For years people have asked me if there’s a “best” time to respond to a job ad? Should you watch the job boards like a hawk, obsessively refreshing so that you can get your resume in first? Or is there some other window of time when, statistically speaking, your resume is more likely to be seen?

I actually never knew the answer to that question.

In fact, I had never seen a good answer to that question anywhere, since I don’t think anyone had ever bothered to research it.

So, I did it myself. It took me 6 months to get 200 job seekers to share their real world results with me, but I finally have some solid, anecdotal data. And that data says: YES. If you want to play the odds, there are some times when you are more likely to hear back after responding to a job opening. In fact, there are four distinct times when the odds seem to be more in your favor.

I have all the data, including the chart above, my methodology, and some conclusions, all posted over at our sister-blog:

When Is The Best Time To Apply For A Job – Some Data

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Quite simply, the answer is: absolutely yes!

I write one of these posts almost every year around this time. I don’t know why it is, but people just assume that the holidays aren’t a good time for job searching. I guess it’s human nature: you’re putting things off until the new year, so you assume employers are too. I guess we’ve all worked at jobs where things really slowed down in the month of December, and not much work got done.

But I assure you that the Holidays ARE a good time for job searching. In fact, I often tell clients that December is one of the best months for job search.

So, this year, I’ll give you my top 3 reasons why I think that is:

1. Less Competition. I’m telling you. We see it every year. The volume of clients dries up in December, only to more than triple a few weeks later in January. Simply put, January is the most popular month for people to look for a job. So, if you wait for January to start your job search, you’ll by facing twice, even triple the competition. Why not start now when other people are procrastinating.
2. If You Wait, You Could Miss Out Entirely. I won’t deny that a lot of hiring gets done in January. New projects, new start, all of that. But that doesn’t mean that the interviewing process starts in January. Think about it, if a company needs a bunch of new people to start January 2nd, they’re probably lining up those people now, aren’t they? That means they’re probably advertising the positions now and interviewing for the positions before Christmas so that they’ll have people ready to go when the holidays end. If you’re assuming that the hiring might not be starting until next month, you could be right. But if you’re assuming the interviewing won’t be starting until then, you could very well be wrong.
3. The Hiring May Be Seasonal, But The Foot In The Door Is Forever. If you think about it, there is quite a bit of hiring done FOR the holiday season. All those stores need extra hands. And there are numerous industries that have to ramp up with extra help to handle the holiday surge. But Brian, you say, those jobs are just temporary! That might be true. But even temporary jobs are an opportunity. If you get a temp job and show an employer how good you are, that’s the best “interview” there is for any full time work that might be coming up.

Related posts:

1. Ask Brian – Job Search During the Holidays?
2. Happy New Year! Welcome To Job Search January.
3. Job Search Hack- Organize Your Search Using The Rule Of Thirds

In many ways, I think that Google Voice is the best job search tool to become available in the last several years. How can you use Google Voice to help find a job? I have 5 great ways over at my ResumeWriting.com blog!

Google Voice Is The Best New Job Search Tool In Years! (ResumeWriting.com)

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This weekend I ran across the best job search tip I’ve heard in months. It’s so completely simple, I’m a bit embarrassed to say I had never thought of it before.

You know the old saw about how your resume has to make a good first impression in a matter of seconds or the employer might overlook you. That’s the worry that motivates all of us to tweak our resumes endlessly, hoping to make the right, professional first impression.

But if you’re lucky enough to pique the employer’s interest, what’s the first interaction you’re likely to have with them? That’s right: when they call you back to set up an interview.

Shouldn’t you take some time to make sure your voicemail makes the same, professional first impression? Sure you should.

I’ve spoken before about how you want a professional email address on your resume, not something like sexxymamma51@aol.com that might be embarrassing. In the same way, you don’t want your voicemail to simply be “WAAAZZZUP!?”

I’ll tell you the whole story over at my other blog, ResumeWriting.com. And I’ll give you some tips on how you can make your voicemail compliment your resume. Click through below:

Don’t Neglect Your Voicemail. It’s A Supplementary Resume!

