4 out of every 5 Jobs are filled through the informal job market. Michael Ellsberg (on Tim Ferriss’ Blog) defines the informal job market as “all jobs that are not filled through someone responding to a job advertisement.”
People look at resumes in the same manner they look at jars of peanut butter. When searching for a jar of peanut butter, you would normally start with a few jars, and slowly narrow the choices. You may put one back because it has too much saturated fat. You may put another one back on the shelf because it isn’t “natural” peanut butter. You may put another one back because it’s crunchy, not smooth. Then you’re left with the last jar of peanut butter. You’re taking that peanut butter home because there wasn’t a reason for you to put it back on the shelf.
Some job openings get thousands upon thousands of resumes. It’s just not realistic to imagine a human going through each of these resumes to narrow it down to a few dozen. Technology is helping them sort through resumes. The technological capability of these computers allow recruiters to not only cut out applicants with GPAs under 3.0, they can also help a company find their ideal candidate. They do this by scanning resumes looking for action verbs.
I recently attended a career fair and had a laugh. Some students were wearing t-shirts, shorts, and sandals. I thought this was humorous. You want to look professional to a potential employer, you don’t want to look like a slacker. I always assumed it was common knowledge that you should wear a suit to a career fair or job interview - apparently, it’s not.
Elite companies don’t make hiring decisions based on grades. Rather, they use grades as a cut off point for reviewing initial resumes. Bryan Caplan explores this and many other aspects of how elite firms hire in this recent post: How Elite Firms Hire: The Inside Story.
Grades do matter somewhat, but mostly as a cut-off. They’re a signal of work ethic more than IQ
This is good news and bad news for job hunts.
The common misconception during a recession is that no one is hiring. Looking at the numbers, however, this simply isn’t true. After finding numbers from JOLT (Job Openings & Labor Turnover) by way of “What Color is your Parachute” by Richard N. Bolles, I realized that companies are hiring every single month.
While reading a recent Wall Street Journal Article, I realized that some job search related expenses are tax deductible. It never crossed my mind that you can receive tax deductions for costs associated with looking for a new job.
I stumbled across this post earlier today. The post lists 5 things the author wishes he learned in college. While reading the post, one thing became amazingly clear to me - I learned all of these things in college. After reading this post, I thought about my college experiences. Why did I learn all those things when I was in school? Am I an anomaly? Thinking more about this, I remembered a conversation I had with a career specialist a few years ago. It was during a career event on campus. I remember it well because there were chairs set up for over 100 people, yet only 5 or 6 students came to the event. I was surprised by this so I asked one of the career services employees why so few people were at the event.
Continue reading »
The Kansas City Star occasionally writes a column about how specific individuals found jobs called “How I Got The Job”. In one column, Jason Zimmerman recently found employment as a teacher. When asked what was most helpful to him in the job search, Jason responded that talking to the “person in charge of hiring before submitting an application” was most helpful.
Fraternity experience on a resume can be a controversial subject. Some experts believe negative stereotypes associated with fraternities can lead to poor results in your job search. I disagree. I think fraternity experience can be a major point of differentiation for first time job seekers. There are many skills you learn in a fraternity and many accomplishments that can really add a nice touch to the resume. There are, however, some things you should consider when putting fraternity experience on your resume.
Continue reading »