Walking the fine line between talking too much and talking too little in an interview.

Do you like to talk a lot? Or are you more quiet and reserved? Do you recognize which type you are and consciously modify your normal talking behavior in an interview situation … or not?

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what is not being said.” Peter Drucker

People flunk interviews every day because they fail to strike the right balance between these two behaviors. Usually the clues to how you are coming across to the interviewer are right there for you to recognize if you would only open your eyes and ears in face-to-face interviews and your ears in telephone interviews. Body language and verbal actions are clues that need to be observed to be successful in interviews.

Interviewers have a limited amount of time to conduct the interview. And they usually have a given amount of questions they want to ask. If you prevent them from doing what they need to do, you lose!

During the interview what do you hear and what do you observe?

Is the interviewer trying to interrupt you when you are talking? Is the interviewer’s facial expression becoming negative? Is the interviewer beginning to fidget? Or is the interviewer coming right out and asking you to move on? You are talking too much if this is happening. You may reach a point where the interviewer starts shutting down the conversation and is trying to get rid of you. It’s all over if that happens.

If the interviewer has to ask you “then what”, or if the interviewer simply stares at you when you are done answering, or if the interviewer says something like “let me ask the question a different way”, you haven’t provided enough or the right feedback. The interviewer may be feeling like it’s difficult to extract information from you. That’s not good either.

Fortunately there are simple ways for you to manage your behavior to prevent the interviewer’s behavior from turning away from you:

• Let the interviewer control the interview until it’s time for you to ask questions.
• Listen carefully to the interviewer's questions and respond directly to them, quickly, concisely and crisply.
• Do not start into a long dissertation of the background to your answer. My favorite example of this is, if I ask you what time it is don't start your answer by telling me how to build a watch!

Here is a good way to measure how well you are doing with your responses: Stop frequently if you are prone to talking too much and ask if your response answers the question or if you need to provide more information. That is equally important for people who tend not to talk a lot to ask the same question. 

Then take the interviewer’s response to that question to heart and start modifying your behavior immediately.

Get more help on this and other search tactics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. 

And leave a comment with your point of view.

Talk to the hiring manager before you apply for the job!

I regularly advise my clients to determine the name of the hiring manager and call that person BEFORE making any applications! This tactic has the highest probability of landing the job.

There are several reasons for trying to work through the hiring manager:

1- The hiring manager can give you insight into what is most important to him or her. Sometimes the most important need is not focused on in the job description. That enables you to tune your resume to be responsive to the critical need before you submit it. This gives you the competitive advantage over everyone else.

2- It offers you the opportunity to get your resume into the hiring manager's hand without going through the company hiring process and protocols, giving you the opportunity to have the most important person in the process to be your ombudsman.

3- It demonstrates that you are motivated, you take matters into your own hands demonstrating that you are independent, action-oriented and creative and that you exercise control over your destiny.

4- Sometimes it opens up other opportunities you did not know about. Sure, you may have found these out later in your search, or never found out about them at all.

5- Sometimes the hiring manager may not have a position that fits you but but after speaking to you, likes what you say and decides to make adjustments in the organization and create a new position just for you. It happens!

And the big bonus is this: You differentiate yourself from all your competition! That's  what job searching is all about, isn't it?

The tactic often requires considerable training. It involves various ways of determining the name. The hardest part is learning how to prepare to make the calls. The tactic is not always easy and not always successful, but people who learn how to do it find it to be extremely effective. It should be a high priority tactic of any job search.

Applying online using the ‘shoot-aim-ready’ approach is the least effective search tactic, but is the most common tactic used by job-seekers. Learn how to find and reach the hiring manager and get ahead of your competition.  

If you have any questions or need any help, please email me at kl@hoochresumes.com.

Please give me some feedback on this post by commenting on it. And don't forget to visit Hooch Resumes at http://www.hoochresumes.com. 

Take a look at some of my other posts while you are here. 

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed your time here.

What can you do to maximize your chances of getting an interview?

How many of these things do you do?

Target your audience.

Make sure you pick the correct type of resume.

Make sure your resume is in good contemporary form.

Create a crisp, concise, complete branding statement.

Make sure you haven’t incorporated ‘fluff’ anywhere in your resume.

Make it possible to read in 30 seconds or less.

