#Job application tips

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[hiringlibrarians]

Author's Corner: Six things you should not do when applying for a library job

Author’s Corner: Six things you should not do when applying for a library job

Welcome back to Author’s Corner! This series features excerpts or guest posts from authors of books about LIS careers. In this installment, we hear from Deloris Jackson Foxworth, who wrote Landing a Library Job.   In this post, written just for Hiring Librarians, Deloris discusses application materials. She identifies six key things to avoid and offers alternative practices to pursue when…

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Job interview tip I got from a tiktok but it's genius:

If you were unemployed for a while, they're going to ask if you can explain the gap in your resume. Unless you were actually doing something cool & relevant, this is hard to answer in a way that makes you sound like a good corporate cog. So here's the best and infallible answer -

No you cannot, because you signed an NDA.

You now sound mysterious, desirable, worldly, experienced. They can't even really ask you more about it! Perfect.

[achievers-jobs00]

Tips for Creating Effective CV

Contact information: Include your name, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile (if applicable). Make sure your contact details are up to date and professional.

Professional summary or objective: Write a brief, compelling summary of your career goals and qualifications. This should be tailored to the job you’re applying for and should grab the reader’s attention.

Education: List your educational background, including degrees, institutions, graduation dates, and any honors or relevant coursework. Place this section near the top if you are a recent graduate, but if you have substantial work experience, you can move it further down.

Work experience: Detail your work history in reverse chronological order (most recent job first). For each position, include your job title, company, dates of employment, and a list of key responsibilities and accomplishments. Use action verbs to describe your achievements, and quantify your accomplishments when possible (e.g., “increased sales by 20%”).

Skills: Highlight your relevant skills, both technical and soft skills. Include a mix of hard skills (e.g., programming languages, software, certifications) and soft skills (e.g., communication, teamwork, problem-solving).

Achievements and awards: Mention any awards, recognitions, or certifications that are relevant to the job. This can help you stand out from other applicants.

Projects or publications: If you have specific projects, publications, or research that are relevant to the job, list them in a separate section.

Volunteer work or extracurricular activities: Include any volunteer work, internships, or involvement in clubs and organizations that demonstrate your skills or character.

Use action words: Begin each bullet point under your work experience with action verbs, such as “managed,” “achieved,” “implemented,” or “developed.

Include keywords: Use keywords from the job description in your CV. Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes, so using relevant keywords can help your CV get noticed.

Quantify your achievements: Whenever possible, use numbers and specific data to quantify your achievements. This helps demonstrate the impact you’ve had in previous roles.

Update regularly: Continuously update your CV as you gain new skills and experiences. This will make it easier to apply for jobs in the future.

Remember that your CV should present a compelling narrative of your qualifications and experiences. Tailor it to the specific job you’re applying for, and focus on the aspects that make you the ideal candidate for that position.

[businessabroad]

List of Questions used in Competency-Based Interview #17

Decoding Competency-Based Interview Questions for the UN

The questions asked in a UN competency-based interview are not just inquiries—they're a window into your professional soul. Our "List of Questions Used in Competency-Based Interview - UN Jobs #17" video is your cheat sheet to understanding and mastering these probing questions.

From teamwork to leadership, this video breaks down the questions, reveals what interviewers are really looking for, and how to frame your experiences in a way that aligns with the UN's core competencies. It’s time to turn those questions into your stepping stones for success!

#UNCompetencyInterview #JobInterviewQuestions #UNJobHunt #CareerStrategies

[ourjobagency]

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Usage Report: Key Shifts and Strategies for Job Seekers

The job market is an ever-evolving landscape, and one of the significant game-changers in recent years has been the adoption of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) by companies to streamline their hiring processes. In this blog, we will explore the key shifts in ATS usage in 2023 and provide valuable strategies for job seekers to navigate this increasingly automated recruitment world.

The Growing Role of ATS in Recruitment

Applicant Tracking Systems have been a staple in HR departments for years, but their influence continues to expand. In 2023, ATS technology has become more sophisticated, capable of analyzing not only resumes but also social media profiles, work portfolios, and online assessments. This shift signifies the need for job seekers to adapt and optimize their profiles accordingly.

Key Shifts in ATS Usage:

AI-Driven Matching: ATS now employ advanced AI algorithms to match candidates with job descriptions. They analyze keywords, skills, and even sentiment analysis to assess cultural fit.

Assessment Tools: Many companies use ATS to administer pre-screening assessments, evaluating candidates' skills and compatibility with the role.

Social Media Integration: ATS have integrated social media scraping capabilities, allowing them to gather additional insights about candidates. Job seekers need to maintain a professional online presence.

Diversity and Inclusion: Companies are using ATS to track diversity and inclusion metrics. This underscores the importance of emphasizing diverse experiences and skills on your resume.

