Stafflink Solutions Blogger: Resumes

Thursday, September 2, 2010

10 Job Networking Strategies to Consider if You're a Newcomer to Canada

Newcomers to Canada frequently ask me how to get a job in their field. I wish I had a magic formula. You found your way to Canada. I'm sure it wasn't easy. You bring with you a treasure trove of knowledge, experience and potential. You also bring a determination to make a contribution and a fresh perspective that our economy needs.

I've seen countless people succeed in the same situation that you find yourself in now. So it is with sincere admiration that I offer these suggestions. I trust that you will find your way to the work experience you are seeking. And in the process you will enrich your community.

I talk to many newcomers who are established as highly-demanded professionals in their field. Usually I'm trying to recruit them for a job. At least 70% of our placements are people who've immigrated to Canada. How did they do it? Luck? Connections? A well written resume? Here are a few ideas you could consider in your quest to jump start the next leg of your career.

Reach out to people you know who've come to Canada and landed in good jobs. Ask them how the did it.
Informational interviews. Arrange to meet with people who are currently working in your field, not to ask for a job, but to ask for advice on how to break into the marketplace.
Participate in blogs and usergroups in your field. Make comments. Answer questions. Provide technical advice. Seek out opportunities to demonstrate your expertise and help others.
Mine LinkedIn. Complete your LinkedIn profile including a friendly photo. Network to find others on LinkedIn that you might know through a friend. Link to your personal blog/website or portfolio from your profile. Join special interest groups that are related to you field. Participate actively by starting discussions and commenting on other people's discussions. Promote others.
Participate in professional networking events like camps and meetups to get to know people working in your field.
Offer a free trial run of your services (aka volunteer work or and an internship) to entice people to give you a chance. This creates a Canadian reference for your resume. You don't need to mention on your resume that it was volunteer work.
Create a personal website to market your services. Use it as a platform to showcase your expertise and find work. Tell your story of coming to Canada - people love stories and they might be inspired to help you. Include a "Hire Me" or "Work with Me" link to tell people how to hire you. Add a jazzed up version of your resume or portfolio.
Blog about topics of interest to potential employers/clients and people in your field. Publish your articles on your personal website and broadcast links to your blogs on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and and special interest groups where people with your skillset (including potential employers) hangout.
Communication skills. It's the one requirement you see on nearly every job description. If you find that people have difficulty understanding you in conversation, check out LearnSpeakLive.ca for information about free language instruction program in the Greater Toronto Area.
Be Persistent. Creating a personal brand is hard work. As you implement the above strategies you'll be "self-employed". That entrepreneurial spirit is popular with employers these days - especially startups and technology firms. Eventually you'll connect with an employer who will be delighted to hire you.

Please share your tips for getting established in a new job market. Did I miss anything? What works for you?

See also

Posted By Tim Collins, President and Founder,

Stafflink Solutions Ltd

http://www.stafflink.ca/

Thursday, August 26, 2010

3 Resume Publishing Tools to Pump Up Your Job Market Value

We avoid printing paper resumes. It's not only about saving trees. An online resume or portfolio is so much more engaging and revealing. It's searchable, it doesn't pile up on your desk and it's easy to share. Plus, a well-designed online CV or portfolio gives us a window into your work ethic, professionalism and abilities. It's like staging a house before you put it on the market. If it's done well it increases your market value and creates demand for your work. The potential employer will be excited to meet you.

You can make your professional profile sing - literally. Show off your technical skills and work experience with photos, video and slide shows. Showcase projects you've been involved with. Best of all, you can share your resume/portfolio through email, job boards and social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Here are three tools that might help you land that next job or contract:

My Resume by Elegant Themes

Nick Roach's designs are polished and elegant. He offers a cost-effective shortcut to a professionally designed personal website or online portfolio. Set up can be time consuming but it's worth it because you get access to the endless possibilities of the Wordpress platform with Nick Roach's beautiful designs. I'm amazed a the value you get for a yearly fee of $39 - a catalog of premium designs including several portfolio designs plus an online business card template. Potential employers will be impressed. http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/myresume/

Cons: Set up may be time consuming depending on your level of technical skills.

Difficulty: ElegantThemes works on top of Wordpress - a free, open source publishing platform available at Wordpress.org. You need to register a domain name, sign up with a web host and install Wordpress to take advantage of the ElegantThemes designs. Basic web development skills (HTML, CSS, FTP, image editing) make set up easier. FAQs and an active members forum are available if you need help.

