Posted: June 24, 2010 at 11:36 am
What is a “Me in 30 seconds” Statement?
A “Me in 30 Seconds” statement is a simple way to present to someone else a balanced understanding of who you are. It piques the interest of a listener who invites you to “Tell me a little about yourself,” and it provides a brief and compelling answer to the question “Why should I hire you?”
What Should it include?
When well crafted, your “Me in 30 Seconds” statement will include:
• A brief personal introduction that includes your career objective or the type of position you want.
• Three or four specific accomplishments that prove you meet or exceed the requirements for that position.
• A few character traits or adaptive skills that set you apart from typical applicants. When networking, finish your “Me in 30 Seconds” statement with probing questions that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no” to start a conversation that may lead to referrals or job opportunities. For example:
WHO do you know who works in _______________?
WHAT businesses are in the area that _______________?
WHO do you know who knows a lot of people?
Other points to consider:
• Keep your “Me in 30 Seconds” statement brief. People generally listen effectively only 30 to 60 seconds, and they appreciate concise responses to questions. This indicates that you are clearly focused and waste no time getting to the point.
• Speak in the present tense to show that your skills are current and applicable in today’s market.
• Remember your audience. Adjust the level of detail and industry jargon you use according to the interest and experience of the person you are addressing.
• Avoid common claims such as: “I’m trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind,” and so on. Not only are these claims made by most job seekers, but without detailed examples, they don’t convey your value to a potential employer.
• Make your “Me in 30 Seconds” statement natural. It is a genuine form of communication that will help you organize everything you are into brief, coherent thoughts.
Posted: June 1, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Some say it is rude to followup via LinkedIn to check on the status of the resume you submitted to a hiring manager.
Here is a good way to present yourself as the proactive, not desperate, employee they would want to talk to. A creative way is by reaching out through a mutual connections. This can often be more effective than by reaching out to someone you don’t know first hand. I’ve recently seen success in asking someone you may know first hand to reach out to a potential employer on your behalf, because that connection has a relationship with the individual to whom you are attempting to contact. It is this introduction that can get you the necessary audience with that individual, and I believe that you will have a better chance to make the contact when your connection intercedes on your behalf.
It is far more powerful to have a mutual connection sing your praises than to try to convince someone who doesn’t know you to believe what skills or experience you have. Try it, you would be surprised how eager people are to help out a friend or colleague.
Good Luck, and reach out to me if you ever need an introduction.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmale
Posted: July 27, 2009 at 12:35 pm | Tags: blog, candidate, facebook, myspace, recruiter, social networking
As part of my duties as a recruiter I always search online for a job candidates online presense. This starts with a Google search of the candidates name and can often lead to finding out all about the social networking profiles, past blog posts, basically anything with their name attached.
I recently read a statistic that said that over 77% of job recruiters check their candidates online profiles. So that means that many of the jobs that you are submitting yourself to will check up on you. So if you have those “fun” party pics online from last 4th of July, I will see them. If you are posting unkind comments about people, places or things, I will see that too. That can have a very adverse affect on your job prospects. Those pictures might show you in a certain viewpoint that will make a corporate recruiter or headhunter decide you are not the right fit for any positions.
I have heard, and seen myself, many horror stories about candidates Facebook, Myspace, Blogposts, Twitters etc. Everything that you post online is there forever. You may delete it on one site, but the way there are so many sites that collect information you never know if it is really gone.
So if you are currently looking for a job, you have to make sure that your online presence is the type of person that a company would want to hire. If you have racy, drunken, irresponsible pictures on your sites, that may send a negative impression to the hiring authority. You need to remove them and get your profile to be a generic version of yourself. If you want to share pictures and comments with your friends, email them or call them. You don’t need to be sharing that picture of you with eyes half mast and 20 beer bottles on the coffee table. Because if it is there, I will find it and that won’t earn you many points in the responsibility department I use when evaluating candidates to present to my clients.
I suggest you look at your social networking accounts and clean them up. Even protecting or limiting your profile can not prevent people from seeing what you are posting online. If you want that perfect job, think about what you want to be viewed as and edit accordingly.
I finally suggest that you do a Google search on yourself to check to see what you are presenting to the world. Make sure it is the impression you want to give to the person who holds the key to your dream job. Because I guarantee (well, at 8 times out of 10) that recruiter will be doing the same Google search on you.
Posted: July 24, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Lately I have been using Twitter to look for candidates for my open jobs. I have been having great success attracting all levels of candidates to respond to my Twitters. By twittering many times a day I have been constantly adding new followers. Just yesterday I was able to speak to two candidates that my client has never spoken to before. This is a very valuable tool that I have added to my repertoire.
That got me thinking that Twitter is definitely a great tool for people actively looking for jobs as well. I have many followers from many different cities that are posting jobs. Some of them are posting 8-10 jobs every day. If you are looking for a job it would be very smart to follow these twitterers. My followers and people I am following vary from individual recruiters to job boards, to regional job sites to corporate job boards. All of them are twittering about their open jobs all day long. I think it would be very smart to add Twitter to your job search toolkit if you are looking for a job now.
To follow me go to: https://twitter.com/RecruiterKevin
Posted: July 23, 2009 at 10:14 am
The changing labor market has presented management with an onslaught of unsolicited resumes…some good…some not so good. To some there is a perception that there is a glut of candidates on the open market…however, the screening, interviewing and hiring processes need to be that much more selective! How do you get to the passive job seeker?
I have had success finding the passive candidate by embracing the newest sourcing techniques. I am committed to understanding the goals and objectives of my clients, as well as my candidates. Staying ahead of the curve allows me to present the most impressive candidates to my clients. Let me enable you to replace fixed costs with the variable expense of contingency recruiting.
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”