Ever wondered why you can’t seem to find employment in the Fortune 500 companies? Chances are your resume might be blacklisted.
Over the years in recruitment, I have seen many job applicants make the same mistake again and again. This is a fatal mistake that I feel need to be addressed. These are the list of things that you should not do in the event of applying for jobs.
Do not spam the HR executives
A lot of desperate job seekers had been committing this same mistake. If you visit the yahoo groups, you will realize that some of the members are so helpful that they list out all the email addresses of the HR executives and headhunting/recruitment firms. It is really scary as the list comes in hundreds and thousands. Not surprisingly, my email was included in it as we're in the headhunting business as well.
Guess what happens when the hr executives receive your email. Count yourself really lucky if they don't list your email in the spam folder. What have you achieved? Nothing, but you have probably pissed people off. If you are one of those that enjoy broadcasting your resume, you would probably ban yourself from applying for jobs. Most of the established companies have got spam filters installed and even if your email doesn’t get picked up by spam filters, your resume is likely banned from their database. Word get around fast and all HR executives normal share a common pull of blacklist resumes.
Do not submit your resume to job portals where anybody can assess
I always receive calls from a lot of jobseekers asking me why they are not able to find job opportunities with large MNCs. It's not as if they do not qualify as some of them do have pretty good credentials. As all these queries piled up, I decided to do some cross reference with some of my clients to find out what was the main problem. Guess what was the reply?
Oh...they have been banned. Why have they been banned, I asked? Well by submitting their resumes to job portals that all employers have full access to (e.g Monster.com), you have just flooded the market with their resumes. You might think it might be a good thing but this should be done only on a last resort. Why is it so? Basically all the recruitment firms accessing that has access to the portal will pick your resume up as well. Imagine 30 or 40 recruitment firms submitting your resume to companies like Microsoft and Accenture. What happens? Your name gets strike off even if you apply directly to the company later.
Do Not Submit Your Resume More Than Once
By submitting your resume more than once you're really getting on people's nerves. A lot of people do not know that. What do you think I do when I receive the same resume 3 or 4 times a day? I delete his email and go to the spam filter and block his email address. That's what most HR executives do as well. Remember, your job is to send a neat & professional resume to make sure that the HR executives can do their job easily. You help them by helping yourself.
Always Indicate The Job Title/Code
Imagine a large MNC who has got 50 different openings. Out comes a resume that does not indicate any intention. What do you think the HR executive will do? Your resume will probably end up in the deleted mail folder. Do you think the HR executive has time to call all the candidates? They might do so if your resume is really well written. Imagine 50 X 100 resumes. The likely chance is that your resume will end up being deleted.
Now you understand the meaning of Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Third Time Stupid. There are so many people who continue to make these glaring mistakes day after day and that is going to impact on their career if they are choosing to join a large and reputable firm. More importantly, you need a good solid resume that bring you far in your career.
To sum it up, these are the things that you shouldn't do to avoid losing the opportunity of joining an MNC.
1 - Do not Spam the HR executives if there are no genuine opportunities advertised.
2 - Do not submit your resume to job portals where anybody can assess.
3 - Do not submit your resume more than once.
4 - Always indicate the job code.
Follow these steps and you stand a better chance of securing a good job. Do you have the necessary resume writing skills? You better have them.
Regards,
Edmund Ng,
CEO, President
www.Internet-Empire.com
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Who Took Your Million Dollar Job
Have you ever wondered why all the good paying jobs just seemed to go to someone else? Is there something you don’t know? Ultimate secrets revealed.
It is obvious that many people go to colleges; universities get their degrees and thought that life is going to be good and the future is going to be great. It is after struggling to find a job for months do they realize that it is not as straight forward as it seems. You might be a graduate from MIT or even Harvard but if you don't have a good and professional resume, it will kill you. Do you have the necessary resume writing skills?
You have invested in yourself by spending tens of thousands of dollars to get your degree. Your whole life had been studying and learning to the point that you are ready to reap the rewards. What do you do then? Go to Google and grab a resume template. It sounds really idiotic but just wait a minute and ask yourself this question. Isn't everybody doing that too! Oh yes, you've just joined the me-too group of job seekers.
