By Beverly Weinstein

If you’re a qualified candidate, but frustrated by a lack of interviews, the root of the problem may come down to word choice in your application or resume.  I asked the Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA), which represents more than 1,600 HR professionals, for some insight and advice.

Bev: Why do so many companies require candidates to apply online instead of submitting resumes via e-mail, fax or snail mail?

CTHRA: Online recruiting has dramatically streamlined the hiring process. When you upload an application or resume, it’s automatically entered into a sophisticated, centralized database called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS is the initial step in the consideration process. It narrows down the number of resumes by identifying those who meet the basic requirements for the position, based on skills, training, degrees, job titles and experience. Once the qualified candidates are identified by the ATS, a person or a team reviews the qualified applications the old-fashioned way. More and more companies are using an ATS because it improves efficiency, ensures compliance and provides a fair process for all candidates who indicate an interest in a specific position.

Bev: We’ve heard many applicants wish for the return of an initial review conducted by a human set of eyes. Why are they frustrated by the online process?

CTHRA: It all comes down to understanding how the technology works. Key words play a critical role in the ATS review process. If your resume does not include the key words that match the skills and expertise specified for the job, the ATS does not recognize you as a qualified candidate.  However, if your resume does include the key words being sought, the ATS will retrieve your resume as a match and will place your resume in front of a recruiter or hiring manager for consideration.

Bev: There are certain words that appear in resume writing books and on career Web sites and blogs as being key words to make certain accomplishments pop out. As HR professionals, you must read countless resumes. So is there truth to the power of these words?

CTHRA: Given the economy, employers typically receive an abundance of applications for each posted position. As a result, they simply don’t have the time to read every line of every resume to separate the qualified candidates from those lacking the basic job requirements. Instead, they scan the resumes in search of key words.

Bev: What are some of the top key words and why?

CTHRA: There is not a cookie-cutter answer to this question as the most appropriate key words vary by industry and by position.  However, a candidate can carefully review the job description to identify the key words the company has used to describe the job requirements. If the candidate truly embodies those characteristics, she should incorporate those same words or similar phrases into her resume.

Bev: Are there any keywords that are so overused and unoriginal you recommend avoiding them?

CTHRA:  It’s true that some words are simply too broad to be useful. Think of it in terms of a Google search. The phrase “IT jobs” yields 252 million results. If you instead search “social media architect” your results are more targeted. The same principle applies to resume keyword usage. The best advice is to combine the core word with applicable key words to be as specific as possible. For example, the phrase “online technical producer” is much more meaningful than simply “producer.”

Bev: Does it matter where the key words are placed in the resume?

CTHRA: When it comes to an ATS review, the answer is no. The software will scan the resume in its entirety. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the ATS is only the initial step in the process some of the time. The goal is to get your resume in front of a human set of eyeballs, either through a referral, networking or making the initial cut through the ATS. Once your resume is in the hands of a person, you have about 15 seconds to convince the reader of your qualifications. To accomplish this goal, structure your resume in a manner that makes it easy to read, feature the most important key words at the top of your resume, use bold type to make them pop off the page and quantify your achievements in terms of dollars saved, revenue generated, increases in productivity, etc.

Bev: HR recruiters are now looking at Linked In profiles. How important are key words in those profiles?

CTHRA: Some employers use social media sites to identify potential candidates, others use them to screen applicants and some do both. When culling potential candidates, the recruiter searches the site’s profiles by inputting key words into its search engine. Only profiles containing those words will be included in the results.

Bev: What weight do key words have in regard to leveraging a cover letter?

CTHRA: Given most companies’ use of online applications and an ATS system, cover letters are not as prevalent as they once were. However, if a candidate is in a position to correspond directly to the hiring manager or the company’s online application allows the uploading of a cover, it’s ideal to use key words on a cover letter to entice the reader to review your resume.  Candidates need to remember it is a letter, and should read like one. Avoid bulleted list of words and a blanket repetition of the phrases used in the resume. The best cover letters feature well-crafted sentences that strongly position the candidate.

Bev: What else is important?