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In job interviews everywhere you’ll almost inevitably run into the same handful of questions time and time again. One of the most popular is why you left your previous position. Answering this question can be tricky: you have to be able to give a logical explanation of why you left without coming off as bitter or negative. The difficulty of this question is compounded if you were fired or asked to resign from your last position. Fortunately, it doesn’t take an online PhD to come up with an effective response, and with a little forethought you can answer this question without hurting your chances of getting hired.

To begin, it’s important to understand why employers ask this question at all. Applicants’ resumes may look terrific, but there may be a difference between what’s documented on paper and how people actually handles themselves on the job. By asking why you left your previous job, employers are looking to uncover potential problems with prospective hires that might not be reflected by their application materials.

The interviewer is also trying to glean information about how you handle adversity. Whether you left your job voluntarily, were laid off, or were fired, your answer to this question will give a glimpse of how you act under trying circumstances. Asking this question is an investigation into your personal integrity. So, armed with this knowledge, how should you answer the question?

It’s important to answer the question in a way that isn’t critical of your previous employer. Respond as positively as you reasonably can. If you left because you were burnt out with working for the company and decided you couldn’t stand to work there any longer, don’t trash your employer. Instead you might respond by saying you were seeking a position that would offer you greater opportunity to develop professionally. If you quit because you hated the job, you can talk about wanting a position with different responsibilities that your old company couldn’t provide. Whatever the case, don’t focus on the negatives about your previous employers. Instead, come up with a reason that casts your desire to switch jobs in a positive light.

Another thing you can do to make yourself stand out is mention what you’ve been doing since leaving your job. If you’ve done consulting work or enrolled in classes, then by all means point it out. Employers tend to look favorably on activity between jobs that shows you can take initiative and handle adversity well.

Finally, it’s important to make sure your delivery is accurate. Never tell an outright lie to an interviewer. A company can easily cross-check the reason you left your job with your previous employer. If a potential employer finds out you’ve misrepresented the circumstances of your last job, you’ll be in a worse predicament than if you had just told the truth, even if it isn’t totally favorable.

Keep your response positive, but truthful as well. It may be necessary to practice your answer several times before the interview to ensure you can be honest without hurting your chances of being hired.

This is a tough question, and leads many applicants to stumble if they’re unprepared. By being truthful and well-rehearsed in your response, you’ll be able to make a great impression on interviewers. A solid answer here will help push you to the top of the recruiter’s list, and put you that much closer to landing your next job. Good luck!

This is a guest post from Elaine Hirsch.

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Despite a wealth of great job-hunting advice, many prospective job seekers are still clinging to outdated job-hunting and resume writing guidelines that hinder their search for a job. If you’ve been sending your same old resume from 10 years ago with a “Dear Sir or Madam”, then you’ve probably learned that these methods have become obsolete.

If any of the following job hunting problems match you, then you need to implement corrective measures as soon as possible if you want to achieve success in 2011:

1. Not studying your competition

Candidates fail to check out their competition when they start their job search. They reason that their generalized resume worked in the past and that it will continue to work in the future, but that just is not the case any longer. You resume will be stacked against incredibly high skilled competition who probably have seen and done things that you present as standout attributes on your resume.

If you have a diverse set of skills, you’ll need to go the extra mile to get into your chosen career. You’ll need to establish connections and contacts with people in the industry to help fill in any career gaps you have and to boost your education and work experience. And you’ll need a compelling resume that clearly develops a connection to your prospective employer.

2. Not caring about your online identity

Social media is the way of the world now, and like it or not, it’s not going anywhere and people pay a lot of attention to it. Who do you think an employer is going to choose, the guy with the drunken Facebook profile picture or the business professional LinkedIn page? 10 years ago no one thought about having themselves Googled, no one really even knew what Google was but now you have to have an online profile to get noticed. You have to make yourself an online brand and highlight yourself above the pack.

