How to Find a Job

Your Resume

First things first, let’s work on putting together a resume for you that packs a punch and stands out from everyone else’s. We’ll make it easy to read, professional, clear, concise, and show your accomplishments vividly. You can prepare cover letters for job opportunities you apply for, but remember your resume is what gets you in the door for that interview. Including your career highlights are generally reserved for senior level professionals and only repeat themselves in the body of your resume so let’s skip them.

Do’s

• Prepare your resume on professional cotton linen paper preferably white or ivory, getting cute with bright or multi-colored paper is a distraction to an interviewer.
• Make sure your grammar and spelling is correct, it’s like meeting someone for the first time you never have a second chance to make that first impression.
• Organize your resume with distinct bolded section titles; Education, Certifications, Computer Skills, Language Skills, Experience, Affiliations etc. Use margins and spacing to keep your resume clean and easy to read.
• Use one font and two sizes to maintain continuity.
• Prepare a chronological resume with your current employer at the top working down to the bottom with the oldest.
• Start with your most important job responsibilities first, down to the least significant last for each employer.
• Bullet point all relevant details and be to the point.
• Give details about your accomplishments along with each job responsibility making sure to explain what you did, how you did it, and what results you achieved. Differentiating you from the other candidates – What is unique about you?
• Did you quantify your accomplishments or use general terms such as increased, decreased, better or worse? Be specific, vividly and bottom line oriented brag a little.
• Account for all gaps in your work experience by explaining them or offering the information up front to interviewer.
• Include your hobbies, interests and organizations you actively participate in.

Don’ts

• Leave salary information off you resume it only distracts from what you are trying to accomplish, marketing your ability to do the job and fit into the company’s culture.
• Include your dates of graduation and employment, leaving them off is a red flag to employers; include appropriate beginning and ending month/year or years.
• Let’s avoid making subjective statements such as “I am good at something”, it should be apparent by the wealth of your experience. Boasting without backing it up with facts does not create credibility.
• Again avoid generalities, this creates a feeling that there is no depth to your experience, no significant accomplishments, and you are not willing to share the details of your background.
• Don’t worry about going beyond one page, say what you have to concisely with adequate detail that inspires the reader to want to meet you in person.

Remember make sure the overall document flows visually and content has depth.

Resume Outline

Name, CPA, MBA

EDUCATION
School, city, state, degree, month year of graduation

CERTIFICATION
Certified Public Accountant in the State of California month year of certification

COMPUTER SKILLS
Software and hardware

LANGUAGE SKILLS
Fluent in Spanish

EXPERIENCE
Chronologically from current job backwards including beginning and ending months/years of employment accounting for all gaps

OTHER
Interests, hobbies, organizations etc

Submitting Your Resume

Websites and Job Boards are inundated with resume submissions so getting yours to the top of the “A” pile is imperative. Sending your resume blind is not a good use of your time and generally does not result in an interview. The best way is to have someone submit your resume to a hiring manager or human resources manager at the employer. Utilize your friend or acquaintance at the employer, a recruiter or your network to find a referral source.

The Interview

Your resume gets you the interview and the interview gets you a job offer so preparation is extremely important. Its’ like studying for a final exam, you should know the material backward and forward, the only difference is this is an oral exam. Some things to put on your checklist are as follows.

• Know your resume; job responsibilities and accomplishments.
• Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Know why you are looking and what you are looking for in your next position.
• Have a great attitude.
• Articulate your answers clearly and concisely.
• Research the company and job opportunity thoroughly.
• Have great questions about the position, opportunities at the company, and company.
• Be on time for the interview, use good etiquette, and follow up with the employer or recruiter timely.
• Provide references, but make sure they have been previously contacted and are aware you are interviewing. Make sure that your recruiter has talked to them as well.
• Be prepared to complete a job application, make sure you have all relevant information and the employment data agrees to your resume.

Handling References

References can make or break a job offer so take care to obtain and inform your references in advance of interviewing. Keep in touch on a regular basis so they are up to date with your aspirations and goals. References taken by surprise do not add credibility to your candidacy and they may even be hesitant giving a reference. So treat them with care they have tremendous influence on employers. Here are some things you should do.

• Inform them in advance and provide information as to why you are looking, what you are looking for and a resume. Review the points of the resume that apply and agree on the details, i.e. job responsibilities and accomplishments.
• Ask your references what they would say if an employer were to call.
• If you have left your company, ask for a reference letter indicating why you left. Find out who will handle reference calls and what they will say. If there are ill feelings try to resolve the conflicts and move on.
• Provide a minimal number of references say three to five so that you can control the process. If someone gives you a lukewarm reference it will be difficult to track it down and correct if you’ve provided too many to an employer. These should be supervisors, peers and subordinates. These should be work related references who can comment about your performance. Supervisors are the most important since they have evaluated your work; past success is a good predictor of your future success.
• Provide upon request, but make sure you and your recruiter have talked to them.
• Keep your references appraised of potential job offers so they can express their enthusiasm about you.
• Make sure you ask references at your current and former employers for individuals who they know; employer may go deeper into verifying their credibility so supplemental references will ensure good results.
• Also check with your co-workers to see what they would say about you. Peer reviews give insight into relationships with others.
• Always thank your references immediately after the interviews are completed; irregardless of whether or not you got the job.