Tune it to the target. This means be responsive to the hiring managers’ needs – your resume is all about you as it should be, but it better show how you are responsive to the job descriptions’ stated needs (the ones you know you fit) in order to have a competitive advantage.

Develop action-packed, value-added results statements that will attract attention.

Use your spelling and grammar checker. And then do a thorough check yourself to find words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly. For instance, have you ever typed the word ‘manager’ and left out the second ‘a’? It spells manger. That’s a crib isn’t it? Your spell checker had no idea what you wanted to say.

And finally, make sure ATS parsing software will be able to ‘read’ it. Have you unwittingly written your resume in a manner that compromises its ‘readability’ by ATS parsing software? 

Fact: Every job searcher is a salesperson of their services whether they view themselves that way or not.

Another Fact: Follow up is an essential part of successful sales. 

One essential aspect of sales is closing. 

Closing does not JUST mean closing the deal. At the end of every conversation, good salespeople 'close'. Closing sets the expectations for follow up among other things.

So if a job seekers closes every interview with the question "What are the next steps", that starts the close. It is finished by establishing a definitive answer to the question. For instance, without closing, the job seeker is left in never-never land wondering when he/she will hear from an interviewer. Without closing a networking or interview conversation a job searcher is left wondering whether to follow up or not.

It is essential to establish the fact that the job candidate WILL follow up at a certain point, whether that is 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks or whatever. Having closed the conversation, a follow up call is expected by the recipient, thus it becomes easy to make (Is he expecting your call? Yes!) and you have another opportunity to close.

By the way, if in closing one hears the words "I'm sorry, we are going to pass on you", that may not be what you want to hear, but at least it is a decision. It is also an opportunity: One can follow up with questions about "why", or "what do you see in my background or my responsiveness to your questions that I could improve upon". It also provides an opportunity to ask "Can you give me any suggestions".

Following up is not being a pest. It is a critical sales function!

If you no longer have a job, and even if you have a job, here is some fundamental advice: Get Help!

Recently I read this on LinkedIn: “Often we are in such a rush to get a job, and are so anxious, that we practice the “fire, aim, ready” method of finding employment, ending in a prolonged search. Finding jobs, and then submitting (more and more) applications may make one feel like they are making progress [doing everything they can]. But that is just an illusion.”

An illusion indeed! There are two answers to remedying this problem:

1-If you just lost your job, get professional help immediately before your resources run out. Do not delay, thinking all you have to do is dust off your old resume and blast it to employers. You are searching in a new environment today and the competition is fierce. New technology has been introduced into the hiring process of many companies, and it is not friendly to you. Your competition will get help to deal with the new environment. Will you lag behind?

2-If your search is already a prolonged one and your resources are now deep in mustard, you are between a rock and a hard place. You need more help than ever and you will have to find the finances to get the right professional help; you cannot afford not to.

For those of you who are not presently looking, you could be some day, either passively or actively. Learn from those not as fortunate as you, those who were not ready for the day their exit interview would occur. If you value being employed, get your collateral documents in order now, even though you are not considering making a change. You probably have auto insurance, home or renters insurance, or life insurance. Get some job loss insurance. It costs a lot less than the other four and you will be much more prepared for disaster.

Visit http://ow.ly/dgg2J

There are four fundamental components to developing a job search: Strategy, Tactics, Planning and Collateral Documents.

A strategy is the overall approach to reach an objective. For example, one job search strategy may be broadcasting your availability to the world of companies; the shotgun approach. Another may be to target specific companies; the rifle approach. There are pros and cons to each.

Tactics are the techniques you will use to implement your strategy, again with pros and cons for each tactic. A tactic could be networking, using recruiting companies, doing online searches, cold-calling companies, posting resumes on job boards, utilizing inbound marketing, etc. Be careful though, there can be some negative interactions between certain tactics. You’ll be ok as long as you understand them.

Planning execution of the tactics is making decisions on how you will divide your time between each of the tactics you will use. It is the easiest task of a job search to develop and a very important one to follow and periodically reassess and adjust.

Collateral documents are your marketing tools: resume or CV, cover letter and LinkedIn profile. Some people also have additional documents like a value proposition or other supporting information. Additional documentation may be necessary for government resumes as well.

