Susan Clark, Author at The Wilson Group

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It Takes More Than a Profile to Get Noticed on LinkedIn

You’re on LinkedIn, you’ve filled in all the blanks on your profile, and you’ve made some connections. Congratulations – you’re off to a great start! But there’s more work to be done.

If all you’re doing on LinkedIn is accepting the occasional connection request and scanning your newsfeed, you’re missing out on several features that can help boost your visibility and establish your industry expertise. It’s not enough merely to have a presence on LinkedIn; if you want to catch the eye of a potential employer, you need to step up and stand out.

Here are three LinkedIn features that can make the difference between getting noticed or getting passed over.

1. Updates
LinkedIn allows you to post updates that will appear in the newsfeeds of your connections. It is a great way to maintain visibility among your connections and also to show that you’re engaged in your industry.

Remember that LinkedIn is a professional social site, so it’s not the place for the same type of personal updates you might post on Facebook or Twitter. Ideal topics include timely, industry-related articles from trade publications; the “LinkedIn Today” section at the top of your newsfeed; or reputable, or high-profile sites such as Mashable or Forbes. Engaging, open-ended questions about trends in your industry are also great topics for updates.

2. Groups
LinkedIn groups provide a great way to network with other people in your industry. It is also a way connect with recruiters, who often participate in industry-specific groups for the express purpose of connecting with new talent. Groups are also a good place to learn about job opportunities that may not be posted elsewhere.

There are two ways to participate in a group. You can start a discussion by asking a question or sharing a link to an article, or you can comment on discussions other group members have started. Sharing your opinions and participating in conversations will help boost your visibility and establish your expertise in your field.

Another benefit of groups is the chance to increase your connections. People are often more open to accepting connection requests from group members than they are to accepting unsolicited requests.

3. Follow Companies
LinkedIn allows you to follow companies in much the same you would follow someone on Twitter. When you follow a company, all of their updates, which often include job listings, will appear in your newsfeed. Paying attention to the kind of content they share may also help you get a better picture of trends, concerns and culture at your target companies, so when you do get that interview, you’ll be ahead on your research.

If you’re looking for a good place to start increasing your LinkedIn presence, we invite you to join the discussion on our own LinkedIn group and follow The Wilson Group company profile page.

Is Your Job Description Enticing or Bewildering?

To hire great talent, you need to get a great talent pool to apply for your job. That may sound glaringly obvious, but it’s surprising how many companies fall down on the job when it comes to the first impression they’ll make on most candidates – the job description.

Perhaps nothing is as frustrating to a job seeker than reading through a job description and still having no idea what the position entails, what skills are necessary and sometimes even basic details like the job title or company location.

Here are three applicant turn offs that are sure to significantly decrease the number of qualified candidates applying for your position.

What’s the title?
The problem is usually not so much that the title isn’t listed, but that it’s 10 words long and does nothing to describe the actual position. Even if your company lists the official job title as “Primary Facilitator of Quality Assurance in Executive Correspondence and Scheduling”, “Executive Assistant” will be much clearer and more relatable for candidates.

The same goes for the description itself. Avoid making the reader try to translate long strings of business jargon in an attempt to figure out what the job actually entails.

How long is this thing?
In the digital age, attention spans have gotten shorter, and job seekers are no exception. If your description is an epic-length single block of text, many candidates won’t even bother to begin reading it. Keep it concise – you don’t need to go into all the details about your three insurance plans and all the equipment in the company gym. Stick to the pertinent details and use bullet points wherever possible to highlight the important points.

Is this a top secret position?
For various reasons, it’s sometimes necessary for a company to conceal its name in a job ad. But don’t be too secretive. If the candidate gets through the job description without finding a mention of your industry or the city in which they’d be working, they’ll be less inclined to take the time to apply.

If you’re not getting enough qualified applicants for your positions, The Wilson Group has extensive experience in attracting top talent and finding the best fits for our clients. Please contact us if we can be of any help.

5 Tips for a Great Social Profile Photo

When you’re searching for a job, you can be sure that at some point, a potential employer will check out your social profiles. In fact, they may even find you and contact you through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other social sites.

That being said, it’s important to take a careful look at your profile photos. We’ve all heard cautionary tales about what not to do – don’t use a profile pic of you doing a keg stand at a frat party, for instance. But what makes a good one? Here are some tips.

