In the News
Applying for Work? Pearls of Wisdom
Toronto Globe & Mail
05.08.2004
By Virginia Galt
Some come to job interviews in Dad’s suit, two sizes too big. Some arrive in halter tops. One candidate brought her boyfriend, recalled Kelly Lo, senior recruiter for Toronto-based Softchoice Corp.
And that’s not all. Some forget to change their voice mail, greeting prospective employers with such messages as: “We’re double-fisting some Buds right now . . . so leave your info and we’ll call you back when we’re sober,” said Chicago-based career coach Brad Karsh, founder of the job-search service, JobBound.
“It may seem hard to believe,” Mr. Karsh counsels young job seekers, “but recruiters don’t want to send e-mails to longhornssuck@hotmail.com or to prettyblonde@yahoo.com.”
With Statistics Canada reporting yesterday that the youth employment rate is now 1.9 percent, up from a year ago, competition for summer positions and entry-level jobs is brutal.
So, in the interests of preventing inexperienced job seekers from committing career-limiting moves - before they have even embarked on their careers - Ms. Lo and Mr. Karsh offer some elementary advice.
Mistake No. 1: the ungrammatical, uninformative or boring resume.
There are countless bright, promising graduates who never make it to the interview round because no one has taught them how to write, and proofread, a proper resume, said Mr. Karsh, who was vice-president and director of talent acquisition for advertising powerhouse Leo Burnett in Chicago before starting JobBound.
A standard error, in Mr. Karsh’s view, is the listing of prior work experience in reverse chronological order. Lead with the most exciting, Mr. Karsh said in an interview.
For instance, if you were an intern with Procter & Gamble in the summer of 2002, don’t top the resume with your job waiting tables at the Olive Garden in the summer of 2003, followed by a wordy description of what that job entailed. And don’t bury the fact that you were student body president at the bottom of the list, under “other interests.”
The average recruiter is flooded with so many resumes that the candidate may capture just 20 seconds of his or her time, if that, Mr. Karsh said. “In fact, it’s just like an ad.” Keep it down to one tight page.
Rambling resumes are a common problem, said Ms. Lo, who fields several thousand applications a year. Some graduates might have had only three or four part-time jobs before applying to Softchoice, but their resumes go on for five pages - “it’s like a novel.”
Ms. Lo has received cover letters address, appropriately enough, to Softchoice. Then down in the body of a letter is the line: “I really want to work at Canadian Tire.”
It is understandable, in the current competitive job market, that young job seekers are tempted to “machine-gun their resumes to 50 or 100 employers,” she said. If they do that, however, they should at least check the body of the letter against the address.
Better yet, be selective, do some research, check out the target employer’s website and find out what it is, in particular, about that organization that makes it appealing from a career standpoint, Ms. Lo advises candidates.
Softchoice, which markets technology products to small and mid-sized businesses, is expanding and always on the lookout for new talent.
For Ms. Lo, “interview” nirvana” is when the candidate has a clear idea of what he or she wants to do, asks provocative questions, and gets so engaged in the conversation that neither party wants it to end.
At Leo Burnett, Mr. Karsh said, his colleagues used to refer to this as the “O’Hare test” - as in, would you want to spend three hours stuck at the gate at O’Hare International Airport with this candidate?
Interviews are often needlessly awkward, Mr. Karsh said, because “the legend of the evil recruiting director lingers.” In fact, recruiters really do want to find good people for their organizations, but they cannot determine whether there’s a good fit if an applicant clams up.
Ms. Lo agrees that a lot of candidates put up walls. The most painful interviews are those where candidates respond to her questions with one-word answers or cannot articulate what they want to do or why they want to work at Softchoice.
“They employer wants to make as well-informed a decision as possible,” she said. “But if they [the candidates] are not sure about their futures, how are we going to be sure about their futures?”
While Mr. Karsh would prefer that candidates express their individuality through ways other than tongue studs and tattoos, Ms. Lo is not particularly bothered by piercings. Gum-chewing puts her off, though, and she thinks candidates should make the effort to dress up - at least for the initial interview.
Maybe it is a misunderstanding about the meaning of casual work environment or “maybe it’s a generational thing” but jeans and halter tops are not the most impressive job-hunting attire, Ms. Lo said.
On the other hand, some go too far the other way, with the size and price stickers still attached to their new interview suits. As for those who borrow their Dad’s suits for the occasion, “well, at least, they get points for trying,” she laughed. Ms. Lo said only 20 to 30 percent of the resumes she receives are well-written and informative, so any young job-hunter has an automatic edge if he or she can get that right.
But sometimes, although the resume is great, the phone manner sinks them. “When I call them for an appointment a few days later, hopefully they have some recollection of having applied for the position.”
Mr. Karsh has had similar experiences. “I have had people say, at the end of the interview, ‘What job am I interviewing for?’”
Ms. Lo said some candidates are so determined to stick to their rehearsed job pitch, that they cannot answer questions they are not expecting. “For a customer service role, you have to be able to listen and provide direct answers.” Ms. Lo said most graduates come out of school with strong team-work, project management and deadline-meeting skills. But, often they lack focus and do not know how to present themselves to their best advantage.
Campus career centers have a lot to offer, she said, but not enough students take advantage of them. “A lot of students, up until the day they have left school, and left that comfort zone, haven’t put a lot of thought into their careers,” Ms. Lo said.
Mr. Karsh, in the free advice section of his JobBound website, concedes that no one really likes looking for a job. “But unless you have a nice trust fund at your disposal, you’re going to have to jump into the fray.”
