Don’t Let a Lack of Experience Get You Down
After spending two to four years pursuing an education, many students emerge from post-secondary institutions excited and ready to find their dream career. However, the optimism of new graduates can prove to be fragile and easily broken when it comes to the actual job search. Most new graduates are faced with the often discouraging demands for extensive and specific job experience, in spite of their educational qualifications. The desired years of experience for a certain position can be a barrier for many students and may even prevent them from applying to jobs that they really want. This doesn’t have to be the case. By learning how to showcase your unique talents and skills, experience doesn’t have to be a road block in your job search.
The first important thing to remember is that experience doesn’t always have to come from a job. Use your resume to expand on relevant volunteer, academic, and personal experiences that may qualify you for the job. For example, if an employer requires previous teamwork experience and leadership for a particular position, but you never had the opportunity to achieve either of those in any of your previous jobs, highlight the teamwork skills and initiative that you took in projects at school. Though it may not be wise to saturate your resume with only experiences from your academic years, one or two examples of projects or relevant courses that you’ve taken can really strengthen your resume.
You can also overcome a lack of experience by developing a portfolio. If you don’t have enough on –the-job experience, then an online portfolio, like the one provided by Jobtac, can be the perfect place for you to include personal projects that you’ve worked on. Not only can your portfolio provide alternative information to reinforce your suitability for the position, it can also strengthen what’s already in your resume by providing direct proof.
Still feeling encumbered by a lack of experience? With Jobtac’s unique application package, you can also upload and send videos of yourself, allowing employers to see and consider your charisma, charm, and great personality. With so many great innovations on the web to showcase you and all your talents, don’t let specific job experience hold you back from pursuing your dream career.
(Screencast) How to get up and running on Jobtac
Here is a quick screencast that shows how easy it is to start using Jobtac:
A quick tutorial on how to enroll at an Institute:
Resumes – Do They Still Make the Cut?
A century ago, word of mouth was as good as gold when it came to getting a job. However, as the economy developed and jobs that were not related to trade or skilled work became more readily available, it seems only natural that a new medium for getting hired gained precedence: the resume.
For much of the 20th Century the resume proved the hottest ticket for job hopefuls in a variety of fields. A concise, compact representation of you and your best assets, the resume served as the best flyer to promote yourself to potential employers. Plus it was easy to send resumes to multiple employers, all over the country or even across borders, without having to meet every employer in person or talk to them on the phone. Unlike the curriculum vitae, the resume was especially useful for applicants and employers because of its brevity and direct relevance to the job the applicant was seeking.
If the resume was a common and resourceful application tool in the first three quarters of the 20th Century, with the advent and popularity of the Internet in the late 90s, the resume became a golden standard for employers and job applicants across the globe. The Internet offers an almost limitless supply of possible career avenues and as accepted vehicles for marketing yourself, resumes have flooded the job market like SPAM. Now, employers are faced with the task of sifting through hundreds, if not thousands of resumes for jobs they post online. What was once a unique way of standing apart from other candidates has become a sign of conformity. It’s clear that today, a resume alone will not give you an edge over the competition. Though a useful and valuable self-marketing device, the resume has become a dated method of applying for a job when used on its own. Why is that?
1. The Resume Doesn’t Provide Proof
- We’ve all heard that showing, not telling, is what strengthens the validity of any argument. While the resume offers a concise presentation of your skills, education, and professional experience, it does not, can not, provide concrete proof of your qualifications. The resume attempts to reconcile this need to support your claims by providing you with the space and format to supply examples. In this way, you can demonstrate your assets throughout your resume, but again, you can not actually prove all of the details on your resume without providing supplementary documents. For example, the only way to prove you have a degree is to supply that degree or other supporting documentation, such as a transcript.
2. The Resume Can Not Explain Everything
- The resume is meant to be a short, succinct 1-2 page summary of your relevant experience and background. However, its brevity is both its strength and its weakness. Because it is short and concise, employers are able to assess a candidate’s fit for the position easily and quickly. On the other hand, there is not enough room to elaborate on key areas, such as gaps in your work history or personal qualities that make you suited for the position.
3. The Resume Conceals Your Personality and Uniqueness
- You can use special fonts, borders, different templates, and change the features of your resume as much as you want, but in the end it is still a flat document, words on a page. As meaningful as the words and descriptions you include on your resume may be, they are simply not enough to truly convey your best attributes. Many people list generic skills and character traits like “friendly team member” or “ “excellent communication skills” on their resume. However, demonstrating these qualities with just the conventional resume is nearly impossible.