CHTRA: Key words are not the end all. Your qualifications, the structure of a good resume, doing well on a phone screen, and ultimately doing your homework are what matter most.

About the Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association (CTHRA)

CTHRA is the premier human capital resource for the industry and a growing nonprofit organization with 1,600 members spanning more than 100 companies.  CTHRA provides industry-specific benchmarks, information and resources, as well as networking and educational opportunities. Its groundbreaking initiatives include annual compensation and human capital metrics surveys and its symposium series.  For more information, visit www.cthra.com

Read the column on MediaPost.

By Beverly Weinstein

You’ve got your pitch down, your best interview clothes on, and you’re pretty sure you’re the perfect fit for the job. Only problem is, after 45 minutes you haven’t had a chance to tell the interviewer why because he/she is still talking.

More than a few candidates have left interviews frustrated. They heard plenty about the job and found out about the interviewer’s background, but there was scant time left to tell their own story.

What do you do in that situation?

“It’s a little like one of the martial arts,” explained Gary Schuman, a noted leadership coach, who has also done interview coaching for senior executives. “You go with the force, rather than against the force.” In other words, you work on ways of gently intervening in the conversation without being obnoxious.

Schuman, who has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, suggests looking for opportunities to break the monologue. For example, ask the interviewer a question about something they just said. “It gets you into the conversation and breaks the one-way flow,” he said. “If you get them off their story, there’s a better chance to move conversation your way.”

Keep looking for opportunities to capitalize on what they are talking about and bring it back to something that you’ve done. Asking questions is another way of showing you’re interested, and that you’re listening, Schuman added.

The biggest mistake is being too polite and letting the person talk uninterrupted. You have to find some way to present your skills. If not, you may not have a second chance.

One last word of advice: “If the person doesn’t let you talk, it may tell you something about how they operate and might just be a cautionary note.”

This is part of an ongoing series of how you can meet the interview challenge.

This tricky question was posed to AskTheHeadHunter.com‘s Nick Corcodilos who,  like me, answers job seekers’ questions from a recruiter’s point of view.

The woman who wrote in to Corcodilos said her husband had started a new job 2 weeks ago and wasn’t sure if it was ethical to speak with someone about another opportunity or if he should mention that he just started his job 2 weeks ago in the discussion with the hiring manager. It was a job he had applied to but hadn’t heard back from. And now here he is, fresh at his new position and he finally hears back from a job he wanted more. So what should he do?

Corcodilos advised not to divulge anything he didn’t have to in the interview, saying while some might think going on an interview only 2 weeks into a job is an unethical thing to do, simply exploring a better opportunity is not unethical.

I would agree and tend to advise candidates to always learn about new opportunities, at the very least, to stay abreast of what is going on in your industry, to keep in the know about new start ups and new positions, network and meet hiring managers at other companies, and start to think about what may lie on the horizon.

Corcodilos goes on to say that unless the company offers the man in question a job, he isn’t being asked to make any ethical decisions, he’s simply becoming educated.

If and when the new job is offered, however, is where the situation gets sticky. Explaining to a relatively new employer that you’re leaving after such a short tenure, might tarnish your reputation. But Corcodilos says, if you don’t intend on doing this again for awhile, the gains in taking the better opportunity might outweigh the damage to your reputation, that you will eventually recover from.

An interesting and astute point Corcodilos made was that while some might find jumping ship two weeks in to be a pretty unfair thing for an employee to do, it’s just as ethical a concern as downsizing is for an employer.

If the opportunity is a better one in more ways than one (meaning not just salary, but in experience and opportunity for growth), then I say it is certainly worth your time to explore. As Corcodilos said in his column, it’s business, not a tea party. So, while I certainly don’t endorse the idea of up and leaving a post so soon and as a recruiter, I work to find my clients reliable candidates who will stick it out for the long run, exploring and learning about new opportunities is definitely not a crime.

By Beverly Weinstein

Of course you should always be truthful. The issue isn’t honesty, it’s more about delivery. Words and positioning are everything. So my advice is to think about how you tell the truth. I never encourage a lie, but once something has been said, it’s become part of what is used to form an opinion of a candidate.

