Sweat the small stuff !

Sharing the frustrations of a job seeker can be one of the most effective learning tools.  Take Stanley for example. He came to me, clearly frustrated at the lack of responses to his job search efforts. “I have sent over 80 resumes in the last 2 weeks and I didn’t get even a phone call!” he lamented. This is particularly frustrating for him because he had been told that after taking a course as a Heavy Equipment Operator, he will have no problem getting a job. Indeed, the school was right. Demand is high for trades people such as Stanley.

As we sat down to uncover the problem, I took him back to step one. How did he apply for jobs? The answer was mostly online, either through company websites with online applications or sending in resumes and cover letters. I stopped him right there and my question was, how did he send in his resumes and cover letters? He showed it to me on his computer.  Turned out that when applying for jobs online, Stanley sent in his resume, cover letter and a myriad of attachments. There were several problems with this:

1. He did not write a brief email message when applying for jobs via email. The omission of this simple step raises many questions for the hiring person such as language ability, sloppiness, carelessness, impatience or worse.

2. He spent a lot of time and sought extensive advise for his resume. It was close to perfect. However, he did not pay the same attention to his cover letter. It was not properly formatted, full of mistakes and not presented professionally. It demonstrates his lack of attention to detail and inability to follow through on things.

4. Each job application via email included about 10 attachments as he included all certificates and tickets earned during training. Given the sensitivity these days about the security of attachments, not many hiring personnel are likely to even open his email.

Bottom line is that in the process of job searching, one cannot be careless. Each application must be treated with utmost attention, respect and diligence. Contrary to popular thought, sweating the small stuff is necessary for successful job search.