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Frequently Asked Questions Click here to jump to general questions about job searching. See the section directly below for questions and answers about this site and the content of the Handbook. Questions About This Site and the Handbook Itself Q. Is this book really free? What's the catch? Q. I have a question about my job search. Can I call you for counselling? Q. Which types of job seekers can benefit from this Handbook? General Job Searching Questions and Answers This page covers some of the questions we have been asked often by job seekers. If your question is not addressed in the Handbook and it's not addressed in the questions and answers below, please check our article library to see if we've covered your issue in one of our weekly newsletters. Q. Where's the best place to go to look for internships? If you're just looking for an entry-level job, you can find them on most of the big job boards. An internship is distinguished from an entry-level job in that it provides the intern with a structured program to learn new skills and to learn about the profession in general. Internship programs often provide mentoring opportunities where you'll get a chance to spend time one on one with a successful person in the profession you're looking to get into. The following web sites are helpful tools for people trying to get internships:
Q. I've been in situations where I feel like the interviewer isn't planning to hire me. I've tried asking if there's any reason why I wouldn't be hired, and they seem to become defensive and avoid the question. What's happening here?
I suppose there are a number of reasons why someone might be uncomfortable telling you why they aren't planning to hire you. Sometimes a company might have already made a decision about who they're going to hire - perhaps the boss's son or cousin - and interviewing is just done to make things look legitimate. If you honestly feel there's no good reason why a particular interviewer wouldn't want to hire you (i.e. that you are definately qualified for the position), their hostility could come from your essentially asking them to justify the unjustifiable. So it's a natural human reaction for them to get upset. If you're going to ask an interviewer for feedback, you might first want to think about your own objective in asking. If you're asking because you're unsure of how the interview went or you're unsure if you successfully conveyed your qualifications, then that's an objective that's likely to be successful. On the other hand, if you're asking to prove that the interviwer is unfair, they'll probably get upset. I'm not saying that you're doing that because I don't know. But some people do. Another tactic when dealing with an unfair interviewer in a situation where you really want the position would be to be super nice to the person and ask them politely who else aside from themselves is involved in making the hiring decision. Of course you risk offending the interviewer if they sense you're trying to go around them. But if you think they're unfairly planning to not hire you, maybe you have nothing to lose. Then if you don't hear back from the unfair person, you could try following up with the other person whose name they mentioned. This is a common tactic used by professional salespeople - going around an unfair decision maker. Q. How can I get past third party recruiters, who seem to be acting simply to screen out candidates from the real decision makers? They seem totally unethical and ruthless!
Check out the 3rd bullet point in this article: http://www.JobSearchInformation.com/jsinf/JobTips.asp In my experience, not all recruiters are ruthless. They may come across this way because recruiters typically are highly motivated by money. So some third party recruiters will lie (or stretch the truth) and basically do whatever it takes to fill as many positions as possible. If you don't come across to them as someone they can sell to their client, the employer, they may be dismissive of you. This isn't something you should take personally. Instead, think about ways you could present yourself differently so that you will come across as someone they can sell to their clients (and thereby earn their hefty commissions). When comparing internal recruiters (HR people) versus third party recruiters, HR people are often harder to work with because they don't have a big incentive to present the best person to the hiring manager (at least no immediate financial incentive). On the other hand, 3rd party recruiters have a huge financial incentive to pitch a good candidate to a company. They are paid sometimes as much as a quarter of your first year's salary. So it's just a matter of finding some you have good chemistry with and being able to present yourself in a memorable way. Q. I have more or less given up on this recruiter because she doesn't seem to keep me in mind for positions when they come open. I never hear a word from her unless I call her or send her an email, and sometimes even those times I only get her voice mail or she never answers her email. Recruiters are VERY busy people. Also, they will ASSUME that you are not working with them exclusively and that there's a good chance you found a job if they haven't heard from you within the past week. Especially if they think you're a good catch. YOU have to be proactive and call them if you want to let them know you're still available. Even if it's just a quick call to say "Hi, I'm still available". Q. I posted my resume on some of the job sites over 9 months ago. I don't remember my logins for most of the sites. What will happen
