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MAKE THE
CONNECTION IN THE JOB SEARCH PROCESS
By Fernando Ratkoczy -
Executive Career Management Consultant
Everyone has
some relevant work experience, including recent graduates, stay-at-home
mothers, teens and returnees. While you may not have as much as you
like, you probably have an internship or two under your belt,
specific accomplishments, such as awards or honors, and part-time
jobs.
All past experiences teach us something but mostly how to get the
job done. Think about this; everything you know you learn at some
point in time. We are born blank like a brand new DVD or CD disc.
As the years pass we will burn into our brain knowledge and
experiences, develop skills and utilize all of these elements again
at some point in time.
It’s true that some professions have a very specific set of
technical skills required but those skills still would not have a
lot a value if you don’t know how to use them for lack of experience
as the old saying goes “Been there, done that.”
Some younger job seekers worry about their lack of work experience
but if you had part time jobs, shores at home as you were growing
up, you have experience. Let’s say you had a part time job at the
ice cream parlor around your neighborhood during the summer months.
What did you learn there by scooping ice cream. Well, customer
service comes to mind, what about time management and
procedures,follow instruction or delegate tasks to the newer kid
that just started to work there. Maybe you had to teach the new
recruit how to follow all the procedures and to deal with potential
problems that may arise during normal business operations. That
means you have experience training and motivating others.
Let’s not forget to arrive on time and work your hours. You have
acquired a great skill; self responsibility, if you don’t get there
on time you may not have kept your job. One step further, and I am
not saying all of you had this experience, you were late more than
once but even so you kept your job. Probably you were very creative
in coming up with a convincing way of telling your boss why you did
not make it. Guess what? You were persuading or selling an idea and
promoting the future value of keeping you on the job and probably
allowing your boss to realize the added cost of finding someone like
you for the spot.
Take inventory of all such attributes and mine each for transferable
skills like supervising, public speaking, negotiating, training, and
editing. Now, present each attribute using these transferable skills
to connect your current experience with the career you're pursuing.
Avoid listing out accomplishments that are irrelevant (even if they
are extremely cool), such as being a champion skateboarder or
surfer, unless you know that the person reviewing your resume has an
interest in such things or you competed at a professional or
Olympic-class level.With every entry on your resume, connect
the information with your intended career. If you "connect the dots"
for hiring managers and recruiters, you're more likely to land an
interview.
© Copyright New Edge Productions
About the Author
Fernando Ratkoczy
http://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandoratkoczy
is an author and
Founder of
http://www.NewEdgeProductions.com
. If you're looking for Job Search Training, then check out “The Fast
Job Search Series”.
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