Actually HAVE A Profile Photo
For some reason, be it laziness, shyness, or privacy concerns, some people forego a profile photo altogether. This can be a big mistake when searching for a job. Don’t believe me? Look at this eye-tracking heatmap and notice what recruiters look at first and for the longest period of time on your LinkedIn profile.

Let Them See the Whites of Your Eyes
Your face should be clearly and prominently featured. Avoid photos taken from a distance, and if it’s a shot of your entire body, crop it to show yourself only from the shoulders up.

Quality Counts
Your profile photo doesn’t have to be taken by a professional, but it should look like it was. Don’t use photos that are blurry, grainy, or too dark. Also, don’t use trendy filters. They may be fun to experiment with on Instagram, but they don’t look professional for a profile photo.

One at a Time, Please
Your profile photo should show you, and only you. Don’t use the photo of you and your boyfriend on your last vacation, or you in the middle of a big group. It may be possible in some cases to crop yourself out neatly, but most of the time you’ll end up with an arm or a shoulder or some other odd body part in the frame.

Keep It Simple
If possible, your photo should be taken against a solid background. Your face shouldn’t be competing against floral wallpaper or the clutter in your home office.

It you don’t already have a suitable photo for your social profiles, it only takes a minute to have a friend snap a quick pic that will work. If you need tips on profile photos or any other aspect of your job search, please contact us – we’d love to help!

Recent Graduate? Sell Yourself With Your Resume

Regardless of the degree you’ve just earned, you will soon spend some time in sales. If you’ve never done so before, you will get your chance when convincing employers that you are exactly what they need.

You should market yourself with your resume as effectively as you sell yourself in an interview. A resume that separates you from other recent graduates, as well as established candidates, is more likely to get you an interview. To make a successful sale, you need to know and understand your current assets.

Relevant Experience – Yes, you have it!
No matter what kind of job history you have, you’ve developed a few skills that are relevant to your current career ambitions. Even if they were not used in the same way as will be expected in your new career, there are many basic transferable skills, such as leadership, customer service, and problem solving. Spend time reading job descriptions that interest you to locate keywords and terminology that relate to your skills to use in your resume. A chronological work history many not help if your most recent work is the least relevant. You can remedy this problem by listing industry internships and giving them more prominence by writing more detailed descriptions than the less relevant experience.

The Cover
Yes, cover letters aren’t always required, but in the job market, you need to take every opportunity you can find to stand out. Writing a cover letter can show your personality, ability to write in a professional manner, and your willingness to be comprehensive and detail-oriented in your work. Your cover letter should be specific to the job for which you’re applying. Read the job description carefully and incorporate relevant keywords that speak to the specific skills and qualities needed for the position.

Flexibility vs. Indecisiveness
When you’re fresh out of college, it’s important to be open minded. You may not get the exact job you want, but you might find a good opportunity you never considered. However, you shouldn’t leave out all of your specific aspirations in an attempt to be flexible. Of course you want to get a job quickly, but you don’t want to appear desperate or seem like you have no real vision of what you want your career to look like.

The most important aspect of making yourself a marketable candidate is focusing on what makes you special and what you can bring to an employer. A new graduate should do this through balancing humility with confidence, and that can include asking for help. The Wilson Group offers resume appraisals, interview coaching and career coaching to candidates. Click here for more information.

Working With a Recruiter – What You Should Ask

Working with a recruiting firm can be a great way to explore new career opportunities. Good recruiting firms will have established relationships with a number of companies and can help you get past the HR “gatekeepers.”

As with any industry, some recruiting companies are more successful at their jobs than others, and some take ethical considerations more seriously than others. Here are some tips to help you determine if you are working with an effective, reputable recruiting firm.

A good recruiting firm should:

Have a real knowledge of your industry. They will understand your expertise and how it fits into the marketplace. If you ask an industry-specific question and hear an answer that doesn’t sound right, or they don’t have an answer at all, you may want to politely terminate the conversation.

Have real relationships with their client companies. They will know the company, the corporate culture, and the decision makers. They will also spend time getting to know you, both professionally and personally, to determine which positions and clients would be the best fit for you.