Figuring out how you will design and implement a job search is a complex subject. Establishing a strategy and supporting tactics to implement is a critical part of a job search planning; the decisions to be made require a lot of knowledge about how interactions between the pieces may play out.

Once the strategy and tactics are determined and the basic resume and cover letter are in place, it’s time to plan a prioritized routine to follow. It is most probable that the routine will be modified as the search progresses in reaction to various results coming from the tactics used. 

Failure to establish a plan is probably the biggest reason job seekers feel like they are not making progress. Getting expert help early in a search is critical and advisable.

When one is eager to get out and find a job quickly, it may seem backward to be planning strategy and tactics as the first priority of a job search instead of immediately creating a resume. Regardless if one does planning or resume writing first, neither one should be done without doing the other. 

When one is forced to embark on a job search, the normal human reaction is to quickly create a robust resume and cover letter and jump into the market. The problem is, even armed with the best resume and cover letter ever created but without making appropriate strategy and tactics decisions, one can easily make errors that create setbacks in the search campaign that lead to a very long and frustrating search. It’s always advisable to get help, early!

Helping people establish their strategy and tactics and creating a robust resume and cover letter is the main thrust of Hooch Resumes. 

To obtain assistance visit the pages of the Hooch Resumes website http://www.hoochresumes.com. 

Why do some job seekers think of LinkedIn only as a place to network and search for jobs. That’s a huge mistake.

LinkedIn is often overlooked as an inbound marketing platform. Your profile is the key to good inbound marketing, far better than posting your resume on a job board.

Hiring companies and recruiting firms use LinkedIn to find potential candidates for openings. A poorly created LinkedIn profile will not attract attention; in fact it may turn people off if it is not carefully crafted. Therefore your profile takes on huge importance.

The beauty of inbound marketing is that once you’ve established a good profile you can let it work for you with minimal maintenance. Your profile only needs occasional tweaking as you discover how well it is getting you hits. After you create a good profile people will seek you while you focus on networking and job searching. That’s an effective tactic to take advantage of.

Get help here: http://ow.ly/d5tQd

Differentiation is the key to competition!

Job searching is competition on steroids!

Differentiate yourself from your competition!

Edit your resume and cover letter to be responsive to each position you apply for.

Too much work? Yes it is if you are lazy or if you are not serious about finding a new position. But your competition may differentiate themselves from you if you don’t! Is that what you want? How badly do you want a new job?!

Don’t just apply on line as soon as you see on opportunity that appeals to you. Talk to the hiring manager first!

Identify the company – if you can’t, the posting may be bogus and a waste of time. If you can, start doing some research to find out who the hiring manager is.

If you can find the name of the hiring manager, try to make contact before you even think about sending your resume in! Making contact with a hiring manager has the highest probability of landing the job; simply applying on line has the lowest probability of success.

Use every resource you can think of to identify the hiring manager: network on LinkedIn using the Advanced Search feature to find people who work for or have worked for the company and then make warm calls; research the company on line as if you were an investor – go to websites investors use to analyze companies, find out who the senior managers are and work your way down to the hiring manager by making cold calls; or get introductions from your network.

If you can’t identify the hiring manager, then as a last resort, find out who the most senior HR manager at the job site is and try to make contact with that person.

Sounds impossible? It isn’t!

Sounds difficult? It usually is!

How badly did you say you want a new job?!

You don’t like to make cold calls, or even warm calls?

Get over it and learn how! Talking to hiring managers is the most productive way of getting a new job. Taking the easy way out is the least productive way! Period!

Get more help on this and other tactics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And leave a comment if you like this post.

Are you ready for the salary question?

There are various ways of handling the salary question. It often gets asked in online application forms and if not, you can be sure it will come up in interviews. There are many resources to help you establish a number or tight range. If you don’t prepare yourself you will find the question very difficult to answer and you might price yourself out of the job, too high or low.

The best answer to the online applications is do not apply until after you’ve spoken to the hiring manager and generated interest. You will be much further ahead if you don’t have to answer the salary question before you interview, so stay out of never-never-land until you absolutely have to.

You might say it is not easy to talk to the hiring manager first. Maybe, but you can learn how to

a) identify and to talk to the hiring manager, and

b) get passed the gatekeepers.

Think about what you might be able to find out about the job that would help you ‘tune’ your resume to be responsive to the needs of the hiring manager! Hey, he or she might ask you for your resume. What could be better? You would then have an important ally and you would be about 10 steps ahead of your competition!