In lots of marketing events you will always hear the marketing gurus say this. You need to differentiate yourself. You need to stand out from the rest. It is true. In every industry, only the top 5 players can be guaranteed of survival. Look around you and you will realize that the smaller players eventually fades off and new companies start to come to the scene and this cycle just repeats itself ever since the dawn of time.
That's the reason why you need to stand out from the rest. It doesn't matter where you graduated or how good your communication skills are. You need to be able to strike interest and gain the HR executive's attention. These folks normally spend less than 30-45 seconds reviewing each resume. You could expect at least 100-300 applicants applying for each job.
How Do You Get Your Resume Noticed?
First of all, forget about cover letters. Who reads it anyway? Through my experience serving the likes of large companies like IBM, Accenture, HP, Unilever and many more, there's one thing for sure. You do not need to send a cover letter. This information just helped you saved 100USD and I hope the resume providers don't hunt me down for sharing this piece of information.
I am going to share these trade secrets with you and please read it carefully.
Step 1
1. Do A Spell Check
HR executives hate it when applicants send word documents that are not checked and you get all sorts of red and greens from the error from Microsoft Word. Like I say before, they only spend 30-40 seconds reading each email. Their job is to just send the resume to the hiring manager and they need the resume to be perfectly readable. You can make their job easier by spell checking.
2. Never Use More Than 1 Font
A lot of times, I realized that most resumes that comes from India has got this problem. Apparently there are 4-5 different fonts with different sizes hijacking the resume. This makes my eyes pop up at times. Please avoid that. Don't use fancy fonts as well.
3. Drop the Cover Letters
Instead of paying hundreds and getting a 1-2 page cover letter that will confuse the HR executives, choose to write a small 1-2 paragraph of executive summary that is around 4-5 lines telling the HR executives what specific job you are applying and what are your strengths. Why no cover letters? Do you know how troublesome it is to file two documents instead of one? I can vouch that HR executives don't read cover letters. Period.
4. Use A Professional Looking Template
Please get a professional looking template. If you want to get average returns, you can do whatever the others are doing. Know the secrets of what those who work in large MNCs are doing. You need to have a resume that will excite the HR executives. One that is so good that they simply do not need do anything and can forward straightaway.
5. Knowing What A Job-Winning Resume Look Like
If you are applying for a job of an IT Consultant, you need to know what it looks like. Similarly for SAP, Oracle Consultants, Executive Director, Sales Manager, CPA, Account...etc. You need to know what a job-winning resume look like. There are lots of bogus resume providers out there. It's simple to setup a website and boast you are the best or the cheapest. But you seriously need to ask whether they know what they're doing about. It is better to work with vendors who walk the talk and preferably in the headhunting industry so that they know what they're doing. The job of the resume providers are there to fill the gaps and to consult/advise you on how they can best present you to the companies at large.
Coming back to the topic, 'Who Took Your Million Dollar Job'? I would like to ask you this question. Do you know of anybody who's in the same job as you who are making another $500 or $1000 extra? What if you can get the same deal or even better? Imagine you having $500 more every month. This adds up to around $6,000 a year excluding bonuses. If you were to multiply by 30 years it would add up to $180,000. However, if you were to compound the bonuses over the 30 years, you would be getting close to 1 Million Dollars. Now you ask, 'Who Took Your Million Dollars?'
The only fear is to sit around and do nothing. Here's the paradigm shift. If you always think the others are good and that's why they get good paying jobs then please go on complaining and bitching about how life sucks. I can assure you that a lot of them don't deserve the jobs they have but are there because they invested in themselves. They are there because they might have done something right. You might be next.
Regards,
Edmund Ng,
CEO, President
www.Internet-Empire.com
It is obvious that many people go to colleges; universities get their degrees and thought that life is going to be good and the future is going to be great. It is after struggling to find a job for months do they realize that it is not as straight forward as it seems. You might be a graduate from MIT or even Harvard but if you don't have a good and professional resume, it will kill you. Do you have the necessary resume writing skills?
