WHAT DO EMPLOYERS WANT?

What are the most desirable qualities for job seekers in the 2000 workplace? Watson Wyatt, a global consulting firm, offers the following list of in-demand skills:

1. Willingness to share information and ideas.

2. Commitment to teamwork.

3. Responsiveness to change.

4. Ability to work under pressure.

5. Sense of ownership of work and ideas.

6. Willingness to take calculated risks, without fear of consequences.

7. Multicultural experience and/or ability to speak multiple languages.

8. Ability to communicate clearly and honestly with peers, managers, customers.

9. Understanding of business strategy and how you create shareholder value.

10. Commitment to continuous learning, skill development.

- PRNewswire

(Sent to us by Marilyn Harryman, San Francisco Bay Area school and career counselor.)

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Clara Horvath:
On Email Attachments (Don't Do it)

A jobseeker wrote asking whether it was okay to send his resume as an attachment to an email he sent to a potential employer.

We asked Clara Horvath, a California career consultant and expert in these matters. (See careerworks.com)

Here's what Clara says:

BOTTOM LINE: Don't send a resume as an attachment unless you're invited or instructed to do so.

THE REASONS:
You need to know what types of resumes this particular employer is prepared to accept. That is the fundamental question. Many employers now spell out their preferred formats. Try to find that out before sending your resume, and follow instructions.

If you can't find specific instructions, think about what will make it easiest for the reader to deal with your resume.

Here are some considerations:

When your resume is INCLUDED in the body of your e-mail:
-There is no need for the recipient to open another document.
-The ASCII format can be sent to any other format by the recipient.
-The resume could be printed directly from the email program.
-The resume content could be sent to a database for further processing.

When your resume is ATTACHED to your E-mail:
-It requires work from the recipient (opening the attachment) to get at your information .. and every second counts.
-The recipient would have to feel motivated to open the attachment. (It helps if your resume grabs their attention in the top half of the visible screen.)
-The recipient would have to have compatible software to open the attachment.
-The attachment may not be compatible with the recipient's computer platform. -The recipient may have a strong preference about the format of any attachments (.htm, .rtf, .txt, etc.)
-The recipient may be reluctant to open attachments for fear of viruses.

Common sense tells me that making it EASY on the recipient is a good idea. I know a lot of people who HATE attachments. Some even have a strict policy of not opening attachments from anyone they don't know. No matter how you look at it, it takes extra effort to deal with attachments. As a job seeker, it's smart to make it as easy as possible for the reader to get hooked on what you have to say.

I'm basing my comments on what I've heard from employers directly, as well as from my reading in the business press. -- Clara Horvath

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More Tips on Various Issues

of interest to job hunters

Good article by Margaret Riley Dikel (creator of The Riley Guide). On how (and why) to take advantage of NEWSGROUPS to do some professional NETWORKING without having to go to conferences and cocktail parties. (The article is in the National Business Employment Weekly, Nov. 7, 1997). Margaret explains in detail -- for us "newbies" to Newsgroups -- just how to connect with this valuable resource.

At this WEB address:

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Get your foot in the door with E-mail.
Plus: How to keep your recruiter happy.

A job-seeking visitor to this website contributed some Hot Tips of her own, and here they are:

I bring paper copies with me to interviews, but these days I get in the door by E-mail. Granted, I work for Internet access companies, but more and more recruiters and HR staff have email addresses. They will see electronic resumes long before paper copies reach the post office. Some tips I would suggest:

-- Match the recruiter's requested format. If someone requests "text only" or "no attachments" and you send a Microsoft Word document, they may discard it without looking.

-- If you make a resume in HTML, try looking at it with several different browsers (or have a friend look at it). What looks okay on your computer may look horrible on someone else's.

-- Beware if your web-resume links to your home page or otherwise might lead people to look at your home page. Unless the page supplements your resume in some way (for example, you present some examples of your work) then it is better shared after you have gotten the job, or at least after you've had an interview.
-- Jessica R.

P.S. Yana,thank you for such a fantastic website! I appreciate the simple and readable format - -no Java, frames, or animated junk cluttering it up. --Jessica R.