Greetings to all,

Depending on which survey results you prescribe to, the success rate for finding a job online is between 8-20%. Those are not impressive numbers compared to networking, gaining inside referrals, and contacting hiring managers directly. However, job candidates do find jobs on the Internet, and if you are going to employ the technology, you must know how to maximize your success rate.

In the movie, The Graduate” the keyword was “plastics.” In online job search, the keyword is….well, “keywords.” Keywords are nouns and noun phrases that describe you professionally. They are nouns generally associated with an industry, profession or job function. If you are going to post your resume to job boards, company websites, keywords are critical to gaining visibility.

Today, many employers are employing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software or Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen, sort and rank candidate resumes.  In order to screen thousands of qualified candidates, an internal recruiter or hiring manager, using OCR or ATS software, will create search criteria, keywords to select resumes from hundreds to thousands of candidates in a company’s database.

Keywords are words we use in our day-to-day work and academic life but often take for granted. They are:

• Transferable skills: communication, leadership, planning, team building, mentoring, critical thinking, consulting, editing
• Job specific skills: financial analysis, internal audits, script writing, union relations, Sarbanes-Oxley, account management, risk assessment, GAAP
• Technical skills: SAP, systems architecture, programming, CAD/CAM
• Software: Excel, PowerPoint, Project Manager, Access, PhotoShop
• Job titles: VP Marketing, CFO, Director of Operations, Software Engineer
• Personal qualities: high-energy, visionary, results-oriented
• Education/degree: MBA, PhD, MS
• Certifications/licenses: CPA, MCSE, Series 7, RN, Series 65
• Quality programs: ISO 9000, TQM, Six Sigma, LEAN
• Industry jargon: Marcom, B2B, B2C, cradle-to-grave
• Languages: Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin

You already know many keywords through assessment tools and personality surveys. The best place, however, to find keywords is in job postings and position descriptions under the Qualifications or Requirements section. Look for descriptors in the job requisition that employers use to describe their ideal candidate. As long as they are truthful about you, create your own list. Open a new file in Word and call it Keywords. The list may contain 20 to 50 noun and noun phrases from the categories above.

You may say, “but my resume already contains many of these words.” Does it, however, contain enough to rank your resume high enough on an employer’s “hit list?” Of 20 keywords that a recruiter uses, he or she may only look at the candidate resumes that match 18 and more of the 20. We create a Skills Summary to ensure our resume exceeds a minimum threshold.

Every resume that you submit electronically, either to a major job board or an employer’s corporate website should, no MUST, contain a Skills Summary. Your Skills Summary is a customized collection of those noun and noun phrases that match the requirements for the position for which you are applying, from your saved keyword list mentioned earlier. You merely create a string of words separated by commas. Your Skills Summary may contain as many as 10 to 15 word and word phrases.

If you have previously submitted resumes without a Skills Summary, fear not! You now have a golden opportunity to revise, refresh or resubmit existing resumes by adding the Skills Summary. I wouldn’t be surprised if you begin to see interest almost immediately based on the new visibility that keywords have generated.

Give your resume a fresh start,

Mike

by Mike Brown, Director of MBA Career Services

The MBA summer internship is morphing into something new. Increasingly, students are taking on internships before classes even begin.  It’s a great way for career switchers to gain experience and get their foot on the door. Read more about the pre-MBA summer internship here.

Starting Your Job Search

Reminder: Don’t get sucked into a place of complacency and think that a job will magically happen. People don’t generate nearly enough activity; don’t pin your expectations on one phone call response or one potential offer.

New Advice: Treat your job search as a project with deadlines and metrics and create a plan. At the deadlines, determine if you’ve met your goals/metrics and, if not, figure out why. You cannot stop until you have an offer in your hand.

Resumes

Reminder: Recast your resume with keywords for what you want to be. Make sure it is understandable, granular, and accomplishment-oriented.

New Advice: When you are e-mailing contacts, attach your resume every time so they can easily remember you and your background.

Cover Letters

Reminder: Don’t restate your resume. Cover letters can derail your application as much as they can help so keep them simple and grammatically correct.

New Advice: Cover letters may not be as important as you think. Create your opening, mention the most important part of your background and state that your resume is attached. Keep it short and spend your time on more productive activities.

Networking

Reminder: Reach out to the people you know and ask, “Can you give me some advice on how to meet additional people in my job search?” Put yourself in a position of being discovered.

New Advice: The alumni database is one of the best places to network. Once you apply for a job, connect with a Penn Stater within that company (preferably in the same department or in a similar position) and ask for advice on the position/application.

Thank You Notes (non-interview situations)

Reminder: Whenever you take up someone’s time, make sure to send the thank you note before you go to sleep that night. Keep it short – they’re busy too!

New Advice: When writing a thank you note, say something about a personal interaction you’ve had. It will help them remember who you are.

A final reminder: It’s a game of numbers. Don’t take the rejections personally and don’t get discouraged. Make sure to explore different avenues and thank the people who have taken the time to speak with you or help you on your search.

BACKGROUND – BARBARA BRIDENDOLPH:

Barbara Bridendolph is President and CEO of Crenshaw Associates, a New York-based boutique that provides career-long advisory services to senior executives, primarily C-levels and their direct reports.  She became a Partner in the firm in 2001, was named President in 2004, and President and CEO in 2005.

Barb oversees the firm’s career consulting work and personally acts as an Executive Advisor.  Since joining Crenshaw, she has worked with more than 150 Directors, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, GCs, Division Presidents and functional heads of Sales, Marketing, Corporate Development, Supply Chain and Finance.  The industry sectors from which her clients have come include CPG, financial services, pharma, advertising, technology, and consulting/public accounting/law.

Prior to participating in the acquisition of Crenshaw Associates, Barb had her own consulting firm which advised senior executives on strategic marketing programs and alliances.  This followed her tenure as President of Precision Marketing Associates, an advertising agency specializing in direct marketing.  Earlier, Barb was SVP of Marketing at Carroll Reed, a specialty clothing retail/catalog company where she had P&L responsibility for catalog operations.  She started her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble.

Barb received an MBA from Penn State and a BS in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Special thank you to Susan Slopek, Class of 2011

From the feedback we received during Career Immersion, it appears that you really enjoyed the Etiquette lunch.   Many decisions are made over a meal, and depending on the culture, the majority of business occurs during meal and social time.   To help you be your best, should you ever encounter a lunch interview, we have provided you with this information.    This should provide you with a nice supplement to the etiquette lunch.  Read more here.

Interesting job searching business model with immediate feedback – $0.99 per post to get feedback.  Check out localbacon.com.

(don’t forget to read about the company before signing up!)

We have all been there.  The pre-interview nerves.  The author of this blog post challenges you to look at why you’re nervous and then to turn the tables on your interviewer.  Because in the end, both sides of the table are looking to ensure there is a good fit.

The Financial Times ran an interesting article about MBAs being hired into foundations.  Counterintuitive at first, the match makes sense.  Foundations are going very large and require business acumen, relationship abilities, and financial expertise.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest foundations, recently announced allocating $10 billion for research and delivery of vaccines to the poorest nations in the world.

For those that are socially minded and want to make a difference on a large scale, think about joining a foundation.  Some web resources to look through are the Philanthropy News Digest, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Council on Foundations.