Forum at York Tech offers hope for job seekers

S.C. Employment Security Commission gives tips on resumes, interviews, applications

By Jason Foster - jfoster@heraldonline.com

As York County's 14.1 percent unemployment rate attests, jobs are hard to come by.

That means the few jobs that are available often have dozens or even hundreds of applicants, creating a job market so competitive that even the smallest mistake or omission could send your resume or application straight into the trash.

On Saturday, the S.C. Employment Security Commission held a job forum at York Technical College to connect jobless residents with local employers that are hiring. The forum also gave job seekers free advice about their careers or educational and training opportunities that may be available to enhance their chances of getting a job.

A big factor in whether you get hired is the quality of your resume, said Christine Turner, a re-employment coordinator with the ESC who coaches people on resume writing and interviewing skills.

This might seem like a given, but Turner said many people still make critical mistakes.

I asked her for some tips on how to best get noticed and avoid those painful pitfalls:

A strong resume

A good resume will be one to two pages. And yes, it's OK for it to be two pages. “You want to have the gist of your information on the top one third of your resume because resumes are scanned, not necessarily read, on the first view,” Turner said. “It's got to be appealing to the eye from that first view. Use lots of bullets, not long sentences. No one's going to take the time to read it at first.” And watch out for grammar or spelling mistakes. Those could be killers.

Include the dates of employment for every job. Again, seems like common sense, but not everyone includes them. “People are very suspicious when you don't have any dates,” Turner said. Likewise, you'll need to be able to explain gaps in work history.

Build a career portfolio. “From now on, we have to have something documenting our successes — any kind of awards we've received, attendance certificates, things like that. Just have that available to document.”

Instead of a list of references, include letters of reference from former employers with your resume. “It catches a lot of eyes when you have documentation of what someone else says about you,” Turner said. “People are going to look twice at that.”

Gear your resume to the job you want and have your objective reflect why you're applying.

Interview skills

Confidence is key. “You've got to come in there and show that you believe in yourself — with your walk, your talk, your mannerisms, firm hand shake, that eye contact, all that. That's going to get them to believe in you,” Turner said.

Make sure to research the company and know what it does. Also, be prepared for the questions the interviewer may ask. Many employers now ask behavioral questions to determine how you might react in certain situations. “To do well in an interview you need to know yourself well,” Turner said. “(Saying) ‘I don't know' is not sufficient. You may as well kick yourself out the door if you say that.”

Don't speak too little, and don't speak too much. “You've got to get to the point where you speak just enough,” Turner said. “You've got to read their body language as to when enough is enough. And make sure you've given a full answer to the questions.”

Filling out an application

About 80 percent of applications are tossed because they lack necessary information or are sloppily written, Turner said. Don't list “anything” as the job you're trying to get. “Nobody has a job called ‘anything,' and no one's qualified to do ‘anything,'” Turner said.

Applications usually are screened page by page. So if an employer doesn't get the information they need on the first page, they're not going to bother looking at the second page.

If you're looking for a permanent job, specify “full time, permanent” on the application. Many companies are hiring for full-time but temporary positions.

Other tips

Know your way around a computer. “Two years ago, I wasn't pushing that everyone had to have computer skills,” Turner said. “But now, if you don't have them, the first thing you should do if you're out of work is go take a basic computer class.”

Network, network, network. “Networking skills are absolutely critical now,” Turner said. As the saying goes: It's often not what you know, but who you know.