In interviews, it depends upon when the salary question comes up. And you better have done your research and established a number or fairly tight range before the interview. 

In an interview the best answer is to answer the question with a question, not an answer. This is not because you should be evasive or confrontational about the question. It’s because it is to your see if you can get them to identify the range before you speak. Another advantage is to find out about non-salary considerations in order to intelligently discuss it. You may not have enough knowledge of your cost of the benefits they offer. And these can be substantial. You can’t even be sure you want the job yet. So you need to avoid being locked into a number too early. A good negotiator will use whatever you say to their advantage if they can.

If the question comes up at a second or third interview, that’s a good sign they are interested in you. At that point you have greater knowledge about the company and job and have a better chance of negotiating. If you’ve prepared yourself for the question, you’re in good hands. 

There are plenty of resources available to help you. And there are a number of possible responses to the question one can learn. 

To learn how to negotiate the salary question. Contact me at kl@hoochresumes.com. 

There are common resume writing principles to adhere to regardless of your resume writing style.

From my background as a hiring manager and recruiter I have learned three of the more important ones are:

1-Be responsive to the hiring managers’ needs. While a resume is all about you it must also be responsive to the needs of the hiring manager. If it isn’t you can be sure your competitions’ resume will be.

2-Focus on your accomplishments and results; not just what you did but what the outcome was. Because hiring managers are results oriented, resumes should focus on accomplishments and the results of one’s work. Boiler plate that only tells what your responsibilities were will give the competitive edge to the others responding to the needs of the hiring manager. Results should be placed in the resume where the readers’ eye will pick them up early/quickly/easily.

3-Make sure your documents are ATS-ready. You may run into ATS systems and you may not, but will you know when you are likely to encounter it? The playing field has changed, requiring resumes to be compatible with ATS software used by many companies today to reduce HR costs. All resume writers should know this means making sure appropriate key words and phrases are included. Unfortunately that's not all there is to ATS. Word processing software enables the use of many features which cause attributes which can confound parsing software. Unless you understand the attribute issues regarding ATS you can unknowingly contribute to the rejection of your resume. 

There are people who take a cavalier position that not every company uses ATS software or that very few do, therefore there is no point in making them ATS-ready. Actually they are quite wrong. They argue one shouldn’t apply online anyway. I agree, applying online is not the most productive approach to job searching, but I also recognize it may be the easiest way, so from a practical standpoint, people will do it. Not only that, even if you get your resume into the hands of a hiring manager at a company without applying online, that person is likely to pass it to HR in order to comply with company protocol. If the company uses ATS the resume will likely be scrutinized by the software anyway. Thus I feel very strongly that all resumes should be made ATS-ready!

If you think you may need help, send me your resume (kl@hoochresumes,com). I'll review it and respond at no cost to you. For more information please visit http://www.hoochresumes.com. 

Keep your street address off of your resume!

Every day we hear horrible stories in the news media. Because the public seems to have an insatiable appetite to hear about others’ misfortune, news media spews bad news items like there would be no tomorrow because it brings listeners, improves rating and garners more advertising income.

But providing your street address on your resume could make you the subject of a news story. And a street address is not even needed on a resume. What company makes its’ initial contact to you by mail? After you have interviewed with a company there may be a reason to share your street address, for instance to receive a benefits package or, hopefully, a formal written offer. So there’s plenty of time for you to supply such information.

Get more help on this and other topics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And leave a comment if you like this post.

It’s not just Key Words that will cause ATS problems!

If you have been told just having the right key words on your resume is enough, you are in for a rude awakening! You can get a high ATS score …. that is IF your resume is prepared correctly. But learn what else can happen when your resume is ‘read’ by ATS software. If you get a low score or cannot be contacted you may never hear from the company. Don’t let that happen to you!

Does your resume contain attributes that will cause ATS to incorrectly parse it? That’s the key to parsing issues!

Will ATS even be able to know who you are and how to contact you?

Here’s a clue for you: ATS is blind. It cannot see what you and I see. It lives in a computer and ‘reads’ your resume from binary data on a hard drive. Unless the ATS software says it’s worthwhile to read, a human being may never see your resume. That’s where scoring high comes in.