It’s fairly common for someone to blurt out their feelings about why they left a job or why a job didn’t work out. Mostly this is preceded or followed by a statement that goes something like this, “I would never say this on an interview, but I wanted to tell you the truth.”

Recently I asked a candidate why they left one job for another one. “I was really bored working on the same business,” was the answer I got.  Ouch! What if they had said, “I wasn’t feeling challenged,” or “I was looking for a new challenge.” I made the suggestion that they might consider positioning it that way in the future. But, as far as I was concerned, it was something that had already gone into forming my opinion of the person.

The candidates I talk to are almost always in the business of selling and marketing. They spend hours tweaking power points, refining speeches and searching for the right words or the best positioning. They rehearse their pitches before going to see the client, they give speeches while looking at themselves in the mirror. I wonder, why not use the same care when it comes to talking about themselves?

How about if you’ve been fired or “agreed to disagree?” Try to explain it in a single sentence. Use two sentences if you really feel the need. Any more and you start saying things you shouldn’t. Candidates have shared excruciating detail on failed strategies, poor management, and unreasonable goals. Not theirs, but those of the boss they bumped heads with who has fired them. The more information I have, the more questions it raises about the candidate.

What do you say when it comes to money? This is an area where I believe there’s a tendency to “fib,” especially for more junior candidates. Here’s a tale to keep in mind. A few years back, a candidate told me their base salary. It didn’t square with their level of experience or with the norm for their employer. They didn’t get the job either, because my client didn’t think they were worth the salary in comparison to other candidates. Not too long after that I had an occasion to talk to the candidate’s boss. I asked what the salary range was of people working for them. My “fibber” had added $20,000. Fast forward three years and they are in the job market again and knocking at my door. No need for me to confront them, but I’m always going to question their integrity going forward. It’s just much better to say something like, “I would need at least (fill in the blanks) to make a change.” Or if it’s too early to talk about salary,  “I really want to understand if it’s the right opportunity first.” In this case, better to plead the fifth, than to tell a lie.
Read the column on Media Post.

A neighborhood bar is a great thing. My favorite, Trattoria Del Arte, is near my office in Midtown Manhattan. Cynthia the night bartender orchestrates what can be a three deep crowd like  the best  of concert masters from nearby Carnegie Hall.

You may be wondering what this has to do with career advice….normally not much. But last week my friend Rob and I met for a drink after work. We got in a conversation with someone on the bar stool next to mine. He was a banker from Baltimore in town to interview candidates for a job in the New York office.  I had just written a column on interviewing for MediaDailyNews. I suspected bankers weren’t so different from media execs as far as interviewing tactics went so I thought I’d find out and ask him a few questions. Turns out the banker was a whole lot more open than the execs I had just quoted.

The banker  explained the first thing he looks for is if the candidate’s experience fits the job. After that, intangibles kicked in.  So far so good. Media execs and  the banker agreed. Then the banker put some fine tuning on those intangibles I hadn’t heard.

The first  handshake had to be firm and you better look him in the eye, preferably the left one, the banker explained.  Why the left? I wondered.  “You have to pick an eye, ” he said. “If you don’t, your gaze darts back and forth between eyes. ” Got it. Shake right-look left.

Next tip he gave me as I held my gaze on his left eye was, “If you are at a meeting where they give you a name tag, wear it on left, over your heart.”  Why? He didn’t really explain that one. Maybe it makes you seem more sincere or maybe it lines up with the eye thing.

More advice. Don’t talk too much, don’t talk too fast and don’t sweat. One candidate he had seen that day was nervous and had the misfortune to show it by having beads of sweat collect on his upper lip. My banker told him to relax. He did and in the end his experience trumped his sweating. He was in the final three for the job. Phew.

Now comes the non-p.c. part of our conversation. Good looks, a great smile and a winning personality can make up for qualifications you may not have, especially if you’re a woman. The banker gave me not one, but two examples. One of his star staffers, a women, fell short on having answers to tough questions but her smile while she said “I’ll get back to you,” kept her job secure.

