remarks against other religions, races, and gender are immediately removed from the list of qualified candidates.
- Lying about qualifications - This is obvious enough, but I guess some candidates don't know how recruiters are able to trace their qualifications through social media. Think of it this way, if you say you're from MIT, yet have no friend or follower from that school, then something is definitely wrong.
- Drugs, alcohol and wild parties - I know these pictures remind you of the good times, but let it be just that, a reminder of the good times. If you posted pictures like this on your account, set the album to "private" or "friends only," that way potential employers won't see your half-drunk picture and think twice about your professional merits.
Quick Assignment
Go through your Facebook timeline, then search for comments or status updates that may fall under one of the categories above. Delete or hide them. After that, check your album and tagged photos, and set each album with inappropriate pictures to private.
Do the same for your Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media accounts.
---------- Our list is growing! If you would like to advertise in future issues, please send an e-mail to robin@riklanresources.com. Please feel free to send suggestions for improvement and additional areas that you would like to see covered in future issues to michelle@riklanresources.com. |
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Now is the Best Time to Prepare for Your Job Search
by Michelle A. Riklan, ACRW, CPRW, CEIC
 How long does it take to get a new job? A week or two, maybe? This thinking is the reason why so many job applicants don't start preparing for the job search long before they actually need to.
The usual job search, from finding job ads, sending a resume, up to the job offer can take 90 to 180 days! Sometimes it can take more time, depending on the position and the industry.
Some months are better for job hunting than others, too. For instance, summer and holidays are the slowest times of the year for hiring.
It's already August, roughly 4 months before Thanksgiving, one of the slow times for hiring, so it's best to get a move on before it's too late to submit your applications!
Why Prepare Early?
Surely, it won't take as long as you say it will...
Aside from the 90-180 day guideline by A. Coleman Jr., author of Secrets to Success: The Definite Career Development Guide for New and First Generation Professionals; starting with the job search now gives you plenty of opportunities. If you put off your search until November or December, you may not see as much job opportunities because most companies have maxed out their budgets!
Aside from that, companies are also busy wrapping up projects and preparing for next year, so they don't pay much attention to applicants.
Starting early will also give you ample time to prepare the materials you will need for the search and application process.
What materials?
I already have my resume and cover letter, isn't that all I need?
No. You're going to need a lot more than that if you want to make it to the top of the pile! Here's a list:
- A list of the companies and position you're targeting. Google and LinkedIn are your best friends for this task.
- Names of recruiters, hiring managers and employees of your target company worth reaching out to. They say it's not what you know, it's who you know; so why be content to submit your resume, when you can reach out to these people and get an edge over others?
- You need to get a subscription to job portals where people in your chosen industry usually post jobs. You can also set up an alert via Google, so that you get an email alert every time a job post with your chosen keywords is posted.
- Professional but totally kick-ass cover letter to compliment a killer resume.
- A collection of achievements in previous jobs, especially details on projects you led, targets hit or surpassed and awards given to you.
- Stellar recommendations from previous employers and colleagues.
Now this may all look overwhelming to you, that's why you need a professional resume writer to help you consolidate all this information into a well-branded representation of your career. Say you have five or maybe twenty years of experience. Do you think it's enough to list all your previous employments, job descriptions and achievements into a 5-page long resume?
No.
That's a big injustice to your professional experience! A professional resume writer can help you create a strong resume that tells the story of your career, highlights your talents, and potential contributions to your prospective employer! A simple bullet-style resume can't do that!
Contact us if you would like your resume to land on the top of the pile.
Riklan Resources
800.540.3609
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| Focus on what YOU want to break the job-search cycle
by Jeri Hird Dutcher, CPRW, CEIP, CPCC
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 "I want a general resume." - "I want to keep my options open and cast as wide a net as possible."
- "I don't want to leave out any possibilities for positions."
- "I am very versatile, so my wide variety of skills will appeal to a lot of employers."
I hear one of these almost every day.
They make perfect sense if you are using the old strategy of sending out resumes until you catch someone's attention.They interview you, and you accept the job they offer.
