3 Tips on How to Get your Job Search Started by Amanda

I spoke with a candidate yesterday that was relocating to Seattle because his wife had accepted a job with Bing.  He asked my advice on getting his job search started, which prompted me to share the advice with all of you.  Here are 3 things that you can do that will put you ahead of the pack.

1.      Brush up your resume.

Ideally you want to look for a job while you still have one.  If you are relocating, then update your address to reflect the name of the city where you will be moving.  If you have don’t have an address, just indicate the city.  Common mistakes include: writing your resume in the first person, attaching pictures, not including your email address, the use of paragraphs instead of bullet points, an over use of superlatives, not listing achievements, a resume over 2 pages long and ambiguous information about your education (i.e. just listing the university name and not noting studied or “B.S. in Computer Science”).

2.       Positioning.

Studies indicate that an average job post receives 200 applications.  How do you get noticed?  Make sure that the skills required in the job description are reflected in your resume.  These skills will be examined by the recruiter and hiring manager, so only list skills that you have.  In my 10 years of recruiting, I can’t even tell you how many times in my career I have uncovered skills that weren’t reflected on the resume.  Are you a Systems Engineer with knowledge of IIS?  Do you have experience with JavaScript?  Do you have display advertising experience?  Put it on your resume!  We would like to know.  The most obviously qualified candidates get called first so make sure all your selling points are clearly visible.

3.       Update your social networks.        

Copy the content of your resume into LinkedIn and complete your profile.  Consider updating your work history in Facebook and include your job information on Twitter.  I leverage LinkedIn more than any other resume database.

Looking for a new job is an arduous task, but can take you to new and exciting places.  Stay tuned for more tips!