JobSpice Resume Builder

Easy to use, cost-effective and fast to set up. Over 30 professionally-designed styles are available to format your resume. Recommended by PCWorld, Fast Company and Mashable. Basic access is free. For $20/year you can export your resume to PDF, publish it at your own personal URL and add privacy controls. http://www.jobspice.com/

Cons: You can't include images, slide shows, video or hyperlinks so the end result looks like a nicely formatted traditional paper resume.

Difficulty: Easy - if you can use a word processing program you'll be fine.

VisualCV Online Multimedia Resume

Enables you to set up an Internet-based multimedia resume including work samples, charts, video and images. Your VisualCV will have a unique website address. It's free to set up a basic VisualCV. For $59.95 you can customize the URL and create multiple CVs plus some other features. http://www.visualcv.com/

Cons: The formatting is a bit cookie-cutter but it's customizable and the final result is impressive.

Difficulty: To quote VisualCV: "Rest assured that you don't have to be a Web guru to create and share your own VisualCV. In fact, the VisualCV editor makes it a snap to tweak text, add multimedia elements, and rearrange pieces of your VisualCV. And sharing your VisualCV is as easy as clicking a link and telling us who you want to share with."

Bottom Line

I'm a Wordpress fanatic so ElegantThemes.com is my favourite option. But ElegantThemes involves a steep learning curve unless you have web development experience. VisualCV is a great option if you want to rock your resume with multimedia elements but you're not ready to set up a Wordpress site. JobSpice is good choice if you want to get your resume up in a hurry and you don't need all the multimedia bell and whistles. A JobSpice Resume might be a good interim solution while you set up a fancier site.

Please let me know if you have another online resume publishing solution to recommend, or if you have experience with any of the options I mentioned.

Stayed tuned...a tutorial to help you get started with the ElegantThemes "My Resume" option is in the works!

Written by Laura Upcott
http://stafflink.ca/
laurau@stafflink.ca
http://www.twitter.com/lauraupcott
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/lauraupcott

Suggestions fo Further Reading
Build an e-Resume Portfolio Site with WordPress
IT Resume Template: Optimize Your Resume for Job Boards and Recruiters
Your Resume Isn't Only About You, It's About the Reader Too
Resume Tips From A Guy Who's Placed 1000 People
Kawasaki's “1 Page Resume” Rule Revisited

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sourcing Secrets: Getting the Goods out of Google with “SITE” Search

Most recruiters spend endless amounts of time with various search engines seeking out the perfect candidate for a specific role. Learning creative ways to find those “hidden candidates” can be very useful, especially for those hard to fill roles.

Today I was lucky enough to participate in Bill Radin’s webinar “Google Search Strings for Social Networks” led by Mark E. Berger. During this session, I learned the value of conducting “SITE” search techniques on Google, specifically for social network websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

What is a “SITE” search? Simply put, it is a Google search which allows you to search inside one website at a time.

How to conduct a "SITE" search?
To conduct your own “SITE” search, simply go to http://www.google.com/ and type in the syntax site: followed by the site you want to search. For example, site:linkedin.com. Once you have written this syntax you can add other specific keywords and criteria you are looking for such as site:linkedin.com “quality analyst” “greater Toronto”.

What are the benefits of a "SITE" search? You can reveal candidates that may not be accessible directly through the site’s built in search features. If you are to conduct a search on LinkedIn through the advanced search option, you are limited to profiles in your expanded network. By conducting “SITE” searches on LinkedIn through the Google search engine, you have access to all public LinkedIn profiles. Most people have public profiles therefore SITE searches on Google can substantially increase the amount of candidates you have access to, especially as a free member.

See Also: More Sourcing Secrets: 3 Tips to Get More Out of Your LinkedIn Site Searches

By: Michelle De Rubeis, Technical Recruiter, StaffLink Solutions Ltd.
Website: http://www.stafflink.ca/
Email: michelle@stafflink.ca
Twitter: Twitter.com/stafflink1
LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/mmderubeis

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Resume SEO Part 2: Keyword Resume Template

A reader asked me to provide a resume template to demonstrate the tips in Resume SEO: How to Pump Up the Keywords Without Turning Off Recruiters. Here's the link to the document I created in response: Keyword Resume Template. Thanks for suggesting it!

I created this template with technology specialists in mind. We're an IT staffing company so that's what I know best. However, I think it could be adapted for other fields.

