Classic and modern job searching tips

By William Entriken

10 minutes

This page includes an affiliate link. And hopefully I'll get paid if you click it. This does not increase the price you pay, you would get the same price with or without my link.

I recently started as Senior Financial Analyst at CDI Corporation, ending my 3 month, 23 day job search. My job is to do financial analysis for corporate reporting as well as provide information that can support business decisions for individual business units – so I get to report to no less than 5 C-Level executives (“report to” in the sense that I will write reports that they read). The job is in “one of those buildings downtown” that I can walk to and see from my house.

If you have talked to me in the past 3 months, you’d already know this because I’ve been telling everyone exactly what position I am going to get since I left my last job. AND YOU CAN TOO. Here’s some advice I picked up along the way.

Stop reading the news

Really. The big picture out there isn’t great right now. There are some idiots/politicians/propagandists out there saying otherwise, but it would be best to just tune that whole situation out of your head. For me, that means: no TV, no radio, no Mish Shedlock, no news.google.com, and tell Mom to STFU when she says “it’s OK, the average time to find a new job nowadays is XXX”.

This advice direct from Jim Knocke, my great-uncle and 1987 winner of the Jefferson Award for Public Service (only 5 are awarded nationally per year, delivered by the President).

Fix your silly-ass resume

For a sample two-page resume, see mine. I much prefer the one-page format and that is the one that actually landed me this position.

If you have trouble choosing what to put in/leave out and getting everything into a good format, do this: open Notepad and just type stories describing things you have accomplished. Then get your friends to help you choose what sounds the best and turn it into headlines. This is the only important part of the process.

Write a what-can-I-do-for-you format cover letter

Nobody cares if you are looking for a position that allows you to use and further develop your skills in XXX (except for you and your mom). This sentence is pure BS, and it shouldn’t resemble any part of your cover letter. Here is a cover letter, verbatim quoted in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People first published in 1937:

Dear Sir,

My ten years of bank experience should be of interest to a rapidly growing bank like yours.

In various capacities in bank operations with the Bankers Trust Company in New York, leading to my current assignment as Branch Manager I have acquired skills in all phases of banking including depositor relations, credits, loans and administration.

I will be relocating to Phoenix in May and I am sure I can contribute to your growth and profit. I will be in Phoenix the week of April 3 and would appreciate the opportunity to show you how I can help your bank meet its goals.

Sincerely,
Barbara L. Anderson

I know… you don’t have 10 years bank experience leading to your current assignment as Branch Manager, your career is probably much more boring. But if you can’t headline with something in the template “My XXX experience should be of interest to a XXX like yours.” then you should just stop looking for a job, hope for another extension for unemployment benefits, and vote Democrat. Side note, everyone should buy and read How to Win Friends & Influence People.

Put a quarter in your shoe during interviews

Whenever it catches your attention, that is your reminder to smile and realize how much you appreciate having that interview. Also from Uncle Jim.

Use the right resume posting site

Engineers use Monster, Business People use CareerBuilder, IT people use Dice. Get your resume on the correct site and set up daily emails. Make sure the title of your posting is catchy and that you have the appropriate keywords inside it. Repost your resume with changes every 2-3 weeks. This advice is based on HR resume searching habits.

If you do it right, it should look like this after a few weeks:

Resume on Monster

Take unfair advantages (a Will bonus section)

Every time you post for a job, check on LinkedIn if you have a connection at that company. Get them as an employee reference.

To get my current job I went through an interview round with the company CFO that included such questions as “what options does the Fed have to inflate the economy?”, “why is the current situation in the US similar to the lost decade in Japan?” and “would you rather invest in gold or treasury inflation-protected securities?” The other round focused on my basic experience, and how well I can use Excel. This was a pretty honest transaction, and I would be happy to not get picked if there’s another candidate out there who also has 10 years Excel experience, can work with numbers efficiently, and can answer those three questions and more like I did.

Not all interviews are honest like the one I had. Sometimes HR is too lazy to read the resumes that come in, so they put completely ridiculous requirements into the job description. Also, putting impossible requirements in the job description limits the candidates’ ability to sue for discrimination or other issues if they are not selected. Here’s some requirements of one position I recently interviewed for at Comcast:

My background includes none of that, but they called me! It turns out what they actually wanted is someone who can learn new things quickly, talk to people, and understand business processes.

I got lucky there, but maybe you won’t. If you think you can do whatever it is that Comcast needs with that posting and you have to lie your way into that interview, do it! I don’t judge people. And I definitely don’t judge my friends and dear blog readers. The HR process has changed, there’s too much BS. But at the end of the day, if the most able person gets the job, that’s OK by me.

Keyword stuffing (a Will bonus section)

As an experiment, I tried stuffing my resume with keywords that recruiters might search for: all the certifications available in the Accounting and Finance fields, a list of all verbs and verb phrases used in other resumes, and a list of all American companies with $4+ billion in revenue. That list is posted here for your convenience.

Using that significantly increased the number of phone calls and emails I got (3+ calls per day, 10+ interview requests per day) and 1000+ hits on CareerBuilder. But most of them sucked. You probably don’t want to do this. However, you should be cognizant of word choice in your resume, and include phrases and lingo that is appropriate to your field.

Update 2012-02-15, thanks to Grandmom who made her world debut with Grandmom bakes virus bread:         How To Ace A Job Interview On The Phone (forbes.com)

Update 2014-02-26, for resume tips, find one target jobs you would like to apply for, send $30 PayPal to paypal.com@phor.net and I will get you comparable resumes in your neighborhood that will give you a GREAT idea of how to present yourself!

▧

Comments

Two people asked, and yes I did tell my Mom to STFU when she said "it's OK, the average time to find a new job nowadays is XXX". But we're cool now.

William Entriken

This isn't guaranteed, but I found avoiding passive voice greater improves you writing style and people pay attention to your writing more even though they may not know why. Adding certainty also helps out. For example in the sample cover letter: My ten years of bank experience IS OF interest to a rapidly growing bank like yours. I AM relocating to Phoenix in May and KNOW I can contribute to your growth and profit. I AM arriving in Phoenix the week of April 3 and would appreciate the opportunity to show you how I can help you bank meet its goals.

Micheal

Micheal you're so funny! The original is not in the passive voice, it's the periphrastic future tense. Seriously, you don't even know what the passive is. Thanks for your clueless grammar advice, hopefully nobody reads the comments. Hilarious.

Anonymous

Note to self: be wary of posting blog links to Slashdot, especially posts written in English.

William Entriken

Will, I know your Mom and she is VERY nice. You should never talk to your Mom like that (no this is not her). I'm glad you listened to Uncle Jim. Smart man.

Anonymous

Please discuss this topic anywhere and let me know any great comments or media coverage I should link here.