Besides ATS issues, what about the key words you’ve used themselves? Have you considered the hiring manager? Is your resume responsive to his/her needs? Have you used the key words correctly? Have you written them in the right context? Have you edited your resume for the specific position you are responding to?

Do you understand how the hiring manager views the hiring process?

Help can be found here: http://ow.ly/d5tQd

If job searchers are not skeptical about using resume writers, they should be!

There are things some resume writers may not know that can hurt a job seeker, not help them.

Because of the web it takes only a computer to ‘hang out a shingle’ and declare one to be an experienced professional. And there are companies that offer certification courses for resume writing to further infer the holder is a subject matter expert. What it takes to become certified is money and the intelligence to pass an exam to become “certified”. Unfortunately that does not necessarily equate to competence. The question then is how do you determine who is a competent resume writer?

Ask a prospective writer some key questions:

How long have you been writing resumes?

What hiring managers want to see in a resume that will motivate them to respond to a it? 

Ask them to explain how ATS software works, how it parses information and what it cannot parse. If they respond by only telling you that you have to have the right key words in your resume, they do not understand what else besides key words matters. See if they know why these ATS questions are important by asking them how your resume is stored on a company server and how it is ‘read’ by ATS parsing software.

Ask them for examples of their work.

If the prospective writer cannot answer these simple questions to your satisfaction, perhaps you should move on to the next.

Get more help on this and other tactics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And leave a comment if you like this post.

As a job seeker, do you know how to close an interview? For that matter do you practice closing on every action you take in your job search?

A Close is defined as "to put an end to; to finish." In selling, this means the process used to bring your interviewer to a decision, whether it is a yes or no. Closing is a logical progression of ideas bringing about a decision. It means an agreement is reached that a specific action will be taken.

At the end of every interview with each interviewer do you try to close on what next steps the interviewer will take? Wouldn’t you like a positive recommendation from each interviewer you speak with? If you do, close each person!

Do you close on who will contact you to provide status? Do you close on getting names and email addresses of specific people from the interviewer? Do you remember to get business cards from everyone you are interviewed by? Do you close each networking conversation?

As a job seeker you have become a salesperson selling the benefits of hiring you. Learn closing skills and practice them in every interaction you have with people.

Get more help on this and other tactics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And leave a comment if you like this post.

Don’t Choke the ATS!

Aside from the need for key words and phrases on a resume, there is no readily available information that I have ever been able to find that deals with document attribute issues that can cause some ATS software to incorrectly parse information contained in a resume. 

I have spent a considerable amount of time researching this topic and have developed a set of rules I use in writing resumes that have a very strong chance of being compatible with the parsing inability of all ATS software applications. Applying my rules for writing resumes does not bypass ATS, but rather, it causes the resume to conform to the limited capabilities of ATS parsing software so that it is not rejected because of attributes in it.‘Attributes’ means formatting, graphics and even file types as opposed to the actual text in the document. And when the application process requires an ASCII text file, even those need to be edited to assure compatibility and proper parsing. I have developed rules for editing txt documents for ATS as well.

By investing my time in ATS research I have become a Subject Matter Expert on ATS parsing software. ATS software is developed and marketed by over 100 companies. Some of it is good and lots of it is bad. One only has to join some of the ATS groups on LinkedIn to see that every day many companies are searching for better ATS software. 
at kl@hoochresumes.com or by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And leave a comment if you like this post.

Utilize many tactics in your job search, not just one.

There are millions of job seekers suffering with the search process today. Many, if not most, are spending the majority of their time on job boards. If you are one of those using this approach as your primary search tactic, you are probably wasting much of your time. I'm not saying you can't find a job that way, but you need to realize the probability of success is extremely low. But you certainly can and should use job boards and company websites for research purposes.

If you are searching on company websites, the probability of getting a job may be better, but is still very low. The application process used by many companies includes the use of ATS software designed to have a computer filter you out. Furthermore, you can get rejected for things that have nothing to do whatsoever with the wonderful text you write in your resume. Also, the process will usually require you to spend a lot of time answering questions that are already on your resume. You may be asked to include your salary expectations. If you refuse you probably will not be allowed to proceed further. If you comply you may be rejected for not fitting in a range the company wants you to be in. At the very least you will be in a poor negotiating position if they want to make you an offer.