The job market is constantly in a state of development and evolution; many jobs that are available today were probably inconceivable in the past. As the job market changes, so must recruitment tactics and the application process. Our methods of applying for jobs must evolve in order to grab the attention of employers. In this era of the Internet, applying for jobs using solely a resume has become obsolete. Though we can not completely do away with the resume, since it is a widely accepted and valuable application tool for employers and applicants alike, we can provide and develop supplementary information and resources to accompany the resume. In the past the resume was the best known marketing resource to promote yourself to employers, but with so many new innovations in technology, multimedia, and the Internet, we would be selling ourselves short by relying solely on the traditional 2-page summary of our qualifications. Let’s face it, if we want to make the cut in this day and age, a resume just isn’t enough.
Getting Started With Your Job Search
Finding the motivation to complete a task can be even more stressful than the task itself. The same goes for job searching. Where do I begin? How do I get started? How long is this going to take? These are just a few of the road blocks that our minds put up before we even begin our career quest. Here are a few tips that will help you to start your job search on a positive and productive note.
Silence any doubtful or discouraging thoughts as soon as they enter your mind. Try to do more and make excuses less. It’s kind of like when you want to go to the gym, but you find yourself coming up with a list of reasons not to go, until you end up not going. If you had just shown up to the gym without thinking about how busy you would be later or what time you’d finish, you would have worked out, felt rejuvenated, been proud of yourself, and still managed to complete all the things you were worried about.
Focus on the positive rather than the negative. First, discover and define what it is that you want. Avoid the tendency to define who you are not and what you do not want. Turn negative statements like these into positive affirmations like “I am…” and “I want…” Once you’re aware of what you want, it’s easier to tailor your resume and job search strategy to your career goals.
Set action plans rather than result deadlines. Predicting or forecasting the future is impossible, so don’t set unrealistic deadlines for yourself. While being results-oriented is generally a good thing, the key to achieving positive results is to set attainable and measurable goals. Solely setting deadlines on when your job search should be over don’t exactly help you accomplish your career goals any faster. Be specific and focus on an action when setting your goals. For example, your goal for the day may be to visit at least 3 career sites related to your field. To make this action plan even more rewarding, you may want to write down a couple specific questions that you hope to learn from these sites. This is clearer than simply saying, “I want to know all that I need to know about the job market for my field by the end of today.”
Apply, apply, apply! Don’t pass up great opportunities that really interest you just because you’re missing one of the criteria listed for the job. Most job requirements are guides to help the employer determine who is best suited to the position, but ultimately you are the deciding factor in whether or not you get hired. Make your resume work for you and not the other way around. In your application, highlight the areas that qualify you for the position you are applying for and address how you plan to overcome any requirements that you have not been able to match exactly according to the job specifications. If you don’t try, you’ll never know, so just apply.
Finally, the best way to start your job search is to just start. Decide that you are ready to have the career of your dreams and go for it. Good luck on your career quest and remember “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Jobtac on Techvibes!
Techvibes has done a nice article on Jobtac, check it out!
Techvibes is Canada's largest technology blog.
A New Video – Jobtac Profiles: An Introduction
Here is a new video on Jobtac Profiles that helps explain how it fits in today's internet.
Check it out!
Two New Video Walkthroughs
Here are two video walkthroughs.
The first shows how easy it is to create a Jobtac profile!
Jobtac Profiles Video Walkthrough from Zane on Vimeo.
The second one shows how employers can use Inflows to help them easily receive and manage interactive applications online.
Jobtac Inflows Walkthrough from Zane on Vimeo.
At Long Last, Employers can use Jobtac!
It's been a long time but we're happy to announce that Jobtac has now opened its doors for employers!
We have worked very hard to ensure Jobtac offers something for all employers, whether you are a start-up looking to build your first team, or a corporation looking to expand on your available human resources.
Registering is completely free, and you can make use of our inflows system that gives all employers the ability to receive applications professionally and manage them easily using Jobtac!
Please feel free to leave any feedback to feedback[at]jobtac.com.
We accept iApply!
Finding A Job In Tougher Economic Times
Any job seeker searching for work these days can feel the impact of the economy on their shoulders. For one, the amount of companies letting go of employees is evident – just open up the Business section of the newspaper and you’ll see stories of lay-offs being reported every day. Secondly, job seekers who are lucky enough to find companies that are hiring are faced with some of the toughest competition they’ve seen in a long time. For example, new graduates looking for work are going to have to compete against those who graduated one or two years ago – and who have one or two more years of experience than they do. They’re also going to have to compete with retirees who are looking to re-enter the workforce, in order to compensate for losses recently made and stay-at-home mothers who are looking to earn extra cash in order to help support their families. In order to land the job, job seekers are going to have to find new and innovative ways to stand out from the herd and impress employers.
