Information from Allison & Taylor’s extensive database provides some interesting employment information. September is when job hunting (and hiring) begins in earnest after the lazy days of summer.
The company’s research indicates that there are better (and worse) times to start your search for a new job.
Best Months to Search:
September (after Labor Day) to Thanksgiving
January to April (to Easter)
Worst (Slow) times for Searching:
Early Summer to Labor Day
Thanksgiving to New Year’s
With this information in mind, now is the time to do review your employment search to-do list. Make sure you’ve covered these 5 important areas before submitting your resume and references to a potential employer.
- Review your resume carefully. Does it present you in the best light? Make sure that your resume stands out from the rest; now is that time that employers have returned from summer vacations and are highly energized in meeting year-end quotas and goals. If they’ve got the budget to bring on someone new to help achieve those things, they need to hire now, before year’s end.
- Examine Your Skill Set. Want to tip the employment scales in your favor? Make a list of all the things you’re capable of, and if there are any gaps in your knowledge, consider using software tools or online training sites to enhance them.
- Perfect your interviewing skills. Conduct practice interviews with friends and family so you become comfortable with the process. In a role playing situation, have them pose interview questions to you; it will help you anticipate the kind of questions you’ll receive during the “real thing”.
- Check your references. What could be worse than to make it through the interview process with flying colors, only to lose the job because your former supervisor/HR representative gave you a lackluster (or negative) reference? Be sure yours are in order by checking your own references with a company like Allison & Taylor. If any employer negativity is documented, you will be able to do something about it with tools such as a Cease & Desist letter.
- Do your “homework”. Then determine what position you’re seeking, and tailor your resume to reflect your suitability for the job. Every resume can use a little tweaking, so consider using a resume-critiquing service like Allison & Taylor to ensure that your resume will get you that all-important first interview.
Bad Resume Data Means Bad Employment Prospects
Beware Unintended Inaccuracies In Your Resume That Will Cost You the Job
It is no secret that job resume fraud has been on the rise in recent years. With the economic downturn in recent years, many desperate job seekers have resorted to “embellishing” their resume credentials. Their hope: that prospective employers will forego checking the dates and credentials offered on their resumes.
Unfortunately for these job seekers, many employers – also well aware of the prevalence of resume fraud – have redoubled their efforts to verify candidates’ resume data. In so doing, they invariably check the employment dates with the Human Resources (HR) contact of a candidate’s former employer. If the dates – or title – given by HR don’t match up exactly with those offered on the candidate’s resume, it is unlikely that the candidate will ever hear again from the potential employer.
This employer vigilance poses a problem not only for candidates intentionally “fudging” their resume data, but also for those who inadvertently offer erroneous data they believe to be accurate. Sometimes the formal title appearing in an HR data bank is different than the one offered up by the potential candidate who may be unaware of this discrepancy. Or, the formal start/end date of employment might differ, even slightly, between the dates offered by the candidate and by the former employer. In such instances, a persnickety prospective employer might elect to “draw the line” and withhold an employment offer (or rescind one that has already been made, contingent on a non-problematic reference check).
How, then, can a conscientious job candidate best ensure that what they are offering on their resume is consistent with input given by their former employer? They can conduct a reference check(s) on themselves by using a third party reference checking organization such as Allison & Taylor.com. In contacting HR at their former employer, the job seeker will not only be able to confirm their employment dates/title but may also be able to determine HR’s responses to questions like “Are they eligible for rehire?” or “Were they terminated from the organization?” While HR should not be providing responses to such questions, a candidate should never assume that HR is always following proper protocol. Also, non-HR employees – for example, former supervisors – are far more likely to offer revealing commentary about you than Human Resources. For this reason, it can be critical that a job seeker not only determine what HR will offer regarding their former employment, but former supervisors and other potential references within that organization as well.
In summary, it behooves any job candidate to ensure that their resume isn’t their “weakest link”. Use an organization like Allison & Taylor.com (which can also critique your resume to ensure that your content/format are optimally presented) to ensure that your current resume data is consistent with that offered by your former employers – and at the same time, to ensure they are not offering any commentary that could compromise your employment efforts.
To find out more about reference and background checks, Cease & Desist letters and resume re-writes, please visit www.AllisonTaylor.com.