Strategies for Job Seekers in the ATS Era

Navigating the ATS-driven job market in 2023 requires a strategic approach. Here are some key strategies to increase your chances of success:

1. Tailor Your Resume

Customize your resume for each application by incorporating keywords from the job description. ATS are more likely to select resumes that closely match the job's requirements.

2. Build an Online Presence

Maintain an updated LinkedIn profile and other relevant social media profiles. Ensure that the information is consistent with your resume. Highlight your skills, achievements, and professional network.

3. Optimize Your Cover Letter

While many job applications don't require a cover letter, if you decide to include one, tailor it to the job you're applying for. Use keywords and phrases from the job description to demonstrate your suitability for the role.

4. Expand Your Skill Set

Invest in continuous learning and skills development. ATS often prioritize candidates with up-to-date skills and relevant certifications.

5. Quantify Achievements

Incorporate quantifiable achievements and results in your resume. Use metrics and numbers to showcase your contributions in previous roles.

6. Network Strategically

Leverage your professional network to learn about job openings. Employee referrals are often highly regarded by ATS.

7. Research the Company

Before applying, research the company and its culture. Tailor your application to align with their values and goals.

8. Follow Application Instructions

Carefully follow the application instructions provided by the employer. ATS may automatically reject applications that don't comply.

9. Review and Revise

Proofread your resume and application materials for errors. Simple mistakes can lead to rejection by ATS.

10. Seek Professional Help

Consider consulting a career coach or resume writer who specializes in ATS optimization to ensure your documents are ATS-friendly.

Conclusion

As Applicant Tracking Systems continue to play a pivotal role in the hiring process in 2023, job seekers must adapt to this new reality. By tailoring their application materials, optimizing their online presence, and staying informed about ATS trends, candidates can enhance their chances of standing out in a competitive job market. Remember, while ATS can be a challenge, they are ultimately designed to help employers find the best-fit candidates, and with the right strategies, you can become one of them.

[jobbabu]

We'll go through the steps in this guide to successfully adding job experience to your CV.

[bitchesgetriches]

Hypothetically if someone wanted to include their ability to schedule appointments, organize events and transportation, and meal plan and prep for their family on their resume how would they word that

We LOOOOOOVE the "how do I reframe unpaid labor on my resume" question. This is like Bitch bait.

Ok, so this sounds like you are an Organizational Specialist, or a Personal Assistant to a Head of Household, or an Organizational Consultant to a busy professional. List of responsibilities should include event planning, nutritional development, essential transportation, scheduling and booking, and administrative management.

Pick the corporate buzzwords that most fit with the job you're applying for, stare them directly in the eyes, and know that your unpaid labor for your family is VALUABLE WORK EXPERIENCE.

Here's more advice:

How to Frame Volunteering on Your Resume When You’ve Never Had a Job 

If this helped you out... tip us!

[autistichrlady]

The Cover Letter Toolbox

Or, how to write cover letters while autistic.

One of the autistic traits I have is difficulties with what's called "expressive language" - I don't think in words, and putting my thoughts into words takes a lot of time and effort. For me, going straight from a blank page to a full sentence that makes sense is difficult, and making that sentence sound professional is even harder. So I came up with a way to avoid starting from a blank page. This is what I do instead.

When I've read a job posting and decided I want to apply, I start by making a list of qualifications and things from the job posting that I have or can do, just a list of words or short phrases like

Customer service experience Scheduling Microsoft Office

Then I go under each of those list items and make it into a full sentence.

Customer service experience: I have five years of experience in customer service.

Once I have the most basic version of that sentence, I think about details that I can add to it. The point of a cover letter is two things-

to summarize the things from your resume that are relevant to this job, so the person doing the hiring doesn't have to read the whole thing and connect the dots themselves.

to add details and explain things that might not be in your resume.

So some details that I want to add here are that I didn't just talk to customers myself for five years, for part of that time I was a manager responsible for training other people to give good customer service. And I was good at that- we always got good results on our customer surveys, and we also always hit our goals for stuff like signing people up for the loyalty program. So now I've got a second sentence:

As the [job title] with [company], I trained our entire team on how to best serve our customers and helped ensure that my location had the best results in the region for customer loyalty.

Another thing from the job posting that I want to address with this bit is that the job I'm applying for involves helping people over the phone a lot. So I want them to know that even though my experience is in a different environment (retail instead of an office front desk) I did still have to answer phone calls and help people over the phone. This is the type of detail that's not in my resume and that someone wouldn't necessarily guess, but I really did answer a lot of phone calls working in retail.

I also added a little bit of Flavor, so it's not just assisting customers, it's "welcoming, respectful assistance". Yes, I did try like five different words there before picking these ones. Usually I look back to the job posting and pick something that relates to what they've said they want. But I find it a lot easier to figure out details like this after I have the basic structure.

This is what I ended up with for my Bit About Customer Service:

I have five years of experience in customer service, providing welcoming, respectful assistance to customers over the phone and in person. As the [job title] with [company], I trained our entire team on how to best serve our customers and helped ensure that my location had the best results in the region for customer loyalty.