Not be “promiscuous” with your resume. You don’t want a recruiter to present your resume for every open position they are working, regardless of whether it’s a good fit for your background and skills. A good recruiting firm will have a more targeted approach that will not waste your time or their clients’ time on positions that are clearly not a good fit. And, they will respect you and your confidentiality by not submitting your resume to a company without your prior knowledge and consent.

You may or may not decide to work with a recruiter during your job search. If you are approached by a recruiter, ask a few questions and make an informed decision:
Do you specialize in my industry?
What is your relationship with the employer?
What kind of relationship do you have with the decision maker(s)?
Will you submit my resume to any employer without first notifying me?
What can I expect as far as communication?
Will you prepare me for my interview?
Will you let me know the result, even if it’s no?

What’s Up With That Interview Question?

There are some common job interview questions that always seem to stump candidates, no matter how well they’ve prepared beforehand.

The questions are not complicated. But candidates often fumble around or give inappropriate answers because they don’t understand the reasoning behind the questions – what the interviewer is REALLY getting at.

Here are a few common interview questions, with explanations of what the interviewer is actually trying to determine about you.

“Tell me about yourself.”
For the record, the correct answer is not, “Everything you need to know is on my resume.” Besides possibly coming off as a bit of a jerk, you’re not really telling the interviewer what he or she wants to know. They want to know that you can intelligently and succinctly sum up your professional accomplishments and goals without giving your whole life story, throwing in irrelevant information or going off on a tangent.

You should have a one-minute maximum answer – also known as your “elevator speech” – rehearsed and ready. If you don’t have an elevator speech prepared, here is an excellent article from Forbes to get you started.

“What are your weaknesses?”
This may be the most universally dreaded interview question, and the most challenging to answer. However, it’s a very common question, and you should be prepared.

Many people have been advised to try to spin a weakness into a strength. For example: “I’m a serious perfectionist,” or “I’m a workaholic – I’m just too dedicated to my job and I’m always in the office until 8 p.m.” Contrary to popular belief, this is not the right approach. First of all, interviewers can see right through your well rehearsed martyrdom. Everyone has weaknesses, and they want to know if you’re honest enough to own your shortcomings. It’s difficult to coach and develop employees who are afraid to admit they’re not perfect.

How do you answer the question? First, you should only discuss your weaknesses as they relate to a work environment. Your personal shortcomings relating to family and friends are irrelevant in this case. Second, be honest. Every human being has weaknesses – even the one interviewing you. Finally, be prepared to discuss the steps you are taking to overcome your weakness or make it work to your advantage. For example, people who are described as “too shy” are often great listeners.

Please check out this excellent resource if you’d like more help formulating your answer to the “greatest weakness” question.

“Why do you want to work here?”
One simple rule – this is NEVER the time to tell the interviewer what you hope to gain from the company. Answers like “I’ve heard you pay well,” or “I need benefits,” won’t go over well. This question is designed to determine two things: 1. How do you think your skills and background will benefit the company? and 2. Are you excited/enthusiastic about the company and the position?

This is a good chance to show the interviewer you’ve done some research on the company and tell them why you think you would be a good fit. For example, “After studying your website, I can see you do a lot of work with the Widget industry. I love Widgets and I have a lot of experience with them, so I saw this as a perfect chance to put that knowledge and passion to work for a progressive, stable company.”

If you are consistently having difficulty with these or other tough questions, The Wilson Group offers one-on-one interview coaching designed to improve your interviewing skills so you can land the job you want. Contact us today for more information.

Rescue Your Resume from the Black Hole

“I’ve sent my resume to a dozen companies weeks ago and I haven’t heard from one.”

If you’ve been in the job market or know anyone in the job market, you’ve heard this statement. Your resume has been sucked into the infamous HR “Black Hole”. Today we’ll explore how the black hole is created, and some ways you can rescue your resume from the abyss and get it in front of the hiring manager.

Big companies can get hundreds of resumes for a position. If the company has several open positions at one time, multiply that number. Simple math will tell you that the handful of recruiters in a typical HR department simply can’t process thousands of resumes each month. That’s why most companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS), which automatically parses incoming resumes and converts them into database records.

When searching for candidates, corporate recruiters will plug in keywords related to the particular job opening, and resumes containing those keywords will turn up in the search. If your resume turns up toward the top of the list, it has a chance of being viewed.