if I try to post my resume on these sites again myself or with a resume posting service like PutMyResumeOnline.com? If you haven't been active on these job sites for over 9 months, some of the accounts may no longer exist. Many job boards will delete your account if you don't log in to their site for over a year. The time period a job site will keep your resume active varies. Most job sites will send you an email if they are about to delete your account due to inactivity, and they typically will offer to let you keep the account active if you log in. Job sites like to have as many resumes as possible in order to make their services as attractive to recruiters as possible. However, they want to make sure the resumes are from people who are still interested in receiving job offers. Otherwise, the recruiters who pay to search the resumes will get frustrated from contacting candidates who aren't interested in the jobs they're trying to fill. If you'd like to check to see if you have an account on a job board but you don't remember your username and password, this is usually not a problem. Most job boards provide a "Forgot Password" feature that lets you look up your password by providing your e-mail address. If you registered on a job board with an email address you no longer use, you can log in with your old email address and update it to your new one once logged in. If you use a resume posting service like PutMyResumeOnline.com, the service will register you on the job boards using your current e-mail address. If you had an old account on one or more of the job boards with an old e-mail address, you will end up with two accounts for sites like these. However, this generally does not present a problem because when recruiters search the job boards for resumes, the most recently updated resumes come up first in the search results. So a recruiter will most likely never see the resume you entered over 9 months ago. In the unlikely event that they do, they would come across your newer resume first, and would most likely notice that both resumes were from the same person, and come to the conclusion that the newer one is your most up-to-date resume. Q. I have a question for a family member who was layed off after being in the Insurance industry 25 years. This individual has a very strong background insurance; however didn't obtain a college degree. The question is how should we handle the topic of education within her resume. Is it appropriate to list High School only or do we leave it off? My opinion is if the person has an impressive work history, it's ok to leave out education. When an employer's looking through many resumes, they are probably not going to be looking for what kind of college degree the person has. There are exceptions for certain professions such as for lawyers where the firm may want someone from an Ivy league school. Especially if the resume is more than one page long, the recruiter will probably just scan the first page of the resume and if the person looks qualified, they'll call them in for an interview. At the interview, the recruiter may take a closer look at the resume and may ask about education. Another option is if the person attended college but did not receive a degree, the dates of attendence can be listed. For example: State University of New York at Albany Bachelor's Degree Program 1990-1993 I would recommend against listing just the high school diploma because that would call attention to the lack of a college degree. You may also wish to engage the services of a resume writing service. They may have some creative ways of presenting the resume. Click here to visit ResumeEdge, a highly-regarded resume writing service. Q. I am working at my job through a temporary placement agency and I just found out the company I'm working for is being billed at a rate twice what I'm being paid. Also, I was told the company would give me a full-time, permanent position if they liked me but they haven't. A bill rate of twice the pay rate isn't unreasonable for an agency to charge. Most of that fee goes to their overhead expenses. Included in that bill rate is the cost of cutting checks and the payroll taxes that go to the government. If the company were to pay you directly instead of paying the agency, they really wouldn't save much (if at all). Although you didn't say it, your question implies that you feel you're being paid too little. The best course of action may be to talk to your rep at the agency and ask them to ask the company you're working at for a raise. The company may be able to pay you more as a temporary worker than if they were to hire you full-time. This is often the case with publicly traded corporations which usually do not include costs of temporary employees under the Payroll cost and head count listed in their annual and quarterly reports to stockholders. Expenditures on temporary employees are often included with miscellaneous expenses (which would include costs like electricity and office supplies), which therefore make the company appear it is more competitive by keeping payroll costs down. The company may be under pressure to keep additions to their payroll to a minimum, and therefore may prefer to keep you on as a temporary employee until market conditions change, at which point it might make more sense for them to bring you on to the payroll. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the temp agency is on your side - it is in their interest to help you get paid more. Plus, if the company does eventually hire you full-time, the agency will get a commission for that too (called a liquidation fee).
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