2.15.2004

It's About That Time...

The first thing you're going to need is to save your resume as a text file. http://www.jobfairy.com/saving_as_text.htm has the instructions; no need to repeat them here. Turn it into a sig file; newer versions of Outlook Express support larger files now, so if you really want to be slick, save a text version of your resume as (for example) "total_job_sig.txt". Then open it up, and in the top of the file, copy in your standard responding-to-a-job-posting response letter with sig file and contact information. Save the whole thing, and you have a quick-and-dirty fill-in-your-name-here letter that saves you oodles of time. Then go into Outlook Express and simply create a sig file from that text file. Some recruiters are so dim about anti-virus programs that they simply won't accept attachments. This helps you get around that.

You'll also need the text file in order to copy and paste information into the job sites. In a separate document, see http://www.jobfairy.com/keywords_search.htm towards making a text file of your most frequently used keywords. This means your hottest skills. You may want to pull these words right out of your Summary of Qualifications section, but that section's not always full of your most valuable technical skills; we've been using that section to evoke traits and create favorable impressions. Go also to your Professional Skills section and pull out the 5 - 10 technical skills that are worth the most money. These would be things like Unix, SAP, PeopleSoft, Java, Oracle, WebMethods, etc. You'll use these when certain sites ask you what your top skills are. Some places want you to list them all on one line, separated by commas; others want you to list them one by one with rankings. It helps to have a separate text file because you'll be referring to it a lot and this saves you time. You'll keep the two windows open side by side; I use about 30% of my screen real estate for the text file and the other 70% for the browser window with the job site. This makes filling in the forms a lot faster.

I look for a job so frequently that I have a special folder devoted solely to resumes. I have subcategories by year, and I save mine with YYYYMMDD designations. This way I keep prior versions, in case a company that I worked for was once hot, then was in disgrace, but is now making a comeback. That way I can go back and retrieve information from two years ago (and change company names back or forth from agency names without losing track of where it was I really worked). I may also have to make a specialized resume, emphasizing experience in a particular industry where I held previous contract positions. These positions may not have been worth highlighting in the regular version of my resume, but for these specialized versions, they can be made to assume a prominence they didn't have before. I don't do this very often, but it sometimes comes in helpful. I keep my most recent version in the root folder of the resume folder, so that it's easiest to get to.

You'll be posting your resume to a lot of sites - no less than five sites a day. I've made a log that helps you keep track of your sites @ http://www.jobfairy.com/images/jobfairy_search_log.zip. Once you've consistently posted to five sites a day for two weeks, you're going to be getting calls from recruiters. It's also important to keep updating these postings. Make a gratuitous edit, then save them and announce yourself as "new". Just "refreshing" isn't enough. Recruiters prefer the newest resumes, so give them what they want. I've heard that some people do the refreshes daily, but I've found that weekly is sufficient. This page, http://www.jobfairy.com/resume_mechanics_week1.htm, discusses how to manage the posting process. See http://www.jobfairy.com/resume_mechanics_week2.htm for the next week's instructions. Don't forget to open your browser windows side by side - that way, you drag the links out of the page of listings into the other window. Some sites don't change their visited link color, so this technique is not only faster, but helps you not get lost. You'll notice, even without having started the resume posting process, that it quickly gets quite time consuming. That's right. When you're unemployed, your new forty-hour a week job is finding a new job. You'll get up in the morning, have breakfast as if you were going to work, put on business casual clothing, fire up the PC, and start posting. You'll keep your email up, as if you were at work. You'll answer the phone when recruiters call in a professional manner. You'll take a break for lunch at the usual time. You will then go straight back to the computer and keep posting, maintaining, and responding to job ads. You'll apply to anything that even remotely seems to fit. Why? Because recruiters and hiring managers are notoriously inept at writing position ads. Once I got hired for a job because I had skills with a particular software package. The entire time I worked there, I never wound up using it. They also hired me because of certain management skills I had. These requirements were - you guessed it - mentioned nowhere in the job description. Turns out they were the two deciding factors. Another good reason to use the comprehensive everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type resume. But I digress.

If you're doing it right, you will be spending a good 30 - 40 hours a week on posting, the first couple of weeks. (Actually, that's an understatement. You'll be working Saturdays and Sundays too - maybe not for a full eight hour day, but you'll be doing a lot of profile maintenance on all the different boards.) It takes about 3 - 4 weeks to "get into the pipeline"; for recruiters and hiring managers to start calling you for interviews. At first, you'll get calls for "go-sees". Ignore these if you can. They're not real interviews; they're meet and greet sessions with the recruiter. From my experience, if a recruiter has a lot of time for meet and greets, then they're not placing a whole lot of candidates. Used to be that they wanted to see if you were all tattooed and pierced. Nowadays that means you're a hot web designer. So since they don't screen out for that anymore, why bother? If the client likes you, the recruiter will meet you once it's time to fill out the paperwork. The agencies that have it together and are placing the most candidates don't have time for these little games. Skills assessment tests, application forms, all those little time-wasters - the real deal doesn't have time for that crap because they're busy getting job requirements from actual paying customers and filling those req's with warm bodies. Hopefully yours.

Next week we'll go over the particulars of what makes a good posting on monster and dice. They're the two biggest (for IT), so it makes sense to concentrate on getting these profiles into the best shape.

Don't Forget!

If you're a registered voter in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Tuesday, February 24 is the special election date for the Tracy Baker recall effort. Whether you love him, hate him, or just have a voting fetish (there's something about pushing all those buttons, mmmm), make sure you cast your vote. There's a Republican replacement that's on the ballot, same with the Libertarian replacement. If you want to vote Democrat, you'll have to write in the candidate's name, which is Kathleen Conway. Or you could choose to keep Baker in office. (<smirk>Hey, I'm still waiting for the video, OK?</salacious wink>) Remember, democracy doesn't work unless *you* make it work.

We're Still In Limited Publishing Mode

Still having technical problems... We can publish front-page articles, but can't archive yet. Bummer. We'll catch up on the weblog section as soon as our equipment is back in business. Thanks for your patience. We can still provide other assistance, i.e. requests for information etc. We're just not able to use all the features of the content management system right now. I swear we're really working on getting it fixed and not sitting around swilling margaritas or something. Honest.

"Murphy's Laws on Work"

• At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens that person is carrying.
• Everything can be filed under 'miscellaneous.'
• If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.
• If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.
• Important letters that contain no errors will develop errors in the mail.
• Never delay the ending of a meeting or the beginning of a cocktail hour.
• No one gets sick on Wednesdays.
• Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it makes it worse.
• Success is just a matter of luck, just ask any failure.
• The longer the title, the less important the job.
• There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but there is always enough time to do it over.
• To err is human; to forgive is not company policy.