Pro Tips for How to Send a Thank You Note After an Interview

Testimonials, , , , ,
19
Jul 2017

Sending a thank you note after your interview or phone screening with a hiring manager is a crucial step in the hiring process. Apart from the general good etiquette of the practice of writing thank you notes, they are another opportunity to interact with the hiring manager while they screen other applicants and eventually make a decision about whom to hire for the position. Use our Pro Tips as a guide to writing a thank you note following your interview.

Pro Tip: Timing is everything

We at Resume Yeti recommend that you send a thank you note to your interviewer either the very same day or the day after your interview. You’ll want to give them the impression that you enjoyed the interview and that you’d like to move forward with the hiring process. Writing a prompt thank you note to the hiring manager is a great way to prove your genuine interest in the position and company. If a couple days have gone by and you’ve just realized you haven’t written a thank you note yet, you should still send one over. Sending a note a little later is certainly better than not sending one at all.

Pro Tip: Remind them why they should hire you

In your interview you probably made a case for why the company should hire you. When you write a thank you note to the hiring manager, you should summarize this pitch in one or two sentences, alongside expressing your gratitude for their time and consideration.

Pro Tip: Tell AND show

Often during interviews, you talk about successful projects you’ve completed yourself or that you’ve been a part of. Sometimes there is no way to quickly access a project in your portfolio in the moment when you’re talking about it with the hiring manager during the interview. If you discussed any past projects or items in your portfolio during the interview, your follow-up thank you note is a way to provide that access to the hiring manager.

In general, It’s important to have your portfolio uploaded and ready to be viewed online. It makes it convenient for you to share it easily on the spot if you need to. In your thank you note you can say something like, “I wanted to pass along the links to the projects we discussed during the interview. The first project ________ can be seen here [insert URL], and the other one, _________ is available here [insert URL].” Provide the name of the project and the year, as well as a link so the hiring manager can view the projects at their convenience.

If you’re stuck on formatting your thank you note, you can check out these different examples for various purposes. And before you hit “Send” on that email, be sure to read over these quick tips:

Quick Tip: Use your professional email address
In a world where it’s so easy to switch between accounts and be connected across multiple devices, sometimes you can accidentally send a professional email from one of your personal accounts. Do a quick double check to make sure your “sent from” address is the right one.

Quick Tip: Spell and grammar check.
It’s an obvious tip, but you’d be surprised how many people send grammatically incorrect emails with spelling errors. Spell/Grammar check is just as important in professional correspondences as it is in your resume writing.

Quick Tip: Check your valediction
Make sure to sign off cordially, using valedictions like “Sincerely,” “Regards,” or “All my best.”

Quick Tip: Update your signature
In addition to their name and phone number, many people include links to their social media, website, portfolio, current organization, or LinkedIn in their automated signature. Double check the links in yours to make sure they are up-to-date and functioning.

Read More
1884 View

3 Creative Ways to get Noticed and Land the Job

Testimonials, , , , , , , , ,
23
May 2017

There is a fine line between gimmicks and authentic creativity when it comes to capturing the attention of hiring managers. A stunt too outlandish will land your resume in the garbage, but there are several tricks job hunters may employ that—with finesse—just might pique the interest of hiring managers and get you in the door for an interview. Each of the following strategies requires a bit of extra time, and in some cases a little money upfront, but each is a way that has been proven to move job hunters forward in their search for employment.

1) The Unsolicited Application

The strategy of cold calling has historically been one of the most tried-and-true methods of job hunting, although it has changed a bit in the last decade. To set this strategy into motion, you need to do your research. It’s a good idea to use a spreadsheet to organize your findings. Start by making an exhaustive list of companies and organizations that interest you—be it the company’s mission, the products they make or advertise, or the ideal next step up in your career. For each entry in your spreadsheet, record the company’s name, a sentence about why it interests you, and the available contact information about the staff member most likely to be in charge.

Once you have several entries, begin contacting the companies. In an email, send your resume along with a formal, individualized message about why you’re interested in the company, your skills that you think would make a positive contribution to their staff and workplace, and a reminder that even if they are not hiring at the moment, to please keep you in mind for future opportunities. The majority of these emails may go unanswered, but sometimes, companies are looking for employees for positions that haven’t been posted yet, or hiring managers and staff members will remember your outreach efforts and might contact you in the future.

2) The Role Reversal

Some of you may have heard about programmer Andrew Horner’s website that encouraged employers to apply to have Horner work for them. While this strategy was ultimately very successful for Horner, it is not likely that everyone will achieve the same results. However, there are a few ways that you can “turn the tables” so that people solicit you to work, rather than the other way around.

One tactic is to advertise on Facebook and Google. To make a Facebook ad, you’ll have to start a business page. Once you do, you can follow these steps to create advertisements for small fees to reach specific audiences. To place advertisements on Google, you’ll have to make a Google AdWords account. Once you’ve set that up, there are many options to create Search Ads (those that appear in the list search results when you Google something), and Display Ads (those that appear as banners on websites you visit). There are also many different payment tiers, depending on your needs and the audience you want to reach. You can learn more about how to effectively use Google Adwords here.