At Jobtac, that’s why we’ve provided so many tools to allow job seekers to creatively showcase their skills and qualifications, while even providing examples of materials they have earned or created in the past. We feel that the advent of YouTube and other video sharing websites truly showcases what the internet is capable of. However, while many job sites are beginning to utilize video, a lot of them aren’t using it to its full potential. Video profiles are a much more powerful way to relay your qualifications and these videos fare well in a variety of situations. Many recruiters believe they are useful particularly for marketing and sales jobs. However we feel they can be used in a number of other situations as well. For example, are you looking to land a position as an Actor? What better to show an employer your acting abilities than through video? There are numerous ways job seekers can utilize video in order to differentiate yourself. All you need is a video recorder/webcam and a little bit of creativity (but remember, keep it professional – you’re doing this to help land you a job). Beyond video, we provide other avenues for job seekers to use in order to showcase their skills. Interested in becoming an Architect? Many employers require that a portfolio be submitted along with your resume. On Jobtac, we provide areas where job seekers can showcase their past work, right on our website.
We understand that getting a job right now can be very difficult, but through these resources, Jobtac has made it much easier for job seekers to differentiate themselves from the competition and therefore, help them land that dream job. Jobtac provides the platform where you can prove it; all you have to do is make it happen.
Importance of a Positive Candidate Experience During Job Hunting
Every touch point encountered with a brand becomes linked to the brand name and will ultimately affect how a consumer views that brand – whether favorably or unfavorably. A positive brand image is something organizations strive for and will spend millions of dollars a year on to instill in the minds of consumers. And perhaps the reason why organizations are willing to invest so heavily on this topic is because they know that a negative customer experience can have a significant impact on a company’s success.
Take, for example, a fitness club. How many of you joined a club at a rate of $60 a month – thinking you got a good deal - and then realized that your friend, who recently joined, signed on for 10 bucks cheaper? How did that make you feel? Angry? Annoyed? Most possibly both – but there’s not much you can do about it now; except maybe bottle up your discontent for that fitness club and then vow to sign up somewhere else next year. That’s the thing about negative brand experiences – people don’t forget.
The same can be said about the job hunting experience. There are many factors that can occur during online job hunting that may affect how a candidate views that organization and their decision to work there. Some of the more common ones include:
- Recruitment Brochures: Recruitment brochures should be used to inspire candidates to want to work for your organization. If a recruitment brochure doesn’t properly communicate to an applicant the benefits working for your company can provide or the types of candidates you’re looking for, this may actually have an adverse effect on the types of people who apply to the job. A study by Gatewood and colleagues found that, “the image applicants formed about an organization, based on their recruitment brochures, accounted for 60% of the variance in decisions to apply for work.”
- Long Application Processes: Hour long questionnaires and surveys may help an organization determine the best fit for the company, but to a job seeker, it’s tiresome. Factor in that statistically the chances of actually getting the job are slim, this may deter candidates from even applying. In fact, Richard Cober – The Quest for the Qualified Job Seeker – states, “The more time that passes between exposure to a recruitment message and the opportunity to apply to an organization, the less likely a potential applicant may be to follow through with their intentions to apply.”
- Application Management: How many times has a candidate gone in for an initial interview, to never hear back from the organization ever again? Ignoring applicants makes them feel as if they don’t matter and often relays the image that they don’t care about their employees either. Taking the time to tell applicants a position has been filled will do more good than harm, and may even persuade candidates to want to work for the company that much more.
What these aspects of the recruitment process illustrate is that every step has an impact on the company’s brand image. It’s important for employers to carefully think through how the recruitment process is experienced by the applicant. If not, the effects may include: a decrease in the amount of applicants applying, a decrease in the quality of applicants applying and a negative image in the minds of other job seekers as well. If done properly, however, this will often bring about the most qualified and valued types of candidates out there applying to your organization and make them never want to leave.
At Jobtac we know what it feels like to be ignored or have to go through long and tedious application processes. That’s why we’ve added features such as Application Tracking/Management and iapply to make job hunting easier than anything out there. The tools are at your disposal to utilize and the benefits come not only to the job seekers, but to the employer as well.