I modified an existing MS Word template and added some keyword sections headings to make the resume more readable and more SEO friendly. I inserted some tips to explain my reasoning.

Here's the result:

I hope you find this resume template helpful. Your questions, comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome!

Related Articles:

Tim Collins

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Resume SEO Part 1: Pump Up the Keywords Without Turning Off Recruiters

How do you add keywords to your resume and still make it readable? The secret is to insert keywords in places that help both recruiters and search engines to quickly skim your resume and determine if you're qualified.

What is Resume SEO? Recruiters use keyword searches to mine for resumes in job boards and resume databases. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for resumes means including enough of the right keywords in your resume so that your resume gets picked up by search engines during a keyword search.

Define keyword. Keywords are nouns, phrases and buzzwords or jargon that detail your skills and relate to the position or industry. Examples: MS (Microsoft), PM (product manager), SQL Server, HR (human resources), MBA, technical writer, data delivery, administrative assistant, developing, creating.

Keyword dumps don't work. You may be tempted to try to trick the search engines into putting your resume at the top of the list by dumping a load of keywords on the first page. When I see a keyword dump and no real experience on the first page of a resume I assume that this person is not qualified.

How to Balance Keywords with Readability

Add Keyword Summary section to your resume: It's probably best to limit this to less than 50 keywords. Section out the Keyword Summary with the same formatting that you use to define sections in the rest of your resume. This enables the recruiter to quickly skim the heading and move to the next section.
Insert a Technical Environment description (or Skills Summary list) with each job in your Employment Experience section. Use a subheading to separate this list from the list of skills and accomplishments for that job. The Technical Environment/Skills Summary helps recruiters determine what specific skills you used for each position.
Insert a Technical Skills table that shows all programs, software and technical skills you know well and the number of years of experience you have with each. IT recruiters love these tables because it helps them quickly figure out if you have the required number of years of experience.
Within your description of each position in your Employment Experience section highlight specific capabilities such as technical skills, communications skills, organizational skills or management abilities you demonstrated in that role.
Use different keywords forms. If you use “coordination” in your Skills summary, use “coordinate” in the body of your resumé. Use both full keywords and acronyms.
Don’t go overboard! Your resume still needs to be readable.

Read Next: Resume SEO Part Two: Keyword Resume Template

Tim Collins

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Hidden Job Market: How Tim Got In!

Here's an excerpt from Katherine Moody's interview with Tim Collins:

Tim Collins is founder and President of Toronto-based Stafflink Solutions, a full service permanent and contract IT recruiting firm. I’m delighted to have had a chance to talk to Tim Collins recently about how he got 4 jobs through the hidden job market mechanism. And how networking has helped his company, Stafflink Solutions, have its best year ever! Continue...

Listen to the interview
See a transcript of the interview

About the Author
Katherine Moody is a networking guru and job search coach. For more tips on navigating the hidden job market I highly recommend Katherine Moody's blog HRJobSecrets.com. Follow Katherine on Twitter @justathought99.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Your Resume Isn’t Only About You, It’s About the Reader Too

Write your resume with the reader in mind. Put your audience first if you want to get past the gatekeepers.

Who are the gatekeepers? It depends on three things: where you’re at in your career, your professional network and whether you’re using job boards.

If your career and professional network are well-established you'll probably bypass the gatekeepers. If someone is moving from Apple to Google either they’ve been headhunted or they have a relationship with someone at Google. Their resume will not be the door opener. In fact they’ll only need a resume if someone from HR requires it as a formality.

What if you’re not at that stage in your career? Then your resume has to appeal to two gatekeepers: the resume search engine and the human recruiter who stumbles across your resume with a keyword search or when you apply directly to a job post.

Search Engine vs. the Recruiter
A search engine doesn’t care how long your resume is or how it’s formatted. It’s is only looking for keywords that match a search query. But if the search engine does match your resume to a job then readability is a crucial differentiator.

Recruiters are very concerned about readability. Use consistent fonts and formatting, engaging language, and put the most relevant information first. Recruiters only take a few minutes to figure out if you’re qualified. They depend on you to make it easy for them to skim your resume and decide whether or not to give you a call.

Hook the reader on the first page. Generate enough excitement to entice the person to turn the page instead of moving onto the next resume. Action words, your achievements and accomplishments will make the person want to keep reading. Describe an accomplishment that shows specific tangible improvements that are relevant to the job you’re applying too. For example, if you’re a QA manager describe how you achieved a 10% decrease in bugs when you successfully implemented a new bug tracking tool within budget.