Another “role reversal” tactic is to post advertisements for your services on sites like TaskRabbit and Craigslist Jobs**. While Craigslist tends to be a bit more of a wild card in terms of gaining actual clients, it has proved effective when used intelligently and persistently. It’s also easy to post–you can do it within 10 minutes! Craigslist uses what’s called “relay mail,” so that you can communicate with potential clients anonymously until you have reached an agreement and feel comfortable exchanging other contact information with your client.

TaskRabbit allows you to create a profile that lists your skills and strengths so that people who need work done can contact you if your skill set is a match for what they need. You can become a “tasker” here. As a tasker you can also browse work that people need done and contact them to offer your services. If they agree that you’re a match, then you’ll move forward with a contract and you’ll be on your way.

** Remember never to post personal information inside ad text, never to give bank account information or passwords, and never to send/wire money over Craigslist.

3) The Imitation Game

Maybe you’ve heard of Alexander J. Velicky’s video game resume, which he submitted to Bethesda Game Studios, where he was keen on working. Or perhaps you’re aware of Jeanne Hwang’s Pinterest CV, which she submitted to Pinterest. Or Leah Bowman, who built a Lego-themed resume to appeal to future employers.

These are three examples of job hunters who grabbed hiring managers’ attention by synthesizing and personalizing elements of the companies’ branding, mission, and work. By thoroughly researching the companies they wanted to work for, these job hunters were able to project their best qualities by imitating the characteristics they loved best about the companies. When the hiring managers saw enthusiasm for the companies mirrored in their job applications, these applicants were invited to interview.

 

All three of these creative strategies require a bit more time, research, and even money (in the case of advertising) upfront. But for jobs that you’ve got your heart set on, it just might be worth a shot!

Have you ever used a creative strategy to land an interview or job offer? Share it with us on Facebook or Tweet us @ResumeYeti!

 

Cover image provided by WOCinTech Chat

Read More
1998 View

5 Phrases that will kill your Resume (And how to replace them)

Testimonials, , , , , , , ,
15
May 2017

Employers are often shocked at how many job applicants include outdated language on their resume, regardless of their age or level of career experience. In today’s hyper-competitive job market, you cannot allow employers’ first impression of you to be shaped by archaic words, writing styles, or catchphrases. Luckily, these buzzwords are easy to spot, if you know what to look for. What follows is a list of ResumeYeti’s Top 5 outdated resume phrases, with our Pro Tips on how to replace them if they appear on yours.

1) Personal Pronouns

Using the pronouns “I,” “my,” “me,” etc. comes off as overly informal and thus, unprofessional. Employers automatically assume that everything on your resume is related to you and your experience. Think about the lessons you learned early on about writing academic or scientific essays. The most authoritative voice is the one that remains objective. The same goes for resume language.

Pro Tip: Find ways to express your career experiences without pronouns. The phrase “My responsibilities included training my interns to use the digital asset manager,” could be reworked to be, “Trained a group of 5 interns to use Portfolio Digital Asset Manager.” The new sentence is preferred because it is direct and objective, and it also quantifies an element of your job (resume readers love this), AND it specifies a computer program/system you are skilled in using.

2) Address

You should not include your full address in the “contact” section of your resume. In the past, the address was typically included as a formal gesture, but today, your personal address is seen as unnecessary information that visually clutters the top of your resume.

Pro Tip: DO include your phone number and email address. You should use dashes, periods, or parentheses (for the area code) to format your phone number. When you list your e-mail, be sure to use a professional address with your name, rather than a silly account that does not identify you.

3) Exceedingly formal or wordy language

The flip side of making your resume seem too informal by using personal pronouns would be making your resume seem so extraneously proper that it comes off as silly. Some examples of this language are phrases like “responsible for,” “duties included,” “oversight of,” and “references available upon request.” Apart from taking up precious space on your resume document, these phrases complicate the details that you are trying to convey to employers. Today, advertisers are lucky if they catch our attention for 5 whole seconds before a YouTube video plays. If your resume language is complicated and verbose, you can count on it being buried in the pile and overshadowed by other applicants.

Pro Tip: Be direct and concise. If you’ve gotten to a point where you’re stuck and you don’t know where to start, have a friend look it over. Instruct them to edit every sentence as if each one had a word limit. Every character counts. Try to pare down your language so that only the most crucial points remain. Think of it this way: for every overly wordy phrase you remove, you can use a bit of the extra space to specify or quantify a detail of your experience (thus improving your resume).

4) Vague Expressions

What do you think of when you hear the phrases, “out-of-the-box,” “dynamic,” “win-win,” or “team player?” Having a hard time envisioning something meaningful? Employers reading your resume will have a hard time, too.  Clichéd phrases like these are vague. They emit a gimmicky, sales pitch-y tone, and should be left off your resume.

Pro Tip: If you do spot these phrases on your resume, zoom in on the context in which you used them. What exactly is it that you are trying to express about yourself? If you describe yourself as an “out-of-the-box, dynamic team player,” try to imagine a time when your innovative ideas or actions were successful in a team setting. Did the success occur because you were resourceful? Enterprising? Efficient? Assertive? Isolate the clichés and either eliminate them or find a more expressive way to convey what you mean.

