Being in the right place
at the right time
Pat
O'Donnell here to teach you the nuances and skills to be in the right place
at the right time to
acquire the job of your dreams.
Here are just a few of the strategies I will share with you in my blog articles:
- How to present your assets in a compelling manner that makes you a must-meet candidate, rather than someone lost in a pile of commodity resumes.
- How to uncover the "Hidden Job Market." That is the 70-80% of jobs that are given away before the job becomes visible to the general public in places like monster.com and newspaper ads.
- How to develop work-arounds for career problems like age bias, having been out of work for a while, or wanting to change careers.
- When and how to use networking, job boards, recruiting firms, and more.
(The complete set of topics for the blog are listed at the left.)
In addition to the great resources you'll find on this site, I offer:
- complete packages in career counseling services
- recruiting advice
- workshops and speaking for professional groups
The three most recent articles:
Expanding your target audience
By Pat O'Donnell | July 26, 2008
In many of my blogs I have advised you to concentrate your efforts on the 15-25 corporations for which you are likely to be the preferred job seeker. So what if you want to move to another industry or role? What if you have not yet had a job offer in your preferred target group and need to expand your efforts?
Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Job-Hunting over the age of 45
By Pat O'Donnell | July 20, 2008
I am in my 50s. Yes, age bias exists and, yes, it is illegal. You won’t always be able to avoid it. But age bias is sometimes not really about your actual age, it is about certain soft skills and attitudes that employers desire but older employees are less likely to value. And if you learn to address those issues, you can make concerns about age go away.
Topics: Branding + Positioning, Career Strategies, Interviews, Networking, Resume, Salary, Training | No Comments »
Create a personal Board of Directors
By Pat O'Donnell | June 30, 2008
Your long term career goals are much more likely to be achieved if you create group of advisors you respect that you can check in with periodically. These are not “friends” who will agree without question with your rationale about why your career is at the stage it is. These are business people you hold great respect for who will challenge and play devil’s advocate with every one of your ideas. The payback of putting yourself under the microscope of other business people can be tremendous. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Branding + Positioning, Career Strategies, Networking, Training | No Comments »
Lying on Resumes and in Interviews
By Pat O'Donnell | June 22, 2008
The simple answer? Don’t do it.
- I have seen national studies that claimed about 70% of resumes have “mistruths” in them.
- Other studies state 25-50% of resumes have “embellishments” (an exaggeration but not lie.)
The most common lies:
- Length of employment gaps
- Titles
- Degrees completed
- Salary
- Reason for leaving
- Not mentioning a job from which you were fired
- Taking credit for an idea developed by the team
- When career started (age)
- Size of business or projects managed
- Rank as a sales person or total revenue you represented
- Claiming to be “Consulting” when you were billing zero hours
I could quote more studies, but the point is: Recruiters and Hiring Managers EXPECT there to be many lies in resumes and in the interviews we have with applicants so we look and listen for them. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Branding + Positioning, Career Strategies, Interviews, Recruiting, Resume, Salary | No Comments »
Don’t be lost in a pile of resumes!
By Pat O'Donnell | June 3, 2008
I see too many resumes that show the minimum skills required by a job ad but don’t show how well the job applicant performed the tasks or why this candidate is a better risk to interview and hire than other applicants with the same skills. If you are guilty of this, you have qualified your resume to be “in the pile” of qualified applicants but have done nothing to make your resume float to the “top of the pile.” You have less chance of winning an interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Branding + Positioning, Cover Letter, Interviews, Networking, Resume | No Comments »
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