Don’t Bury Your Experience. When I see a resume that lists skills or methodologies on the first page and no job experience my recruiter radar wonders whether this person has the work experience for the job.

How far back should you go? Some people say that your resume should only cover the past 10 years. I believe that a detailed description of 7-10 years of experience followed by a bulleted list of your additional experience should suffice. For example, an IT project manager who was a programmer analyst earlier in their career should have detailed descriptions of their project management experience followed by a section summarizing the analysis, design and programming they did earlier in their career. Information about complementary experience early in your career could be the differentiator that gets you the job.

Final word: It’s okay to brag when you are writing a resume, just remember that you’re not getting paid by the word.

Tim Collins

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Resume Tips From A Guy Who's Placed 1000 People

With this economy it’s not unusual for a single job post to attract hundreds if not thousands of resumes. How can you make yours stand out?

I look at a 100+ resumes a day. Every time I open a resume I hope that this will be the one. Here’s what inspires me to pick up the phone and give you a call.

Resume Dos

List your work experience first. For each position include the company name, location, and months and years worked.
Include a chart that lists your skills and the number of years of experience that you have with each skill. This helps me quickly access whether you have enough experience.
List relevant keywords for each position you held. I look for a correlation between your keywords (technical environment) and the work you actually did in each job. (This improves your standing with the resume parser too.)
Make your resume readable – consistent formatting (spacing, fonts and bolding) is very important. You may have the best skills in the world but if your resume isn’t readable you won’t make it past the resume screening stage.

Resume Don’ts

Don’t make me dig deeper than a page or two to figure out if you’re qualified.
Don’t have a five sentence career objective. Your objective should be 1 -2 sentences at the most. I’m looking for proof that you’re qualified and a lengthy objective just seems like filler.
Don’t fill the entire first page with a list of skills and keywords. I need to see your actual experience with each of those keywords.
Don’t have a half page long list of achievements and activities for each position. Please be concise and list only the points that are most relevant to the job you’re applying for.

The person reviewing your resume is in a hurry. Make it easy for them to figure out that you’re qualified. No one is impressed that a resume is 10 pages long. But I am very impressed when I’m able to figure out that you’re qualified within the first few pages.

Tim Collins

Monday, April 12, 2010

Kawasaki's “1 Page Resume” Rule Revisited

What is the ultimate length for a resume? It depends. A one-page resume might be appropriate when you’re a junior candidate. But if you’re more experienced you’ll need several pages to show your stuff.

In my controversial blog, “Guy Kawasaki’s 1/2/3 Rules of Resume Writing,” I quoted Kawasaki’s resume rule #1:

1 page long. When some job candidates read this, they will think, "Guy is referring to the hoi polloi and unwashed masses, not me. I have ten years of experience at four different companies covering five different positions. My resume needs to be two--maybe even three--pages to adequately explain the totality of my wonderfulness. And the more I mention, the more the company might see things that they like." As a rule of thumb, if you can't pitch your company or yourself in one page, your idea is stupid and you suck respectively. (Ref.: Guy Kawasaki, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition (Hardcover), page 327)

With great respect and admiration for Guy Kawasaki, I must admit that the last sentence in this quote is a tad harsh. The 1 page rule seems a tad unrealistic too. Well, maybe more than a tad.

When I was in my final year at Waterloo University I was advised to aim for a 1 page resume. That made sense at the beginning of my career. I landed a job with Quantum Technology Recruiting for my first post grad placement and the rest is history. But now that I’ve been in the industry for nearly 20 years would it be advantageous to squeeze my qualifications into a one page resume? Not likely.

Kawasaki was writing with Silicon Valley in mind. In my neck of the woods (Toronto, Canada) employers and recruiters expect see more detail than you can fit comfortably on one page. Still, I do prefer to read resume that doesn’t require me to dig deeper than a page or two to figure out if the person is qualified.

The power of Kawasaki one-page rule is that it reminds us that a resume is a sales document. Have respect for the reader. Be concise and focussed. Use active language and concrete examples to prove your qualifications. Put your human reader ahead of the resume parser algorithm that scans for keywords.

Maybe you can trick the parser into putting your resume at the top of the list by padding your resume with keywords. But when the recruiter sees that your entire first page consists of lists of keywords and no real experience some red flags will go up. Remember, it’s a human reader, not a computer, that decides whether the pick up the phone and give you a call.

Tim Collins