3. Disregarding trends in resumes

If you can’t get past the old resume template with your list of qualifications, then you are going to find the job market in 2011 to be very harsh. Companies receive hundreds of resumes a day, so it becomes critical for potential employees to document the impact of their work and to back up their accomplishments through quantitative means. For a business to hire you they want to make sure that you are going to positively impact their business, and that means on the bottom line, are you going to make their business more profitable.

You have to have something on your resume that shows how you have positively impacted growth in one way or another. For executives or senior-level employees, personal branding has become the newest trend in the job hunt. This is a delicate process and you will need someone who understands developing a branded persona. You have to become the expert in your field.

Hopefully these tips will help you get past anything that was holding you back and put you on the road to new employment!

This is a guest post. About the author:

Erin Kennedy, CPRW, CERW, BS/HR, is a Certified Professional & Executive Resume Writer/Career Consultant and President of Professional Resume Services, Inc. She is a nationally published writer and contributor of 9+ best-selling career books. She has achieved international recognition following yearly nominations of the prestigious T.O.R.I. (Toast of the Resume Industry) Award. Erin has written thousands of resumes for executives and professionals. As a proud member of PARW, CDI, AORCP, Erin also sits on CDI’s Credentialing Committee for new certification candidates and serves as a Mentor for CDI’s Member Mentoring Committee. She also is a featured blogger on several well-known career sites.

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Marketing yourself and networking is one aspect of ghost writing you can’t afford to overlook. LinkedIn needs to be a part of your marketing and networking strategy. I set up my LinkedIn profile several years ago. I’ve only revisited it twice (today being one of those days).

A great article on BNET yesterday sent me to my LinkedIn account to see if my summary measured up. I thought, it didn’t look too bad, though I decided to streamline it a little based on Jeff Haden’s recommendations.

I eliminated some unnecessary information so the summary was more like an elevator pitch. I wrote in the first person. I streamlined the keywords I used. I tightened up the two to three paragraphs adding bullet points to make it easier to scan. Then I read it through and revised again.

Jeff Haden included five examples in his post. On the very first example I saw something that had nothing to do with writing. Yet, it was something so vital I had to take immediate action. It had to do with the order of the additional information modules LinkedIn allows me to add after LinkedIn’s opening module. Guess where my summary was. It was at the bottom below the experience and additional information modules. Not good!

Arrange your LinkedIn profile like a resume-most important information first!

I write resumes, so there is no excuse. When you look at your LinkedIn page, you need to look at through the eyes of an HR person. Where would you put a summary on a resume? At the top. So that’s where it should be on your LinkedIn profile. Place it as high on the page as LinkedIn allows.

Next, put your experience. As you fill out this section, continue to use the first person. This is your opportunity to create a picture of how you do your work and how you benefit those you work for. Unlike a resume, you don’t have to go 10 or more years back. I begin my experience with the earliest position pertinent to what I am doing today. That’s seven years back. Anything further back doesn’t enhance my profile, so I’m not including it.

I’ve placed my education module next. This is an essential module. Yet, it isn’t as important as my experience. In other situations, placing education between the summary and experience could be a good move. For example, a professional’s credentials might be the next thing an HR person would want to see before they checked into the experience. Also a new graduate can use the education module to highlight courses taken using the “add activities and societies” feature. This information can break the ice when the experience section is weak.

For my profile, I have chosen to put the recommendations below Education, because LinkedIn already includes links to the recommendations within each position. You might prefer to put them higher, depending upon how impressive your experience is.

LinkedIn allows you to add additional modules as well. I’ve added WordPress so my blog posts appear on my profile and my homepage. You can also add Tweets, SlideShare, Google Presentations, Box.net, etc.

LinkedIn adds new applications so its a good idea to revisit this section. I discovered a new one called Behance Network that will allow me to add a portfolio of my work on LinkedIn. Because I’m working in a creative field this is a real asset. Now someone who finds me on linked in can view examples of my work without having to go to my website. And guess what. This doesn’t water down my own site’s SEO.

Additional information is an optional section. That’s why it’s the one of the last modules on my LinkedIn profile. It probably doesn’t matter which order you use to arrange your personal information or contact settings. I’ve chosen to place the contact settings above applications. It could just as well remain toward the bottom if your website is well optimized. If someone is searching for an individual with your skills, your website is as logical a place to contact you from as LinkedIn.