Except that it will take you a very long time. And the job you get may not fit very well. You may find yourself dissatisfied with the company fairly quickly. So, there you are again, sending out resumes.
That is a fairly typical, traditional job search cycle. Here is the way to get off that particular merry-go-round.
Focus
First, decide you are willing to work harder to have a shorter job search. What I am about to propose isn't an easy answer. It's plain old hard work. The difference is the results.
Still with me? Good. Now, let's roll up our sleeves.
Part of what's wrong with the traditional job search (with the general resume and keeping all of your options open) is that it is based on the assumption that the person who hires you knows what you want and is willing and able to give it to you in return for your salary. The problem is:
- In the traditional job search, about the only thing your prospective employer knows about what YOU want is the job. You want the job.
- Let's assume they're interested enough to ask you in the interview what you want to be doing in five years. Does that mean they will remember and take your ambition into consideration when updating the company's strategic plan thereafter? "Jim, the new guy in accounting, wants to be head of the department by 2018." Nope, haven't seen that in a business plan yet.
The thing is, you probably don't know what you want either. Except a job. You want a job that's better than the job you have.
Use a new process
It's going to take a new process to get a new job that will be better than the one you have. I'm going to outline the process here, and then later, we'll go into each step.
First, decide.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? Choose. Make up your mind.
Now. Not after you read the job boards or ask your sister's husband's cousin if they're hiring.
Now.
Before you can leave the traditional job search behind, you have to know:
- What you want to do.
- Where you want to do it.
- For whom.
- For how much.
The traditional job search leads you to believe someone is waiting to hire you. You just have to find them.
The new job search says figure it out before you start your search. Determine what YOU want, and you're oh so much closer to achieving it.
If you don't want to wait that long to find out what you need to do to leave the traditional job search behind, contact me to talk about what YOU want.
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Jerri Hird Dutcher is a certified professional and international award-winning resume writer, career coach, and interview expert who inspires executives and professionals to envision, attract, and achieve the career of their dreams. She can be reached at jeri@workwriteresumes.com.
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Book Launch: Social Networking for Business Success: How to Turn Your Interests into Income
By Miriam Salpeter and Hannah Morgan
Social Networking for Business Success: How to Turn Your Interests into Income
Paperback
List Price: $20.00
Our Price: $11.81
Buy Now
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We are pleased to share the news that our friend and colleague Miriam Salpeter is officially launching her new book, Social Networking for Business Success: How to Turn Your Interests into Income, on September 3rd with co-author Hannah Morgan. Miriam is offering the following promotional specials for our readers:
- A free download of one of the most favorite chapters by the authors: http://bit.ly/1df5gGs.
- Free checklists for business owners getting started online. The authors are planning to create over a dozen checklists to help entrepreneurs, or people who are thinking of starting businesses, get ramped up online. The first one is about branded bios: http://bit.ly/16iwIQ0.
- The authors are offering a free Q&A call-in session to anyone who buys the book on September 3rd. (It's on the honor system.) Once you purchase the book on September 3rd, all you need to do is fill out the form at http://bit.ly/16Rq0zm to get the call-in details.
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Suggested Reading: Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work
By Leslie A. Perlow
Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work
by Leslie A. Perlow
by Harvard Business Review Press
Hardcover
List Price: $27.00
Our Price: $0.99
Buy Now
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If you have a favorite career book to suggest or an article that you'd like to submit for our upcoming issues, please send your information to newsletter@riklanresources.com.
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101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career
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Do you have a career related product or service that you would like to promote in our upcoming newsletters? Contact us at robin@riklanresources.com for more information.
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What's Happening at Riklan Resources
Coming Soon...
- Book launch of 101 Great Ways to Compete in Today's Job Market
- The National Career Summit
Watch for details!
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"Begin somewhere. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do."
-- Liz Smith
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| About Riklan Resources
Riklan Resources offers the following services:
- Resumes that land on the top of the pile!
- Coaching that puts you ahead of the competition.
- Training that ensures career advancement.
We want you to reach your top potential!
Riklan Resources is now on Facebook. Be sure to stop by and like our page!
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