I recently bought a harmonica.  If you don’t know me personally you must understand that I am musically challenged.  I love to sing but my love for singing doesn’t mean I should actually let other people hear me sing.  Therefore, I keep my skills muffled under the roof of my car or in the confines of sound proof rooms.  Since I bought this harmonica I really need to work twice as hard to learn how to play and make music since I am tone-challenged and cannot read music.  As with any instrument you cannot simply pick up and start playing without a great deal of practice or training.  In order to one day play my harmonica like some of the great harmonica players gone past I have two options:

1. I can hire a teacher to train me on the fine art of playing the harmonica.  Since I cannot read music or play by hearing I should probably get some professional help to ensure I am playing with the proper form, breathing correctly, and improving my skills day-by-day.  It is very hard to learn something if you are not taught by someone who has been where you are at one time in their life.  Then after many years and countless hours I might be able to make a tune with my small wind instrument like Bob Dylan and Tom Petty.  Or if nothing else I might be able to entertain my young son with my efforts.  He seems to smile at everything his dad does.  That might have something to do with the fact that he is only 10 months old, but for now I will assume it is because he can see the budding talent in his father.

2. The alternative to seeking out professional help and training is to be a lone-ranger and try to learn to play on my own.  I have already bought a book that is suppose to teach me everything I need to know about playing the harmonica, but is it going to be enough?  Will it teach me everything I need to know or will I pick up on bad habits that I feel are correct but in reality a teacher would deem incorrect?  I have already learned how to play Jingle Bells and a few lines from Silent Night but how long will it take me to learn to play at the slow pace of self-teaching?

The reason I tell you about my recent harmonica purchase is because students have the same choice make when it comes to finding a job or internship.  Either you chose to work with trained professionals such as career coaches and career services advisors or you chose to look for a job on your own using your own limited abilities.  Career professionals have been trained in the skills of resume writing, professional networking, cover letter writing, job interviewing techniques, etc…  Since you are potentially new to the world of job searching doesn’t it make sense for you to work with a professional to find a job as it does for me to work with a trained professional to learn how to play the harmonica?  If we are inexperienced at something we can learn the basics on our own but to become an expert you need professional assistance.

The next time you think about looking for a job, writing a resume, cover letter, going on a job interview, or even negotiating a salary I would recommend you seek out professional help.  The payoff will be far greater than any amount of effort you put forth on your own.

PS: After writing an article like this you would think I am advertising for career coaching services when in fact I am not.  However, if you need a great career coach I recommend choosing one from The Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches.  They are a great governing body of career professionals.

If you are applying for a job in the near future you might want to consider this tip around job descriptions.

When writing your resume for specific jobs consider analyzing the job description from the company for keywords that you can plant in your resume.

More and more companies are using a keyword search method to screen the first batch of resumes before they even consider looking at a resume in greater detail.  In larger organizations the hiring manager will never see the stack of resumes until the have been pared down to a manageable number using the keyword search method.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF KEYWORD SEARCH METHOD

SAMPLE Job description

Job Summary The Application Integration Engineer is responsible for the overall function and success of customer deployments. This includes planning, coordinating, and supervising all activities related to the integration of third-party systems for medSages products and the deployment of medSage systems. Activities include requirements gathering, design, implementation, test, and deployment of the integration solution. Duties & Responsibilities - Identify technical requirements and customizations to medSage systems based on customers business requirements and needs. - Analyze and document custom database applications and interfaces. - Ability to communicate well with clients and project managers to gather information and also present the solution. - Use requirements and designs to implement a solution, defining test plans and methods, executing testing, and deployment of the integration solution. - Review computer operating logs to identify processing errors. - Must be accountable and responsible for working on business critical products that operate 24/7/365 and are distributed nationwide to many clients. - Develop documentation including test plans, installation instructions, internal release notes, and design documents. - Provide technical support. - The ability to work in a team environment - Attention to detail and quality required. Education - Bachelors degree or equivalent experience. Business Experience & Specialized Knowledge/Skills - Proven experience with system integration and integration best practices. - Experience working directly with customers. - Thorough knowledge of databases and SQL. - Knowledge in Java. - Knowledge in Access. - Experience in software testing. - Practical experience with Linux/Unix. - Practical experience with Windows. - Technical writing, system documentation, document-management skills. - Demonstrated self-starter, interpersonal skills, creative problem solving skills. - Knowledge with HME/DME billing systems a plus. Travel - 5%-20%.

What might some of the keywords be when combing this job description?