How can you increase your chances of turning up in that search, or perhaps bypass the black hole completely?

Keywords are key
The ATS will return results that contain the keywords the HR person has entered. Be sure your resume contains plenty of words that relate to the particular job you’re seeking. Think like an HR person – if you were searching for candidates for this job, what terms would you use? Also, try to include variants of those keywords. For example, if you are applying for a copywriter job, include copywriter, copywriting, writer and writing.

One caveat – be sure the words you use make sense in the context of your resume. If you include a block of text at the top that reads “analyst analyst analyst analyst analyst”, you may show up at the top of the results for an analyst search, but it’s going to look ridiculous to the HR person when they actually open your resume.

Format is important
Always submit your resume in Word, plain text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) format. DON’T submit a PDF. A PDF is basically a snapshot of your text document. It’s visible to the human eye, but an ATS, which is designed to parse text, won’t recognize any information on a PDF document. It will most likely attach your resume to a blank database record, which doesn’t do you any good.

Also, keep your resume formatting simple. An ATS will look for certain patterns when parsing your resume. It will assume that the first block of text is your contact information, and then it will look for common headings like “education”, “experience”, and “skills.” If you have a complicated format with graphics or pull quotes, there’s a good chance your information will either go into the wrong database fields or not be imported at all. The best format for an ATS is a simple, straightforward, chronological resume.

So remember, don’t let your resume get trapped in the black hole! Remember you are writing for a computer AND Human Resources.

Employers: They Know What They Want

There are countless surveys out there that have determined the top characteristics employers look for in an employee. Most managers have created their own list of characteristics to look for. Often times, even with the enumerable resources out there, many people fail to see the importance of adopting these characteristics when interviewing. We have sifted through many surveys to find the top 5 most desired qualities that employers look for. While this list may seem to be more geared towards those seeking employment, it is a good resource for managers as well to compare their own lists to. We have also added keywords or traits that fit in with these characteristics.

1. Team player – This characteristic was the prevailing trait on every survey we looked through. If you don’t play well with others, don’t expect to get a call back. If this is something you have a hard time with, practice in everyday life, outside of the job. Talk to people and get to know them. They aren’t so bad.
Traits: positive, collaborator, open

2. Eager to Learn – There is always a new way of doing something, news that is relevant to an industry, and polishing to do on your own skills. A person who is aware that he or she is not all knowing, but is always working towards being the most knowledgeable, is going to be a valuable employee.
Traits: researcher, learner, humble

3. Customer Focused – What is the most important aspect of business? The customer! Without an ever-growing population of customers coming to their businesses, managers will lose their company. An employee who can find the balance between accomplishing company goals and pleasing the customer will be indispensable.
Traits: enthusiastic, smart, empathetic

4. Motivating self and others – Being motivated to accomplish tasks and fulfill goals is a very important aspect of being employed. No manager has the time or the patience to “babysit” an employee who needs to be constantly told what to do. It also never goes unnoticed when an employee can put his or her own concerns aside and encourage co-workers. This shows an outward focus, rather than a self-focus.
Traits: positive, encourager, driven, interpersonal skills

5. Contribute and add value to organization – What is the root reason you are being hired? Managers hire new employees to add value to their company. If you are capable of making the company a better business, whether it is enhancing the work environment, bumping up the bottom line, or solving an issue, the manager will find the hire worth it.
Traits: innovative, big picture focused, hard worker

These are not absolutes, nor do they apply to every manager. We at The Wilson Group work hard to find the perfect employer/employee match, considering the needs, wants, and goals of both sides. Call us today and share your goals with us. We are sure to find your match. 361.883.3535.

Developing Your Career Path

Whether you’re a new graduate looking for your first job, a seasoned pro settled in with your current employer, or an entrepreneur launching your own business, you should have a solid strategy for where your career will go in the next year, five years, and decade. In today’s economy, it’s easy to focus on nothing more than supporting yourself now, and to worry less about your overall career path. That’s completely understandable, but if you can spend a couple of hours a week developing your career strategy, setting goals and attaining them, you will find yourself light years ahead of a lot of the job seeker competition!