Remember, look at your page as though you were someone deciding whether you are the right person for their job. While everyone prioritizes information differently, there are general trends. A brief, well-written overview can draw your reader into wanting more. That’s reason enough to keep that kind of information at the top of your LinkedIn profile page.

This is a guest post. About the author:

Denise Rutledge writes website content from a marketing perspective as part of her ghostwriting, SEO article, website content, eBook and resume services at http://writingasaghost.com. She shares insights on providing ghostwriting services and making a living as a ghost writer on her ghost writing blog

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If you get caught conducting a job search while still working, many employers will conclude you lack loyalty and are no longer interested in the job and may terminate you on the spot.

On the other hand your job search may be unsuccessful, you’ve tested the waters and there is nothing better out there so you’ll just stay put. No sense to have your employer know of your job hunting efforts.

So what should you do to keep the employer from learning of your job search?

A secret is no longer a secret if you tell co-workers or think you can get some job hunting in on company time. Never use your company email address or phone number in your undercover job search. Be sure you have a professional message on your answering machine. If you have to make a call back do it on your lunch hour.

Further, if you start taking sick leave, or three-hour lunches for your job interviews; where you have to start telling stories about your absences the jig will soon be up. If you have to schedule an interview, tell the interviewer that you are busy at work but can meet after work and perhaps during lunch.

Job related references could be another problem. You do not want the prospective employer contacting your employer. Have references from other sources, like former co-workers or associates that you worked with at non-profits.

To be assured you job hunting stays undercover, try to limit the circulation of your resume and cover letter. Keep from posting the information on the public portion of job sites as you don’t want it spotted by your employer. On your LinkedIn profile do not indicate you are looking for another opportunity. When submitting your resume and cover letter indicate you expect the information to be treated confidently as you are currently employed.

In addition, all contact information on your resume and cover letter should be personal, never list anything that might be connected to your employer. You don’t need to be called at work by a prospective employer; it’s too easy for job hunting information to be leaked to co-workers.

Once you start your undercover job hunting campaign it’s real easy to consider yourself out of your current job and into a new position. Don’t use this mind-set as an excuse to slack off. Keep doing the best job as possible and resist the urge to let up on your required duties.

Comments you make on social networking sites should not indicate you are looking for other work. It’s too easy for your employer to get wind of your stealth job hunting campaign.

In summary, to keep your job hunt undercover, never do any job hunting activity during work hours, keep employer related contact information off your resume and cover letter. Critically look at using company time for job interviews, and attempt to schedule them after work. There is not need to involve co-workers in your job search, plus it’s too easy for your job hunting information to be leaked to your employer.

This article is a guest post. About the author:

John Groth has changed careers seven times during his working life. Learn more about changing careers, job hunting tips and career planning at http://careersafter50.com. Discover how others over age 50, built winning career plans and found the right careers by effective job hunting after 50.

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We had a client last week, who asked us also to work on her LinkedIn Profile. We’re getting requests like that more and more, and it’s a product line we’re probably going to start offering soon.

But then we asked her if she had worked on her Facebook profile at all, and she said she hadn’t. In fact, she had put her Facebook profile on public lockdown because she was so fearful of any employer snooping in her personal life.

This reaction made me a bit sad. Sure, we’ve all been inundated with all the scary news storys about people getting fired or professionally embarrassed by things they’ve posted on their Facebook pages. And of course, you should be very careful about what those in your professional life can see from your Facebook life. But Facebook can still be a powerful branding tool. So you shouldn’t run from it: you should make your Facebook into something that can help your job search.

The main reason I say this, is that your employer is going to look anyway. In this day and age do you think anyone gets hired (or lands a date or becomes a tenant) without at least a cursory Google/Facebook search? The employer is going to be looking anyway, so why not give them something good to look at? It’s sort of like, if they’re going to swing by your house, why not pick up a bit first, just for appearances.

