[acb-hsp] FW: [acb-l] Insights on Job Searching

[Baracco, Andrew W]

Good solid advice.
Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: acb-l-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of
Ray Campbell
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 9:10 AM
To: acb-l at acb.org; icb-l at icbonline.org; wisconsin at acb.org;
il-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [acb-l] Insights on Job Searching

Hello All:

I'm posting this since I know many of you reading this are either
searching for work yourselves, or, in a position helping people looking
for jobs.
These are some insights I gained after talking with a hiring manager at
a major company in my area.


=====start of text=====
JOB SEARCHING INSIGHTS
By Ray Campbell


On Friday, January 13, I had the opportunity to do some informational
interviewing with a hiring manager at a major company in my area.  This
person has worked in and hired for an industry which I want to return to
work in.

Here are a few important points I gained from our conversation:
.	Make sure you have a clean resume.  Look over your resume and
make
sure it's free of spelling errors, is grammatically correct and that it
looks nice in terms of fonts used and other formatting.  It's a good
idea to read your resume out loud, or, have someone read it to you.
Doing this will alert you to things which do not sound correct.  Don't
just rely on spell check to make sure everything is spelled correctly,
have it proofread.  This manager told me with the hundreds of resumes
they get on each job posting, it's essential your resume is clean.
.	Taylor your resume to the posting which you are applying for.  A
lot
of people have one resume out there which they've posted on a job search
site.  Look at the job description and make sure your resume highlights
the skills you offer which the employer is looking for.  This also gets
into how much work history you discuss on your resume.  If you're
applying for a job supporting mainframe COBOL applications, and you
worked with COBOL 20 years ago, you should touch on this because it will
help the employer realize you know what you are doing.  On the other
hand, if the posting specifies that you need to be proficient in
Microsoft Office 2007 and you worked in Microsoft Office 2000 10 years
or so ago, the hiring manager probably doesn't care about that.
.	In the interview, it's perfectly acceptable if you get a
question
you do not have an immediate answer for to say, let me think about that
for a minute.  Too many people feel under pressure to answer questions
and don't think it through.  Also in the interview, be sure to talk
about how your skills will help the company achieve its core values.
The time tested idea of doing your homework on the company is a big
help, and there's kno reason you can't easily do that today with the
internet.
.	Google your name and see what comes up.  This manager told me he
does this, and he especially looks at social media.  A Google search on
your name is just a good thing to do once in a while to see what's out
there.  It can reveal some interesting stuff, especially if you have a
common name.
.	Be real careful what you're putting up on social media like
Twitter
and FaceBook.  This manager said he looks for two things.  First, how
much time are you spending on social media during traditional business
hours, especially if you say you've been working for the past X number
of  years.
If he sees during the time you say you've been working that you're on
social media sites a lot during traditional business hours, 9-5 Monday
through Friday, that's a read flag because he assumes you're at work
every day.
He's looking to see how much time you spend doing this during the work
day and not working.  Another thing he looks for on social media is how
much time people spend complaining about work, their bosses, ETC.  If
you're complaining a lot about your job or your bosses, that's a red
flag to him because he may figure the problem isn't the job or the
bosses, it's you.
.	If you are blind, you may need to spend part of the interview
discussing how you would do a given job.  If the conversation starts
heading in the direction of discussing accommodations, it may be good
because perhaps the interviewer likes you but wants to understand how
you do things.
The person I was speaking with said me or the person in that situation
would have a good sense of where the conversation is going and know how
to handle it.
.	The final point, alert your references when you apply for a
position
so they know they may be called.

As you would with a regular job interview, thank anyone you information
interview with.  In my case, I also sent this person a copy of my resume
and asked him to go over it and give me good, honest feedback.


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