Other search tactics should be used in your search and a higher percentage of you time should be devoted to working them. For instance, dedicated networking, properly executed is far better.

So is doing a superior job on your LinkedIn profile and using LinkedIn as an inbound marketing tool. Setting your profile up properly consumes comparatively little of your overall search time. The nice thing about it is that once done, you can allow it to work for you as companies search for people with your skills and experience. You only need to update it occasionally with improvements you think of.

Using external (3rd party) recruiters is also a better approach, AS LONG AS you get connected with the right recruiter. You can learn how to make sure the recruiter you are working with can really help you. There’s plenty to learn about how external recruiters work and what to watch out for. But just don’t sit back and think they are going to work for you full time. Quite the contrary is true! So keep on using the other tactics in your toolbox.

The best tactic of all is talking to hiring managers BEFORE you send in any documents. There are many techniques you can learn for identifying potential hiring managers. You should learn how to cold-call. It is not easy for many people but is a highly successful approach. How to cold-call requires a lot of learning and practice in order to do it properly. But cold-calling is the most rewarding, highest probability of success approach of all. And it will differentiate you from your competition, which is an ideal situation for you. If you have networked properly, often cold-calling can be replaced by warm-calling.

It is said that nothing really worthwhile is easy. Learn how to identify hiring managers and how to conduct cold-calls. You will be way ahead of your competition. By the way, cold-calling technique is a skill you can apply to many things in life besides job searching.


If you want help, I offer consulting service on all of the above search tactics.

Get help with this and other topics by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com and by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com. And add a comment if you like this post.

Make sure you want to work for a company before you apply to it.

The hiring authority surely will check you out thoroughly. You owe it to yourself to vet them too.

If they are a publicly traded company there is a strong chance you can find out lots of information about them. If they are public but small there may not be a lot of information, but there are still ways to find out about them even if they are a private company. LinkedIn is just one of them. Often the company website is the place to start.

What should you want to know? Perhaps the first question should be, “If I get the job, are they likely to be around for a while or am I likely to be job searching again soon?” A close second might be "What is the company culture like?" "Do people like working for them?" Another is "Would I like working for them?"

Wouldn’t it be wise to learn what the hiring manager is like? Find out how to identify the hiring manager and talk to that person before you apply.

And there are many more questions of course:

Why is this position open?

What is the most significant problem you have to solve?

What are your three most important goals to achieve this year?

What are characteristics of the ideal employee in this position?

How will you measure the performance of the person in this position?

Can I meet the other employees I’ll be working most closely with?

Can I take a tour?

What are my opportunities for growth and advancement within the company?

If I am the successful applicant, who will my supervisor be?

What is the management style and culture of this firm?

Can you tell me what you like best about working for this company?

Is there anything you do not like about working here?

What are the biggest challenges of this job?

What is the normal workweek?

And many more of particular interest to you.

Vet the company too. They will vet you. Links for assessing a company:

http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html  company 10K filings

http://money.msn.com/stocks/ research a stock

http://www.google.com/finance?hl=en#stockscreener

http://biz.yahoo.com/p/ list of industries and sectors

http://www.hoovers.com/ pay site- get private company info as well as public company

Make sure you are ready to make informed decisions, not uneducated mistakes. 

Add a comment and get more job search help by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com or by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com

Let’s say you search company career pages and don’t see any jobs for you. Don’t stop there!

Just because you don’t see a job that fits you on a company career page, that doesn't mean they don’t have a job for you! Sometimes it takes tenacity to find the job you want.

Suppose you see jobs posted but they don’t fit, at least you know the company is hiring. Maybe there are other jobs, real and potential for you. If it’s a company you are really interested in and you just walk away, you could be missing an opportunity.

The so-called “hidden” job market is alive and active. But it’s actually just an “unadvertised” job market because it’s not really hidden, like they don’t want you to know about it. There are usually valid reasons for not posting some jobs.

There are two kinds of unadvertised jobs: Those that haven’t been posted, and those that might be created for you if you pursued them. That’s why I said don’t walk away if you like the company.

The most effective way to tap into the unadvertised job market is through people, and the best people to contact are the Hiring Managers. The key is to find out who they are and then talk to them, before you send any paperwork. And hiring managers are the people who have the potential of creating a job for you!