Obviously, your first concern is to wade into those Facebook privacy setting and make sure you have your ducks in a row. For all the controversy, Facebook has done a pretty good job of creating a comprehensive system of levers and layers that will help you control what anyone, even perfect strangers, can see of your profile.

So, get in there and muck about with the privacy settings. But set some things up for the random, say, hiring manager to see. And make it google searchable. The most obvious thing to start with is your info page. You know, that’s the page where you can list your schools, hobbies, musical interests, etc. Make sure all this info is up to date. Start adding previous employers and organizations. Join previous employer and organization pages if you can.

Why are you doing this? If for no other reason than it helps corroborate the work history you’re going to present on your resume.

Next, try to make public the list of your professional friends and contacts. This can be a separate ”friends list” from your main one, if you know how to do that. This mimics what you can achieve on LinkedIn. You never know if the hiring manager will look and see, “Gee, she knows Bob. I love Bob. Anyone who’s worked under Bob should be a great employee.”

Then, don’t forget about Facebook Pages. Facebook is trying very hard to become a tool that helps businesses and people brand themselves. Businesses like ours have their own Facebook pages to help build trust and community. You can do the same thing for your own personal brand. Go ahead and create a public page for yourself. You can basically literally turn it into an online resume, but a resume that is publicly searchable and backed up by the reputation burnishing of your social network.

I’ve spoken before about how you can use Facebook to help leverage your social network to find a new job.

But the above exercises are separate from that. They are about using Facebook to be your professional public face, not just your social calling card.

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1. Should I Put My Facebook Page On My Resume? Should I Put My Twitter On My Resume?
2. Can Facebook Harm Your Job Search?
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When you’re anxiously awaiting your next job opportunity, sometimes it’s easy to walk the fine line between being a determined job seeker and desperate one. Of course, it’s not uncommon to feel desperate when you’re ready to get a job, but being desperate is something that should be practiced in the privacy of your home – not where others, namely prospective employers, can catch wind of it. If you’re not sure whether you’re giving off an air of determination or desperation, here are some ways to make sure you’re coming off as a determined job seeker.

Keep the Usual Formatting In Your Resumes

Desperate job seekers have been known to do some crazy things when trying to find work. One has been creating the crazy resume that is meant to garner attention but actually steers people in the other direction.

You may feel that you’re in the middle of a last ditch effort to get someone to pay attention to you so you want to submit your resume in a quirky font or add hearts as bullet points – what do you have to lose, right? Well, there is actually as much to lose today as there was when you started your search right after leaving your last job.

Don’t allow the search to drive you to do crazy things. Instead, keep your composure, submit your great traditional resume and feel confident that it will help you get hired.

Follow Up but Don’t Harass

While you may feel anxious to get out there and tackle every hiring manager you see, pin them down and stuff your resume in their face, of course, this is something you wouldn’t do. However, in the midst of your job search, there are ways to actually come off as though you’re just that desperate.

For instance, you could hound a hiring manager with whom you’ve shared your resume or pester a person who may be a networking contact for you. In both cases, it’s good to hand over your information and let the people do their job. There’s nothing wrong with following up, but harassing someone is not acceptable.

Don’t Overstress Your Search

It’s good to dedicate quality time each day to your job search. In fact, many say that it’s good to give an entire work day’s effort to the search. However, you don’t need to spend every waking hour looking for a job, contacting individuals, blogging and sending out blasts on Facebook. You have to allow some of the search to manage itself.

A good way to remedy this is to spend time outside or enjoying some other favorite activities. Being anxious and desperate doesn’t really help you and won’t have a hugely positive impact on your search.

Whether you’re turning in crazy resumes or telling an interviewer how anxious you’ve been to find work, there is a such thing as being too desperate. So take time to pace your job search and make sure to relax so that the process doesn’t overwhelm you. Most important, feel confident that the hard work you’ve given will inevitably offer the results you desire.

This is a guest post. The author, Heather Eagar says:

Need a job? Be sure your resume is the best it can be. Review resume services and choose the best one for you and your situation. Do it today at http://www.ResumeLines.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4256738

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