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The 5 Major Screening Factors

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 6

Do you ever wonder what hiring managers are looking for in their candidates?

The specifics of what a hiring manager needs for a particular job will vary depending on the job, the company, and potentially a variety of other considerations, of course, but there tends to be a pretty consistent 5 themes.

These 5 themes make up the 5 Major Screening Factors. Master these screening factors, and you’ll position yourself as a frontrunner in your job search.

SCREENING FACTOR #1: PERSONALITY

That’s right. When it comes down to it, and all the remaining candidates are technically qualified for the role, the deciding factor is often personality.

Do they like you?

Do they feel like you’d work well with the other employees?

Does your communication style vibe with theirs?

Would your energy level work well for this role?

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How to Write a Good Cover Letter

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 5

Cover letters scare lots of job seekers. 

“How do I write a good cover letter?” 

“How long should it be?” 

“What about the heading and address and all that stuff? What do I do about all that?” 

“Should I write a general cover letter, or a specific one for each job?”

Let’s talk about cover letter writing. And guess what! Cover letters (in my opinion) are actually pretty easy. Especially compared to resumes.

FIRST THING’S FIRST…

Cover letters are easy because they’re short. Really short. The whole thing, including the heading, the addressing, and content, should be 1 page. That means your actual content should be around half a page–4 paragraphs, 14-17 sentences.

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Negotiating a Higher Salary

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 4

When I ask people if they’ve ever negotiated for their own compensation, most of them say, “No, I haven’t *nervous laughter* I probably should, though.”

Negotiating is an act that intimidates a lot of jobseekers, but it’s one that can really change your life for the better. 

Still, lots of people either are hesitant to engage in the conversation out of fear, or they choose not to because they simply don’t know how to. Learning the basics of negotiation can help fast-track you to the places you want to be in life. Let’s take a look at some of the basic rules of the game:

RULE #1: NEVER SHOW YOUR CARDS FIRST

So you submitted your killer resume, crushed the interview (or interviews), and you just received a job offer from the employer. Then they ask you, “About how much are you hoping to make in salary?”

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How Can I Avoid Burnout?

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 3

Sometimes you wake up and think, “I don’t wanna go to work today. I’m tired.”

And then sometimes you’re consistently thinking, “I don’t wanna go to work today. I’m TIRED.” 

Your energy is low.

You can’t focus.

You know what that sounds like? That sounds a little like burnout.

Here’s the thing: Burnout is sort of a normal experience that affects workers across the globe. But what is burnout?

According to the WHO, burnout is classified as an occupational phenomenon “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Additionally, there are 3 main dimensions of burnout:

  1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
  2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
  3. Reduced professional productivity

Let’s take a look at a few burnout statistics:

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How to Identify My Strengths

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 2

Are you skilled at anything? What are your strengths? Quick, tell me what they are!

Ok you can relax now. Breathe.

I was talking with a friend who was looking to change his career path recently when he said, “I don’t have any skills.” Now mind you, this is somebody with a whole PhD and years of experience. And somehow, this person was convinced that they had zero skills. I was thinking, “What are you even talking about?! Is that a joke???”

But this person was being serious.

Here’s the thing: Everyone has skills. Having skills isn’t necessarily special. What is special and sometimes challenging is knowing what they are and how to talk about them. You have them, you just might not know how to talk about them, which may make you think you don’t have them.

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Ready for an immersive program that’s designed to launch or relaunch you confidently into what’s next for you? This program provides a deep dive into the basics of what you need.

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Basic Steps Of Resume Writing

For the best experience, view this issue on the website.

THE GRAVY, ISSUE 1

Resumes.

Or should I say…résumés. It’s French, ya know.

They’ve become the go-to tool hiring managers use to initially assess candidates nowadays. They also strike fear in the hearts of applicants (and hiring managers, but that’s another story) all over the world. Still, if you wanna get that next job and move on in your career journey, you gotta write a good resume. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive in.

THE GOOD NEWS

Writing a good resume is not as hard as you might think.

You just have to learn how to do it the right way. And guess what! You can learn that! Include the right sections. Keep your writing concise. Communicate value. Don’t distract your reader. Before you know it you’ll have a strong resume.

THE NEWS THAT KINDA SUCKS

You have to tailor your resume for each job.

Yup. That means you have to retouch your resume every time you apply for a job. Dang. It’s tedious work, but it’s well worth it. The reason is because hiring managers want to see information that’s relevant to their posting. They don’t care about everything you’ve done, just the relevant stuff. So ya see, tailoring your resume will yield you better results on your apps.