How to find and talk to hiring managers is a huge subject that requires considerable counseling and coaching for most people. Many job seekers need professional help to do it effectively. And it could be the best investment they will ever make.

There are 4 basic steps in the process of finding jobs.

1-    Identify companies that are hiring

2-    Identify jobs, and don't stop if there isn't an advertised one for you

3-    Identify hiring managers & senior HR managers

4-    Make contact with managers to discuss posted jobs, unadvertised jobs and to generate interest that may lead to creating a job for you.

1^st priority – hiring managers

2^nd priority – Key HR manager

3^rd priority – email

Last priority – online application

Each step is a large subject to discuss by itself. Each involves considerable coaching. So if this post has piqued your interest, please contact me to find out more. I’ll be happy to help.

Add a comment and get more job search help by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com or by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com

Inbound and Outbound Marketing Defined

Your resume is an outbound marketing tool which you send out to attract the attention of people who may want to hire you. 

Your LinkedIn profile is a tool you can use to attract the attention of those looking to hire someone like you. Write it carefully. It deserves as much thought and preparation as your resume does. Realize they are different documents for different purposes.

Job seekers are so very fortunate that the internet exists. This “invention” began back in 1994 and has reached amazing achievements (not all good in my view) in recent years. In view of the economic and unemployment disaster today, can you imagine what it was like for job seekers in previous major downturns and high unemployment? 

The only document available in previous eras was the resume. Today we have profiles on LinkedIn; we also have Twitter, Google+, FaceBook, YouTube, personal websites and a whole bunch of other ways to market ourselves. 

In my opinion, the best one for job seekers is LinkedIn. Here you can prepare a profile of yourself to advertise who you are, what you do, what your skills are, what your education is AND what you have achieved! 

There are many people looking for people to hire; hiring managers, HR personnel and recruiting firms are always conducting advanced searches on LinkedIn to find and seek people they’d like to talk to. 

And job seekers can use LinkedIn to look outward as well. What a propitious tool to have available as a job seeker! 

If you like this blog, let me know by commenting. And get more job search help by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com or by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com

Before sending your resume anywhere, find out who the hiring manager is so you can direct your resume to that person.

After all, do you really want to direct your resume and cover letter to “To whom it may concern” or “Greetings” or “Dear sir” or some other anonymous recipient? Do you think that’s going to get someone’s attention? Well it might get the wrong attention, you know, the one that automatically gets it dumped in the trash!

You need the hiring managers’ name. You need to speak to that person before you send your documents anywhere!  You need to find out more about the job so you can tune your resume to address the hiring managers’ hottest needs. You will differentiate yourself from your competition by doing so. 

Don’t know how to find a name? You have lots of resources at your disposal. For instance, you could try:

-Cold calling  - this is the most direct and fastest way, but find out how to be prepared. Talk to receptionists and fill-in receptionists at noon. Call in well after hours; sometimes you’ll get a Roledex of names!

-LinkedIn - use introductions, past & present members of the company & their contacts lists.

-Use your network.

-Try a company website; visit About US and Press Releases - get the senior execs names and work your way down; schmooze their gatekeepers; get someone else, like sales (they love to talk) and work your way up.

-Google a title you guess in the company.

-Use the financial websites for investors; SEC public information on corporations.

-Try Hoovers if you have access (it costs though).

-Read trade publications.

-Get convention or professional meetings attendees and member lists.

-Even Facebook & Twitter.

-Look at email addresses of other people in a company. If you already know the hiring manager’s name, you can often guess their email address by modeling it after other addresses. For example, if you find john.doe@xyzcompany.com listed on the company website, it’s likely that the hiring manager, Jane Doe, has the email address jane.doe@xyzcompany.com. If it’s not correct, it will often come back to you—no harm done. You can also use free email verifying tools, such as verify-email.org, to determine if the email address is correct before you send it.

By the way, you are not likely to get the hiring managers name by calling HR. They are the pit bulls of gatekeepers. Don't try to run through their back yard first. Leave them to later or at least the last resort. And get the HR department managers name before resorting to that approach. People like to be addressed personally.

But don’t sit back and do nothing. Getting the hiring managers’ name is probably the most important thing you can do!

Add a comment. And get more job search help by visiting http://www.hoochresumes.com or by emailing me at kl@hoochresumes.com