KEYWORDS

• Engineer
• Application integration engineer
• Customer
• Planning
• Coordinating
• Communication
• Database
• Time management
• Flexible (24/7/365 business environment)
• Technical writing
• Technical support background
• Bachelor’s degree
• SQL
• JAVA
• Access
• Microsoft office
• System documentation
• Management skills
• Self starter
• Creative
• Problem solving ability
• Etc…

As you can see the list of keywords from this relatively short job description can be long.  I am sure if you analyze this description more you will find more than I listed above.

Once you have made your list of keywords be sure to try and incorporate these keywords into your resume and cover letter.  In all reality you may not be able to incorporate all of them but be sure to try and get as many as possible into those two documents.  That way when the recruiter or screener is looking for resumes and cover letters with these keywords yours will be one of the few that get selected.

And you thought Google was the only one obsessed with keywords!

EDIT: 12-8-06: For no particular reason I failed to mention in my original post that the event I wrote about below was the Career Services Advisory Board meeting at the Allegheny Campus of Community College of Allegheny College in Pittsburgh. I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and want to thank the CCAC career services directors for having me on this board. It is a great service to the business community and now through this blog a resource to the rest of the world.

Below you will find a summery of complaints, wishes, and observations from about 10 employers at a career services advisory board meeting I attended today. I thought I would share some of the major points we discussed.

If you are actively searching for a job this would be a good list of items to take note of.

Be prepared for your job interview. Too many students and candidates in general come to the interview completely unprepared. Do your research on the company, know their mission statement, know what they do and why they exist, or at least know what job you are interviewing for.

Dress appropriately for an interview. There really aren’t that many times where you do not need to dress up when going to a job interview. Unless the employer tells you it is ok to wear casual clothing to the interview I would dress in business formal. Men wear blue or black suits and ladies were blue or black pant suits or skirts. End of story.

Telling candidates to apply online is NOT a push off. Companies truly want candidates to apply online. First, they have to do it this way because of company policy, and second it is a good indication if the person can follow directions and follow through with a complicated process. Some of the recruiters at this meeting said many job seekers are simply to “lazy” to apply online for a job. The consensus among the employers was, if they are too lazy to apply online then they are not a good fit for their company.

Not every candidate is a fit within every company. Every company has a corporate culture and every company is looking for people who fit well within their corporate culture. Many of them have tests or processes to determine this.

Have an answer to the question; “Why are you applying for this job.” Many of the companies said that when they ask this question many of the candidates do not have an answer. Do you?

The final major point all of the companies made was the sense of entitlement among recent graduates. Many of the graduates feel like someone owes them something now that they have a bachelors or master degree. That could not be further from the truth. One company went as far to say that your new degree will get you nothing more than a ticket to apply for jobs. It doesn’t necessarily make you qualified for those jobs; it only gives you the opportunity to be considered. Another company said your degree is only the first step in proving why you will be a good employee to that company.

- A few other topics we talked about were the importance of communication skills, inter-office social skills, multi-generational workplaces issues, and the lack of work ethic among college grads.

I was very pleased to be engaged in this discussion, but in some ways it was quite frustrating and sad. These negative comments about job seekers and especially entry-level grads were coming from all of the companies in attendance. That tells me that many companies are dealing with the same issues and not just one or two. It seems to be cross-industry, and nationwide.

If you are a job seekers make sure you take note of some of these comments listed above. The more prepared you are for your job search the better off you are going to be; and ultimately the more successful.

Can adults do internships?

If you are an adult looking for a job have you considered doing some free or contract work? When I speak to college students I strongly advocate these students do an internship or two during their college career in order to know what they want to do after college. Or in some cases, what they do not want to do.

If you are an adult the same principle can apply. I recommend you use your network of professional contacts to try and do some contract work with companies in your industry. I would go as far to say that it would be worth your time to do free work. Now, I am not saying you work for free for very long but if you are in position to do so, do it. A short term project done for free can reap large rewards in the future.

There are some sites on the net that can help you with your contract work endeavor.

Craigslist

Guru.com

Allfreelance.com

Solotgig.com

Indeed.com

A simple Google search may produce more results.

These national sites are great but if you can leverage your local network of contacts you will have faster results and hopefully be able to land a job faster.

I recently participated in a blog carnival with Jibber Jobber.com.  The creator/moderator of that site sent the carnival question to the infamous Seth Godin for his response.  He did not write a whole article but I thought what he said was worth sharing.

Here is the question:

Yikes! You just lost your job! You’ve been so busy at *work* that you don’t feel your network is as strong as you would like it to be! What are you going to do with (and to) your network in the next 6 weeks as you begin an aggresive job search campaign? And, outside of your network, what job search tactics will you employ? Or your best networking tips related to job searches.

Click here to read Seth’s answer over at Jibber Jobber.