10 Quick Tips to Secure Employment

1. Match your skills to the job in all your documents: Resumes, Followup Letters, Cover Letters.

2. Keep a schedule and break up your day between applying to postings, networking, branding yourself and targeting employers.

3. Network. Network. Network. Tell everyone you’re open to employment opportunities.

4. Follow the rules the employer lays out in the job posting. If they ask you to send them a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks as well as your resume, and this is a company you’ve been targeting, better break out that piggy bank and get to the ‘Bucks.

5. Don’t mess with the recruiters. They know people. Especially hiring managers. Avoid blacklisting yourself by annoying or making bad with the recruiter.

6. Hiring managers love avoiding recruiting fees, so if you target the hiring managers directly, your candidacy chances improve. Target those specific hiring managers (your future boss) and send them your credentials (your resume).

7. Keep your resume under 2 pages, formatted properly by CPRW standards, quantitative and structured like a formative story.

8. Don’t lie to prospective employers. Background checks, salary checks, reference checks. They have checks in place people! Keep it honest and you won’t squirm during interviews.

9. Learn the art of interviewing. It’s your chance to show your sales side. And practice makes perfect. I don’t see nothing wrong with a couple “practice interviews” from prospective employers that may be hiring like bandits (i.e., mortgage sales, financial planners, restaurant servers).

10. Demand time for yourself and do whatever it takes to lock up a gig! It’s a competitive world and all the other applicants are doing whatever it takes.