If I really wanted to add a lot of detail, I'd put numbers in here- how big "our entire team" was, what the "best results" were and how we were measuring it. But the position I'm applying for is with a small organization, and probably doesn't involve measuring sales in the same way, so I decided not to add that. If I was applying for another retail job, I'd include those things.

I repeat this same process with each of the qualifications from my list, copy-paste each of those bits in order of how important they are, and then I need an opening and a closing. For the opening, I start by stating the obvious.

Dear hiring manager, I am applying for/interested in/etc. [this position]

and then I apply my school-essay-writing techniques and do a one-sentence preview of the qualifications I just got done writing about.

I am confident I have the customer service skills, computer expertise and organized mindset to excel in this position.

For the closing, this job posting specifically mentioned putting your contact information in your cover letter, so I did that, and then I like to thank them for looking at my application because that's a nice polite note to end on.

I can be reached at [contact info]. Thank you for taking the time to consider my application, and I look forward to hearing from you. [signature]

Extra Bonus Brownie Points:

Go to their company website and add something that shows you have looked at their company website. Like yes, the main reason you're applying for this job is it's available and you need money, but besides that, there's gotta be something at least a little interesting about this company that might be cool if you get to work for them. In this case they had a whole big section about charities they donate to and how they get involved in their local community, so I added this right before my closing:

[this company's] contributions to charities such as [things from their website] are truly admirable. I've grown to love [this city] since moving here, and I would be honored to be part of an organization that does so much to contribute to the community.

Now wait before you go here's the important part:

I don't delete any of this stuff.

I copy/paste out the finished bits into a new document to send to the recruiter, but I keep that list of qualifications with sentences under each one.

Now I have a document with a list of qualifications I have and nice professional-sounding descriptions of those qualifications, and for the next cover letter I write, I can reuse them if they're relevant, so I don't have to redo all this work of making words make sense. If I decide to change them a little bit for the next job, I'll keep the new version next to the old one under the same heading. I also keep my openings and closings.

I used to have a big file like this but I apparently didn't back it up before my old computer died, so I'm having to re-create it, but you guys this saves me so much time I would otherwise spend staring at a blinking cursor. And it's easier than saving the full finished cover letter and trying to pull sentences out of it, because all the Bits are already organized by topic. (And it lowers the risk of accidentally copy-pasting the wrong company's name.)

I <3 my cover letter workbox.

[kitkatcodes]

✧.* some job searching advice *ೃ༄

I haven't coded in many manyy days oops BUT I have spent that time updating my resume and writing cover letters to send to some of my friends who are helping me with internal referrals!

Here's some job searching stuff I learned:

Most people get interviews because of connections/friends

Ask anyone and everyone you can for an internal referral (ask nicely ofc)

Once they submit the referrals make sure you start researching and learning about the company and what they do

If they have a specific product, make an account and play with it

Make a list of things you like about the service and things you would change

Recruiters/Interviewers LOVE to hear what you know and think about the companies product it gives you a HUGE adv over others

I know it feels like a ton of work but trust me QUALITY over QUANTITY when it comes to applying to jobs. Do your research!

For those of you in the job search good luck and I hope you get that job you want! (´･ᴗ･`)♡

[nando161mando]

Job application tip.

[okayto]

Going to melt of embarrassment. Went into a student job interview thinking the student's name sounded vaguely familiar but hey, it's a small school, it happens...only for the screen to reveal that IT'S MY FORMER STUDENT WORKER??? Like a person I hired and worked with for 7 months literally last year??? And not only did I NOT recognize their not-super-unusual-but-not-terribly-common name, I also read the resume they submitted that says, and I quote, "current vice president of the [college] associated student body" and I knew one of the reasons this student didn't return as a worker was BECAUSE their duties in student government were going to take up a lot of time.

And SOMEHOW I did not put this together until I was literally in a video interview, having sent several previous emails to set it up, during which time I never realized I was corresponding with someone I knew???

Anyway, hey, if you're ever looking at a job where you used to work and you left on good terms (including, for example, a message from your supervisor at the time that says "if you're ever looking for a job again, we'd love to have you back"), it's OK to reach out directly and ask! I didn't need to make this person go through this whole process when they're a known and well-liked entity. My only determining factor for them was whether their schedule would let them fit some specific shifts we needed covered.

[im-still-watching-anime]

can’t STAND when “everything will be okay as long as we’re together” stories realize the devastation potential of separating them

[lijau]

crazy that one of the top medical companies is walking distance away from my house AND THEY STILL WONT HIRE ME :'3

[ourjobagency]

In an ever-evolving professional landscape, the journey of seeking employment has transformed into a dynamic and multifaceted endeavor. The job market of today is marked by its competitiveness, diversity, and constant flux, requiring job seekers to arm themselves not only with qualifications but also with a strategic approach and unwavering confidence. 

[fitsinthepalm]

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