Here are some things that you can spend a bit of time on that will net major results in the long run:

Set Goals
Setting goals is absolutely vital to developing a strategy for you career— or pretty much anything, for that matter. Goals should be specific and attainable, but keep in mind your goals will certainly change as your life changes. Having an idea of what kind of job you want or what kind of company you want to work for will give you a starting point for what kinds of skills and contacts you need to cultivate.

If you’re not sure where to begin, try either or both of these: think about your current situation and what you want to change (flexible hours, a higher salary), or think about your ideal situation (working at your favorite company or in your favorite city).

Learn Skills
Whether you’re a high school, community college, or university graduate, you should expect to continue learning all throughout your life. The more you learn, the more your career can move forward! If you have the time and funds, look into the next level of school, whatever that may be for you. For those with smaller budgets, you don’t have to go out and get an MBA (though they’re great if youc an); there is a great deal of educational material available online— check out this article on “Where to Get the Best Free Education” from Lifehacker!

You can also find classes at your local community or recreation center or library that may be within your budget. Books can be a great way to learn as well, and definitely check and see if any of your friends would like to give you a crash course in a skill (in exchange for you teaching or helping them, naturally)!

Network, Network, Network!
It’s not necessarily “all about who you know,” but knowing people certainly helps. A few tips: first, just look for friends, and be more interested in helping them than in how they can help you. You’ll be surprised to find relatively few deadbeats, and establishing a mutually beneficial relationship will keep your contacts stronger and keep them around longer!

You can find a lot of networking events in your area, sometimes even in specific industries and fields. Check out Event Brite and Meetup to find some in your neighborhood. If you’re a Corpus Christi local, the Caller-Times usually has local business event information!

If you’re still stumped on developing your career strategy, call us at (361)883.3535 or contact us here. We’ll be able to get you on the fast track!

Resume Design Matters! Tips and Tricks

Many sites will answer the question “how do I write a resume,” but not as many address the question of “how do I design a resume.” Don’t worry: no one expects a fancy infographic-style resume (unless, perhaps, when hiring a graphic designer). But you still need to make sure that a first glance at your resume won’t turn off a hiring manager— and ideally that it will intrigue them. You may not be a graphic designer, but don’t worry! You can still have a great-looking resume if you follow these tips:

1. Start with a Template
Templates are a great way to get a head start on designing a solid resume, and you can find them for pretty much any word processor out there! Here are links to templates for some of the major processors:
– Microsoft Word
– Apple Pages
– Google Docs
– Open Office

But don’t think that plugging your info into a template is enough! These are easy to find, so you can bet a lot of job seekers use them— maybe even ones applying to the same jobs as you! Do your best to tweak the design’s colors and look.

2. Use Caution While Handling Fonts
It may be tempting to use grand, sweeping fonts throughout your resume. Or maybe you prefer the chipper, cheerful look of Comic Sans. In either case, be careful what fonts you choose, and stick to about two: one for headlines, and one for the rest of your resume’s text (such as your job history and objective). Traditionally, designers recommend a “serif” font (one with little ticks at the ends of each letter, such as Times New Roman or Helvetica) for the main body of text and a “sans serif” font (one without the ticks, like Arial and Calibri) for headlines.

3. Consider Printing When You Design
Many employers (and perhaps you yourself) will want to print your resume, so avoid using colored backgrounds or large, detailed images. These suck up ink and don’t always look very good on a standard printer, so save yourself time and money and stick to a traditional white background.

4. Separate Headlines from Body Text
Your resume should be broken up into several sections, such as your objective, education, job history, skills, achievements, references, memberships, etc. Each section should have its own headline that clearly separates it from the section’s text. If you’re not sure how to start, simply bold the headline text and perhaps increase its font by a point or two. Don’t go too crazy- you don’t want your headlines to take up the whole page!

5. Leave Some White Space
While you don’t necessarily have to keep your resume down to one page, many people do for simplicity’s sake, and that’s great! However, some of them attempt to cram that one page too full of text to really be readable, much less enticing. Stick to standard margins, and make smart use of bullet-point lists where appropriate such as in your skills and job history, so that a straight paragraph in a couple of sections makes sense. However, you don’t want every section to be a list either: it’s all about balance!

Still need help? No problem! Contact us and we can arrange to meet with you and go over your resume and other aspects of your job search.