Let’s examine the how-to of good resume writing:

TAILORING YOUR RESUME

Why this is important:

Along with hiring managers wanting to see what’s relevant to them, there’s a deeper, more sinister reason why you need to tailor your resume: the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). An ATS is basically a piece of software that scans documents for relevant information. These systems are used to scan resumes and compare them to the job description, and then score your resume based on how relevant it is to said job description. Getting a “bad grade” will see your resume screened out before it’s even read by an actual person.

How to tailor correctly:

  1. Dap up your best friend and thank them for the good times, because the job description is your new best friend. Read it thoroughly and identify the key words in it (i.e. what words or phrases are repeated? What essential skills and experiences can you pull out? What are the first few “asks” in each section?). Once you’ve identified the key words, USE THEM. Use the job description’s language in your resume. This is part of what the ATS is looking for.
  2. Reorder your bullet points so that the more relevant ones come first within each job experience.
  3. Scan that thang like a consultant, not a job seeker. That means read it to identify the problem(s) that needs solving. Address the company’s needs through your bullet points in your experience section(s).
Really though…how long does it take?

A RESUME SHOULD BE SIMPLE

When you look at your resume, is it distracting? Got a lot of extras like colors and photos and shapes and stuff? Take those things out (unless you’re a designer or artist). They’re distracting.

Use a basic format, but avoid downloaded templates. ATS’s don’t always read those well.

Generally speaking, your resume should be pretty short. Unless you’re an executive-level candidate with loads of experience, try to keep it to 1 full page. No one likes reading long resumes. Or resumes at all.

SECTIONS

There’s a lot of sections you could have on your resume. Some of the common ones include:

  • Header
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Volunteer Experience
  • Skills
  • Research
  • Language

In general, the most important ones are Experience, Education, and your header, which includes your name and contact information. I’d throw Skills in there too, especially if you work in a more technical field or have a lot of technical skills to highlight.

*Pro-tip*: A Skills section is for hard/technical skills, not soft skills. Things like communication, leadership, patience, teamwork, etc. should show up in your Experience section via your bullet points, NOT the Skills section.

Got a question yet? Submit it and I’ll answer selected ones in the next issue! Otherwise, read on…

BULLET POINTS

Here’s a helpful acronym: CPR

  • C = Challenge. What was the challenge you took on or needed to overcome?
  • P = Process. How did you overcome the challenge? What skills did you use?
  • R = Result. What was the outcome of your actions? If you got a number or percentage to include, please do!

I should be able to pull out each of these elements from your bullet points! Here’s an example of a bullet point that I can’t pull those things out of:

  • Helped student organization raise funds

I can see the challenge: raising funds for a student organization. I don’t know how you did that or what the result was, though. Here’s one that’s much better:

  • Outreached via email to 12 potential sponsors for student networking event, resulting in $2,000 raised to cover costs

See what I’m sayin’? I can see the challenge, the process (email outreach), and the result ($2000). The result helps me understand your proficiency with the skills you communicated in the bullet point, so definitely include the result.

Again, it’s not particularly hard once you get the hang of it. Just takes practice.

Community Bin

I went ahead and sourced some questions from the community regarding resumes. Let’s take a look and do some Q & A:

Q: I regularly update my resume (like every few months) so I can stay ready to apply, but I don’t always tailor my resume for each specific job I apply for. Should I change my approach?

A: It’s good that you regularly update your resume because it allows you to update it while your experiences are still fresh. Still, you definitely should be tailoring your resume for each job. I recommend keeping a master copy (one that houses all your experiences) that you update sorta regularly, and then making tailored/shortened versions specifically for each job you apply for.

Q: Do I need a professional summary on my resume?

A: In many-to-most cases, I’d say no, you don’t need one. If you’re a particularly seasoned professional with a really dope specialty or loads of experience you want to tie together, then go for it. But it’s gotta add value. Generally, I’d say save the space.

Next Issue on January 19th: Identifying Your Skills

The next issue of The Gravy will be released on January 19th! We’ll take a look at something I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with: Identifying Your Skills. It’s good gravy.

If y’all have any questions related to identifying your skills, submit them below and I’ll address selected ones next time.

Until then. Stay Brave.

The Gravy is Be Gallant Coaching’s bi-weekly newsletter focusing on career development topics that are relevant to the every-day professional. Subscribe today to get access to future issues.

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