5) Everyday, general skills

It is assumed that most adults in the U.S. know how to use Microsoft Word. You do not need to assure employers (and waste space on your resume) of your proficiency in this common program. Other “skills” that are frequently listed on resumes are problem solving and being detail oriented.

Pro Tip: These are qualities that are essential not only to being an employee, but also to just being a human. Life is problem solving. If you pay attention to details, you’re more likely to get what you want or avoid situations where precautions were in the fine print. You’ll need to show, rather than tell, your future employer that you possess these qualities. To begin with, show your employer how detail oriented you are by spell checking your resume and cover letter. Go the extra mile by handing in your gorgeously designed ResumeYeti resume, complete with matching letterhead for your cover letter, and business cards to make a great first impression.

Read More
3160 View

3 Resume Old Wives Tales Debunked!

Testimonials, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
06
Feb 2017

Writing your resume is no easy feat, especially with all the resume rumors flying around out there. Watch out for resume advice that can actually hinder your chances of getting the job!

Three common misconceptions that will lead you astray and likely get your resume trashed include:

  1. Using white-font-keywords on your resume to get past an applicant tracking system,
  2. Using a functional resume format, and
  3. Placing a photo on your resume.
Read More
1880 View
3 Things that will get your Resume Thrown in the Trash
3 Things that will get your Resume Thrown in the Trash

3 Things That Will Get Your Resume Thrown in the Trash

Testimonials, , , , , ,
20
Mar 2016

Wait so if I send in a resume it may not even be seen by anyone? Why would my resume get thrown away or be pre-sorted out?

  • Did you ensure that your resume has the necessary keywords/trigger words matching the job description?
  • Are you a cultural fit? This is a message that can actually be conveyed with your resume.
  • Do you have grammatical errors? This is a big no-no that can definitely take you out of the running.
  • Do you have the right experience for the job? If so, then make sure your resume shows it, if not then you may want to look at other opportunities and grow into the one you’ve got your eye on.

“3 Things That Will Get Your Resume Thrown In The Trash” delves into these topics further for you!

Join the 20,000+ who have found jobs with Resume Yeti’s help!!! Resume Yeti provides clients with a 65% greater chance of making it through an applicant tracking system.*

Our clients:

  • Are regularly complimented on their resumes by hiring managers
  • Typically land interviews to 1 out of every 3 jobs they apply for
  • And frequently accept higher-level, higher paying roles.*

As you build a resume you will receive pro tips and keyword suggestions to help guide you. You will be able to create a matching cover letter and business card. Additionally, with a professional and lifetime membership, you can create an online professional portfolio – a place to download and share other documents with hiring managers. You will have the ability to make your profile public or private depending on where you are in the job search process.

Head on over to Resume Yeti from a laptop, desktop or tablet to see what all the buzz is about!

*Statements are based on pre-launch research and are not a guarantee. Results may vary.

Interview Tips & Advice | Resume Yeti | Professional Resume & CV Optimization | Resume Writing Tips | Resume Keywords & Trigger Words
Read More
Resume Writing Tips
Resume Writing Tips

6 Secrets of Great Resumes – Backed by Psychology

Testimonials, , , , , ,
14
Mar 2016

How do you go from having a good resume to a great resume? There are a few key tricks of the trade to be sure to use.

First, make sure you are using resume keywords/trigger words. Many applicant tracking systems actually filter out the “less qualified” candidates before their resume is even seen by a recruiter. So you’ll want to make sure you’re using trigger words plenty of times throughout your resume, ensuring that these words fit well with the job description, to give you the best chances of being ranked high enough for your resume to actually be seen by a human being.

Second, I always suggest quantifying your successes and contributions. Numbers are very important to showing what you’ve actually done! Saying you’ve increased sales simply doesn’t sound as useful as saying you’ve increased sales by 42%.

I find the two rules listed above are by far the most crucial, that said, “6 Secrets of Great Resumes – Backed by Psychology” has some other tips that you might find useful as well.

Join the 20,000+ who have found jobs with Resume Yeti’s help!!! Resume Yeti provides clients with a 65% greater chance of making it through an applicant tracking system.*

Our clients:

  • Are regularly complimented on their resumes by hiring managers
  • Typically land interviews to 1 out of every 3 jobs they apply for
  • And frequently accept higher-level, higher paying roles.*

As you build a resume you will receive pro tips and keyword suggestions to help guide you. You will be able to create a matching cover letter and business card. Additionally, with a professional and lifetime membership, you can create an online professional portfolio – a place to download and share other documents with hiring managers. You will have the ability to make your profile public or private depending on where you are in the job search process.

Head on over to Resume Yeti from a laptop, desktop or tablet to see what all the buzz is about!

*Statements are based on pre-launch research and are not a guarantee. Results may vary.

Interview Tips & Advice | Resume Yeti | Professional Resume & CV Optimization | Resume Writing Tips | Resume Keywords & Trigger Words
Read More