How about “older candidates”, say in their mid-fifties and up, I asked. “Not happening,” he replied candidly. He left and I ordered another drink.

A week after Labor Day and it seems that the haze of summer has quickly lifted and business is abuzz again. Newly minted college grads who took the summer to relax are now eagerly pounding the pavement and embarking on interviews. So what better time than the present to talk about how to prep, primp, and behave in a one on one interview.

Yesterday’s Dear Bev column featured advice on interview prep, with a focus on what NOT to do. But Saturday’s New York Times featured some subtle tricks you SHOULD employ to let your interviewer know you want the job and that you’re the right man or woman for it.

Phyllis Korkki put together the piece which emphasizes fitting into the company culture with proper attitude and attire. She mentions some of the same things we did such as dressing for success, making eye contact and using confident body language. “Confident but not cocky,” the article states. But aside from these basics of portraying the best “you” there is, Korkki goes into some more specific tricks to position yourself better and make a lasting impression on the interviewer.

She recommends thoroughly researching the company before hand (we said that too!) and coming armed with questions about the company that pertain to adding to its success, not just about you and how you’d fit in.

Another way to make an imprint on the interviewer’s memory? Establish something you have in common with him or her.

“Maybe you went to the same college or you pull for the same sports team, she said. During the interview, “leverage your referrals,” she said, finding ways to highlight the people you know within the company,” Korkki wrote.

I’d recommend this as long as you aren’t reaching too far. You don’t want to name drop and you certainly don’t want to mention someone who wouldn’t sing your praises or doesn’t know you very well. It’ll do more harm than good if the interviewer followed up with the people you named and they didn’t remember you.

The article also reminds to follow up afterward. While we recommended a paper letter, one person interviewed thought that when applying to a digital media company, an email is a better show of skill and savoir faire in the area.

Either way you choose to communicate, one great tip Korkki includes is inserting the names of people you met at the interview or specifics about what you discussed to show you were invested and intently listening. If you use a generic message, it will show.

Read the full article from the New York Times.

By Beverly Weinstein

It all begins when you walk into someone’s office. Often, what you don’t say is as important as what you do. Here are some intangibles that seem obvious but may make or break the end result.

Advance Preparation

Even before you arrive at the office, doing your homework on both the company and the interviewer should be a given. Information on both is readily available online. If you haven’t taken the time or trouble to do research, it becomes obvious quickly. There’s a great quote from Abraham Lincoln that speaks to the importance of preparation “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Nothing has changed.

Arriving Late? Apologize First

It happens to all of us. The subway stops unexpectedly for 10 minutes, the train runs late, you’re stuck in traffic, or maybe your boss snags you on the way out of the office for a quick chat. All reasonable excuses. What’s not reasonable is failing to call or email to give the interviewer a heads-up. Worse is not apologizing when you finally do show up. You start behind the eight ball, and it’s hard to recover — no matter how well the rest of the conversation may go.

Dress For Success

Or at least interview success. Don’t err on the side of informality. In the words of one senior executive: “Show up like you want the job.”

Eye Contact, A Good Handshake, and Don’t Forget to Smile

It might seem minor but it makes a difference. Look the interviewer in the eye and if you’re worried about a weak handshake, try practicing. It makes a difference in perception. Don’t forget to smile. It may sound silly, but it’s something people are aware of, and it makes you seem “happier”– seriously.

New Technology vs. Old Fashioned Courtesy

Turn your cell phone off before you walk in for the interview. Even if you don’t check it, it’s distracting and annoying if it rings. Don’t even think about having a PDA out and in plain sight. Your attention should be on the interviewer.

A Strong Finish

Don’t let the interview finish without asking for the job or in some way indicating your interest. And of course, follow it up with a thank you. E-mail is fine, but a written note is always a standout. It’s another way to set you apart from the competition.

Read the article on Media Post.

