Similarly, a personnel manager won't know what to make of anything that doesn't list where you worked, when you worked there and what your title was. (That's why it's important to bypass personnel departments and go directly to the decision maker.) If you're making a lateral move, of course, while there is a better way, it will not work entirely against you to use a work history.
If you find yourself caught up in the hiring process, and people start demanding a resume, as happened with the colonel, you have to decide whether to go for broke. If you give in, you lose. People use resumes to find reasons NOT to hire someone. I recommend that you hold your ground in a comfortable, courteous way. You're more likely to win.
A few tips about the qualification summary:
First, be careful what you say about your education. Employers will use too much or too little education as an excuse to screen you out.
Second, avoid any mention of dates. It may be against the law to discriminate on the basis of age, but the fact is that it happens. Dates will help employers pinpoint your age.
Lastly, lead off with a specific career objective. Don't say you want, "to find a challenging position with a growing company." That says nothing. List the specific responsibilities you want, the specific skills you want to use, and the specific field you want to be in. Then go for it.
Responding to Newspaper Ads
Suppose you were a washing machine salesman in a highly competitive market. Suppose further that your only sales effort was a daily examination of the classified ads in your local news paper, placed by people who want to buy a washing machine. How many do you think you'd sell?
Not many (if any) of course, since householders rarely advertise their intention to buy such items. The rare exception, to my knowledge, is the person who hopes to find a good deal on a used machine from another householder.
This is directly analogous to what happens when job seekers rely on want ads in their local newspaper. Employers don't generally advertise their good positions. The ones they do advertise are likely to be less appropriate to you, and you'll have lots of competition. Granted, there are a lucky handful who find good jobs through want ads, but your odds of getting such a job are poor. And the odds of getting something really suited to you are worse than they are of winning top prize in the lottery.
It cannot be said too often that 80 to 90 percent of all jobs are never advertised. They're filled via private avenues. Those people who put their hopes in want ads invariably wind up in a down ward spiral of frustration and depression.
Besides, want ads aren't always placed for the purpose of filling a position. Often, companies are merely complying with equal opportunity laws or board regulations even though a decision on whom to hire was made long before. (I have found this to be especially true of government agencies.) Or they're doing research to find out how much to pay a newly created position. Or employment agencies use ads as a means of bringing new people into their offices.
(Bear in mind that this is true of local newspapers only. Trade publications and business publications such as The Wall Street Journal are likely to contain ads from employers with high-quality positions to fill. But they, too, are likely to be inundated with responses.)
The most effective job searches involve direct contact with decision makers. In fact, I usually urge my clients to ignore the want ads.
Being a realist, however, I know that people nonetheless read and respond to ads. As such, here are some tips for doing it more effectively:
- Have someone else read the ads for you and tell you about those positions that might be of interest to you. That way you can avoid the depression that comes from looking in the paper every day and not seeing anything suited to you.
- Write each cover letter to suit the specific situation. A standard letter that you send in response to each ad won't get much attention. A letter that addresses, point by point, each of the requirements listed in the ad is more likely to be noticed.
- Keep your letter brief and to the point. Too many people tend to be verbose and ponderous in their opening paragraphs. "In response to your recent advertisement, I am herewith enclosing a copy of my resume" doesn't quite have the punch of, "I'm a perfect candidate for the job. Here's why."
- State that you've had the required experience. Employers appear to be looking for the 25 year old with 35 years' experience who'll work for $750 a month. But they're also look ing for the person who'll do the best job of solving their problems.
Try something like, "My experience goes far beyond the five years you require." Then be prepared to back it up with facts, even if it is not direct or on-the-job experience.
- Don't send a resume. I know this is a tough one to swallow since employers and personnel managers can get awfully cranky if they don't have a work history to look at, no matter how irrelevant it may be to defining a person's skills and talents. It could even kill your chances of getting the job.
A better approach, however, is to send a "qualifications summary." (See the previous section on this subject.) This is a document that looks like a resume but does not list titles, dates and companies. Instead it lists a specific career objective, your most significant accomplishments, and reasons why you feel qualified for the position. Each qualification summary must be tailored to the ad you're answering.
- Don't discuss salary, even if the ad specifically asks for salary requirements. Say you're entirely negotiable on salary, and face the possibility that your application will be rejected because of this.
- Don't provide references. Instead, end your qualifications summary with a paragraph that says, "References will state that John Doe is hard-working, intelligent, etc., etc." If pressed, provide only the names of people who will say exactly that.
- Don't get your hopes up.
