Why are so many highly intelligent accomplished people so poor at marketing themselves (job hunting)?

[acj]

Dirty nerdy 4 life.

[gea12345]

Originally Posted by fnord

I have seen the same thing, having been responsible for reviewing job apps for my department. Absolutely ridiculous. I wrote an entire rant about this on another forum once. The position I reviewed resumes for involved typesetting, proofing, and a high level of accuracy to process jobs that go to the printing press. The crap I got was unbelievable - most of applicants totally ignored the job posting and sent non-qualifying resumes, not the right skills for the job at all. Or they had a similar job 20 years ago when current technologies didn't even exist.

But the resumes...ugh. Misspellings, typos, submitting their resume from an email address like hot4u6969@hotmail... this is for a professional job! Sending a link to their "myspace" page...why do I want to see that?! On one resume the word "typesetting" was misspelled (typeseting). Endless resumes from "graphic designers" that were the plainest, MS Word template. No creativity, no effort.

And I have to agree about the younger generation (I'm a Gen X'er, so just a footstep ahead of the 20-somethings). In some ways, I'm glad. Less competition, and I have had no problem finding work for the past ten years. Most of my employers have hired me on the spot - probably because they were exasperated from all the crap resumes they got and mine stands out as a gem.

Idiocracy, here they come!

So, do you think a possible solution is to have people who are not good at producing a dramatic, tight resume is for them to hire someone to do it.

Recently, I was advsing my sister on this subject...and could find very few resume companies.

But then other Resume reviewers Complain that people borrow resume templates from the internet.

There appears to be no winning solution, except for everyone to go back to school for a English Degree and Graphic Design Degree and possess a good dictionary!!

hmmm

[Tracysherm]

"I wish there was a little decoder book for employees to break down employment ads and interview jargon. Maybe candidates would get this right if we had more feedback when we didn't get the job. How sad it is that people apply and interview time after time and have no idea what they're missing or what they could work on. I know it's hard when you've got several hundred applicants, but feedback would be priceless."
-cavsfan1129

I really like and respect candidates who ask me at the end of the interview how they did. This might just be a phenomenon in my field (mental health), because in graduate school we do a lot of checking in, eliciting feedback, getting comfortable with contructive feedback, even reviewing ourselves on videotape, etc.

The first time this happened to me, the recent graduate said at the end of her (very good) interview, "I'm not asking if I'm getting the job, and I know this might sound a little strange, but I'm new to interviewing, so would you mind letting me know how I did in this interview?" She was very clear that she was not asking about whether she'd be hired, or about her experience or how she answered hypotheticals. She wanted clear, constructive feedback on how she presented, and even feedback on what she might improve on for future interviews. We had a great didactic conversation about this. She acknowledged some weaknesses she had, and confidently "owned" her strengths.

If I hadn't already been planning to hire her after the interview, this clinched it! She was open to my feedback and demonstrated that she was someone who could take and learn from constructive criticism on the job. I was floored! Of course I hired her and she proved to be excellent onthe job.

Since then I've had 3 other candidates over the years do this "switch" at the end of the interview and ask for constructive feedback. I really respect someone who can do this. It also helps me as an interviewer, and in how I frame feedback and criticism I give people.


Again, I'm sure this may be unheard of and even weird in some fields. And I'm sure many interviewers would not respond well to it. But for anyone out there seeking work in behavioral health/human services, or another area in which you need to be self-aware and open to both positive and negative communication, this might be a useful strategy.

[gea12345]

I know it's hard when you've got several hundred applicants, but feedback would be priceless."
-cavsfan1129


They offer it at vocational schools and some law schools...they offer resume critiques and mock interviews. I think they also offer it at Staffing Agencies where you have to pay...

good luck!

[Huckleberry3911948]

bek all too often self marketing experts have no real product, just lots of advertising. the more useful professionals are into production not sales. often HR makes bad picks because of this.