While the national agenda is all about job creation, the political rhetoric has not yet changed the harsh reality of actually finding a job. Ironically, there’s a ton of pent-up demand on the hiring side. Hiring managers who have precious job listings to fill really need to find the right candidates, right now.
And given the volume of job seekers out there, it must feel like swimming upstream. Our recent job posting at CMD drew many candidates, but only two made the final cut for interviews at the agency. And of course, there can be only one who is hired.
These days, it seems like the planets have to align in order for both parties to find the right fit. Are you feeling that way, too?
This happens to be on my mind because Melissa Lion and I are going to speak to bloggers at Portland’s WordCamp in September about translating their skills into the workplace. It occurred to us that we shouldn’t work from our assumptions about job hunting in this environment. We need help from you—the bloggers and job hunters of Portland—so that we can directly address your very real concerns.
If you’re in job search mode, what’s weighing on your mind? We want your burning questions, especially the ones from bloggers.
- What did you really want to ask that hiring manager, but didn’t bring up for fear of objections?
- Have you been in a situation where you and the hiring manager had very different expectations?
- Have you had a good experience lately? What made it good?
Leave your question in the comments section here, or if you can fit it in 140 characters or less, we’ll take it on Twitter too. The really juicy questions we’ll take with us to the WordCamp discussion this fall. We’ll also let you know where to catch the live stream of our Wordcamp session if you’re not able to attend in person.
OK, let’s have it. We want to hear your top questions for hiring managers.
Tags: cmd agency, communications, conversation starter, hiring manager, interviews, jobs, marketing, networking, Portland, positions, social media, tools, Twitter, workplace
Julie,
It’s very simple actually. At Wordcamp, ask any companies who are in the room why they are sitting on a pile of cash from profits reaped by shedding workers, and then making the remaining workers work harder, often by giving them 2 jobs to do.
There are no jobs if companies want to preserve cash and not invest in talent or infrastructure. And that’s what’s happening http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/opinion/02krugman.html
Dave, thanks for sharing your POV and this link. Good food for thought going into WordCamp.
What I really want to know about is cover letters. I find myself walking this funny tightrope where on the one side I need to stay within an acceptable format to show that I can write properly and follow the norm. On the other side of this, I know that if I am sending this letter to someone I’ve never met before I need to somehow grab their attention quickly if I want them to bother to call me back.
Where do you stand on cover letters? Is it better to go bold, and get right to the meat of what I’m trying to convey, or should I stick to the usual format so I don’t get tossed out immediately?
This issue is especially important as a professional communicator, because a cover letter is my first (and often only) chance to show the hiring manager my writing skills.
Thanks David, that’s a great question. For cover letters, I prefer brief and bold. Just thinking back on my experiences and the prevalence of email attachments these days, I usually take a peek at a candidate’s resume first. If a cover letter appears in an email “above” a resume, I usually skim through and move down to the more bulleted list of jobs/accomplishments. Something definitely has to capture my attention in a cover letter in order to spend more time with it. We have other ways to evaluate writing samples and skills too.
Keep in mind that I work in a creative agency, where the preference will almost always be for bold and attention-getting writing. Other industries may be more conservative and want a cover letter to fit within a predictable standard. In that, you have to consider your audience.
Thanks for bringing up this question.