I’ve been getting way too many e-mails with two attachments. One is a resume and the other is a cover letter. Aren’t cover letters supposed to be, well, letters? Personalized communications not “to whom it may concern?” I sometimes refuse to open them on principle. But if someone sent me a musical cover letter, you bet I’d take notice. And according to this inventive applicant’s YouTube stats so did over 13,000 others. I’m not suggesting you take guitar lessons anytime soon, but think of a way to stand out. An attachment on an e-mail isn’t it!

“In the aftermath of a layoff, style is critical.”

So says the Wall Street Journal, which ran a story today on revamping your style and adjusting your attitude in the wake of a job loss. One interviewee, Michael Guarini a former president of the health division at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, says he ditched his usual business casual duds and now wears formal business suits to all networking meetings, even with long time acquaintances.

Why go fancy, you may ask. Shouldn’t your skills speak for themselves? Even the Journal admits that dressing up can cause some eye brow raises and a few “I hope you didn’t wear a suit for me.” comments. But ultimately, Guarini gets noticed. He is remembered for looking polished, professional, and serious. If you’re serious about your job search, you should look the part.

The author of the article, Christina Binkley, delves into the psychological aspects of the post lay-off makeover as well, urging the unemployed to hold their tongue and not bad-mouth their former employers in a reactive rage.  This is something we’ve emphasized in former blog posts and columns as well. But no matter how logical it may seem, Binkley points out that in a state of anger and emotional distress even the most collected business person can lose their cool.

How to avoid a meltdown before it happens? It seems Binkley’s only recommendation is to take some time off before jumping into the “dating pool,” likening a lay-off to a break up. She offers some post-meltdown suggestions and ways to keep your communication direct, but in terms of skipping the damage control, taking a vacation seems to be the best answer to the problem.

This advice is certainly smart and sounds like a logical way to let emotions melt away before contacting people about your job search. But is it really realistic? Not everyone can afford to just take a few weeks off. Not to mention if you’re suddenly unemployed, what are you taking time off from? I think this refers to the job search itself, networking, etc. However, with most job searches taking months these days, stalling the inevitable with a few weeks of down time seems counter intuitive.

Other suggestions for cooling off? Talk to your spouse, your loved ones, an old friend who has nothing to do with your industry. Avoid friends in the same line of work, because as Binkley does point out, many executives think they are venting to friends in the office and then their vented frustration turns into office gossip. Talking it out is healthy and talking to someone separated from the situation will offer a different perspective and allow you to see both side of the equation. That’s what friends and loved ones are for, right?

So, blow off that steam and dust off your suit and dress shoes. A whole new, happier, more stylish you is hitting the job market.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of your industry or returning to the game after many years away, the same job finding techniques ring true. Sue Shellenbarger wrote an interesting piece for the Wall Street Journal yesterday that focused on mother’s returning to the work force after a child-rearing hiatus. Take a look at the article here.

Among the strategies the women in the article use to get their feet wet in a new (or old) industry, are group sessions while their kids play for practicing interviewing skills and sharing resume tips, volunteering at non profit organizations to build new skills and keep old ones sharp, doing pro-bono work to re-create a name for oneself and get back into the swing of things, and settling for lower wages and titles than in previous positions.

These sacrifices and techniques have helped the women featured to get back to work, even in the down economy. But what’s interesting is that these savvy ladies are using the same types of tricks and strategies that those who never left the business world are employing due to lay offs. Volunteering and interning are more popular than ever for professionals who are used to a pay check, whether it be for networking purposes or acquiring new skills. Once out of a job, role-playing to prepare for interviews is an essential part of job search preparation. And of course, many, many executives have been forced to take on lower salaries and less prestigious positions.

Interestingly, though, is how one woman in the article was chosen for a position because she was knew to the field and brought a fresh perspective untainted by traditions or other companies’ methods. The article also notes that after a haitus, only 39% of employees return to their original career, suggesting looking into new options and new industries might be a wise route to take.

So, while you might have never left your field and have been a faithful employee for years and years, if you find yourself laid off during these hard times, it might be wise to take a note from these mom’s who are stepping back into the fray after years of time off and finding success through trying something new, through giving back, and through diligence of course.