You have invested in yourself by spending tens of thousands of dollars to get your degree. Your whole life had been studying and learning to the point that you are ready to reap the rewards. What do you do then? Go to Google and grab a resume template. It sounds really idiotic but just wait a minute and ask yourself this question. Isn't everybody doing that too! Oh yes, you've just joined the me-too group of job seekers.
In lots of marketing events you will always hear the marketing gurus say this. You need to differentiate yourself. You need to stand out from the rest. It is true. In every industry, only the top 5 players can be guaranteed of survival. Look around you and you will realize that the smaller players eventually fades off and new companies start to come to the scene and this cycle just repeats itself ever since the dawn of time.
That's the reason why you need to stand out from the rest. It doesn't matter where you graduated or how good your communication skills are. You need to be able to strike interest and gain the HR executive's attention. These folks normally spend less than 30-45 seconds reviewing each resume. You could expect at least 100-300 applicants applying for each job.
How Do You Get Your Resume Noticed?
First of all, forget about cover letters. Who reads it anyway? Through my experience serving the likes of large companies like IBM, Accenture, HP, Unilever and many more, there's one thing for sure. You do not need to send a cover letter. This information just helped you saved 100USD and I hope the resume providers don't hunt me down for sharing this piece of information.
I am going to share these trade secrets with you and please read it carefully.
Step 1
1. Do A Spell Check
HR executives hate it when applicants send word documents that are not checked and you get all sorts of red and greens from the error from Microsoft Word. Like I say before, they only spend 30-40 seconds reading each email. Their job is to just send the resume to the hiring manager and they need the resume to be perfectly readable. You can make their job easier by spell checking.
2. Never Use More Than 1 Font
A lot of times, I realized that most resumes that comes from India has got this problem. Apparently there are 4-5 different fonts with different sizes hijacking the resume. This makes my eyes pop up at times. Please avoid that. Don't use fancy fonts as well.
3. Drop the Cover Letters
Instead of paying hundreds and getting a 1-2 page cover letter that will confuse the HR executives, choose to write a small 1-2 paragraph of executive summary that is around 4-5 lines telling the HR executives what specific job you are applying and what are your strengths. Why no cover letters? Do you know how troublesome it is to file two documents instead of one? I can vouch that HR executives don't read cover letters. Period.
4. Use A Professional Looking Template
Please get a professional looking template. If you want to get average returns, you can do whatever the others are doing. Know the secrets of what those who work in large MNCs are doing. You need to have a resume that will excite the HR executives. One that is so good that they simply do not need do anything and can forward straightaway.
5. Knowing What A Job-Winning Resume Look Like
If you are applying for a job of an IT Consultant, you need to know what it looks like. Similarly for SAP, Oracle Consultants, Executive Director, Sales Manager, CPA, Account...etc. You need to know what a job-winning resume look like. There are lots of bogus resume providers out there. It's simple to setup a website and boast you are the best or the cheapest. But you seriously need to ask whether they know what they're doing about. It is better to work with vendors who walk the talk and preferably in the headhunting industry so that they know what they're doing. The job of the resume providers are there to fill the gaps and to consult/advise you on how they can best present you to the companies at large.
Coming back to the topic, 'Who Took Your Million Dollar Job'? I would like to ask you this question. Do you know of anybody who's in the same job as you who are making another $500 or $1000 extra? What if you can get the same deal or even better? Imagine you having $500 more every month. This adds up to around $6,000 a year excluding bonuses. If you were to multiply by 30 years it would add up to $180,000. However, if you were to compound the bonuses over the 30 years, you would be getting close to 1 Million Dollars. Now you ask, 'Who Took Your Million Dollars?'
The only fear is to sit around and do nothing. Here's the paradigm shift. If you always think the others are good and that's why they get good paying jobs then please go on complaining and bitching about how life sucks. I can assure you that a lot of them don't deserve the jobs they have but are there because they invested in themselves. They are there because they might have done something right. You might be next.
Regards,
Edmund Ng,
CEO, President
www.Internet-Empire.com
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