Since I am going to be graduating in May (praise God), I will have to start looking for jobs sometime next semester. At school yesterday there was a speaker who gave us information on writing a resume, interviewing, and negotiating. Some of it I had heard before, but some of it was very interesting. So interesting that I took notes. And I am going to share those notes with you, because I think others may benefit from this information.

Resume

>Put it on Crane’s pearl white stationary. “It will be like a golden beam of light radiating from your resume.”

>Instead of an “Objective,” write a “Professional Profile.” Ex: “A highly committed professional nurse who is interested in working in the operating room.” (I wrote that one off the top of my head just now, so don’t judge it. You get the idea though.)

>Most people hold papers with their thumb about a third of the way down from the top. Statistics show that the thumb becomes a magnet for the eyes. So this is the area that you should put the most important information, such as work experience or, if you’re a new grad, education.

Interview

>When you are called by HR and are offered an interview:
-Say: “Great! What is your time frame for the interview process?” The first person interviewed is the least likely to get the job. Try to be in the second half of the process.
-Ask: “Would you mind sending me a job description?” Most will in order to prove that they have them. This way you will know about the job and be more prepared for the interview.
-Ask what the appropriate dress is. Most will say business casual, but you never know.

>Build rapport. One way to do this is to monitor the interviewer’s breathing patterns and to match yours to theirs. This puts you on the same wavelength. I know it sounds wacky, but hey, why not? I just don’t recommend monitoring breathing patterns by staring at the person’s chest.

>Be prepared for behavioral questions. In other words, have success stories for each part of the job description.

>Dress appropriately.

>Be on time.

>Turn off your cell phone or pager.

Negotiations

>First you have to get an offer. Then say: “Thank you! I am very interested, but I made a commitment to myself to review every offer. May I get back with you in four days?” Four days is probably the longest they will wait. Also, say the day of the week, don’t say “in four days.”

>Call the other places you’ve interviewed and say: “You are my first choice, but I have an offer with another company. I’d really rather work for you though.” This way you can find out if they were planning to make you an offer.

>After you have 2-3 offers, call back the place you are most interested in a day before you said you’d call. Say: “How much negotiating room do you have?” Make sure to phrase it like that instead of, “Is there room to negotiate?” because they answer will probably be no.

>You can say something like, “The offer was for $XX,XXX, but I was hoping for closer to $XX,XXX.”

>The goal is to increase the offer without losing it.

Interesting, right? Some of this stuff I would have never thought about. Hopefully I will actually be at a place where I have room to negotiate between a few different offers. Of course, most of you probably already have jobs and are all grown up already, but for those of us who took the long way around, it’s good to know now!