Adopting an agile mindset and engineering approach to your job search enables you to be flexible and effective in achieving results. Use an iterative process to design, build, test, evaluate, and improve your job search effectiveness.

• Create and execute your job search strategy using a well-defined roadmap and detailed playbook.
• Test and measure the effectiveness of your job search activities.
• Revise and refine your job search activities, depending on what works best.

 
Apply the 5 Steps of the Iterative Process Model to Your Job Search

1. Planning & Requirements: Start with career clarity. What type of job are you seeking? By when? How will you measure success?
   
   
2. Analysis and Design: Envision your end goal. Set parameters. I want to land the position of __ with a __ company by __ date. On a scale of 1 to 5 how strongly are you dedicated to landing a new job? Brainstorm with your support team. Enlist the help of a friend or career coach to serve as an accountability partner. How are you going to achieve your goal? What steps are you going to take to get there?
   
   
3. Implementation: Conduct industry, company, and position research. Create your career marketing collateral (résumé, LinkedIn profile, executive bio, and cover letters). Create a job search action plan. How much time each week are you going to devote to your job search? Block out time on your calendar. What activities are you going to commit to doing? How much time are you going to allocate to various job search activities? 
   
   
4. Testing: An iterative process will bring you closer to your end goal of landing a better job—ideally, a job aligns with your core strengths and values. 
   
   It always amazes me that people rely on one method, applying online, when they could change their job search activities to focus on building professional relationships through networking, which yields far better results.
   
   According to a research study conducted by JobVite, approximately 73% of people found their last job through networking and a little more than 20% of those people had jobs created for them based on their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
   ​
5. Evaluation and Review: A basic principle of management is that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Track your job search activities daily with a simple scorecard. Review your job search activities weekly. Which activities are generating the best responses?
   
   It’s helpful to have a career coach to provide feedback and encourage you to make incremental changes to accelerate your job search process, help you determine what’s not working, and help you find solutions to overcome obstacles.
   
   ​Are you conducting thorough research? Job seekers need to understand their target audience (recruiters and hiring teams). What is it that employers want to know about you? Are you getting interviews but not offers? Maybe you need more interview preparation and practice. Determine what needs to change and take actions that support your goal of landing the right job with a great company within a specified timeframe.

 
Realize that some aspects of your job search are out of your control such as how long it takes the company to go from recruiting to interviewing to extending an offer, but there are best practices for follow-up communications in each of these situations.
 
Please remember how important collaboration is to your job search success. Surround yourself with a small support team. Do you have a trusted friend who is a great networker, a person who has interviewed and hired people in your industry, or a person who is an expert negotiator?
 
Hiring a career coach to guide you through analyzing your strengths, gaining career clarity, providing you with appropriate resources, and helping you implement new ideas, test the results, and reduce risks can save you time and effort in your job search. If you are unemployed or underemployed, assessing and adapting your job search activities is especially important, because each week that you are out of work, or working for less than you are worth, costs you money.
 
As your career coach, I’d be delighted to help you achieve your goal of landing a great job fast. Schedule a free 20-minute discovery call today.

Have you ever been so nervous that you bombed an interview? I have, and it felt awful! My rambling responses were obvious indicators that I blew my chance to land a job at an amazing company.
 
That’s why I want to save you from making the same interview blunders and thinking, I should have been better prepared. I should have said this rather than that.
 
You won’t be rehashing those shoulda, coulda, woulda moments when you have a proven method for interview preparation that helps you perfect your interview answers.
 
Feel more relaxed and confident in your in-person or virtual interviews. The WinTheView™ platform enables you to record multiple career success stories to demonstrate your unique strengths and skills.
 
As your certified WinTheView Career Consultant, I’ll guide you through creating compelling content to entice recruiters and hiring managers to offer you an interview. I’ll show you how to follow up after interviews to convince your prospective employer that you are the right person to hire by using the WTV platform.
 
My client, a customer success executive, received two strong job offers in 45 days. We worked together in career coaching sessions to dive into company research, ​capture his STAR stories, develop custom interview presentations for his target companies, and conduct mock interviews. ​His dilemma was deciding which six-figure job offer to accept. It was a nice problem to have, don't you think?
 
Click here to schedule a virtual coffee chat to learn how WinTheView™ can help you ace your interviews and win lucrative job offers.
 
Cheers to your interview success!
Sharla

​First impressions are everything!  Are you using a Microsoft Word  résumé  template to stand out? 
​
If so, you probably just look like the rest of the résumés a hiring manager or recruiter sees day-in and day-out.

At Written by a Pro, we have one design rule: No cookie-cutter résumés that lack originality or distinction. 

A certified professional  résumé  writer will support you in developing your résumés (yes, I said résumés – plural). A one-size-fits-all résumé will not generate interviews. It must be tailored to the job opportunity and the targeted company.

Make sure your resume is uniquely you! 

​A personalized résumé may include some of the following elements:

• Branded Colors
• Results Charts
• Skills Overview
• Social Media Profiles
• Links to Publications, Patents, Certificates, or Awards

Get a custom-designed, color résumé tailored to your specific needs and the needs of your prospective employer. We will work together to implement the right combination of these tools so that your résumé will make a positive first impression!

All new résumé packages are backed by a 60-day interview guarantee. If your résumé doesn't generate interviews in the first 60 days, we'll rewrite it for free (see terms of service for details about keeping a copy of all job postings and a résumé submissions log).

Questions? Schedule a free, 15-minute consultation at www.calendly.com/writtenbyapro to discuss your career goals. 

I am often asked questions from job seekers searching for ways to differentiate themselves:​

• “Do I have any value to provide an employer?”
• “How can I present that value on my resume?”
• “How does the employer understand the value I offer?”

As a professional résumé  writer, I will help you articulate the value you offer an employer. By asking targeted questions, I will create a personalized résumé  for your dream job that incorporates the strengths that separate you from your strongest competitors. 

Together we will be able to determine the ROI you will provide a new employer, and answer these important questions:

• What are your unique skills?
• How much time or money can you save the employer?
• How much revenue can you generate for the employer?
• Why are you the right person for the job?
• How do your previous successes set you up to be the right candidate for this job?

These questions will help us create the perfect résumé for your dream job, so it’s clear why you are the most qualified candidate.

Remember: An unfocused or generic resume is not beneficial to an employer or recruiter.  It does not provide any unique value to answer why you are the perfect candidate. 

Schedule your free, 15-minute consultation today at www.calendly.com/writtenbyapro.

Recruiters report receiving more than 200 applicants within 24 hours of a job being posted online. Within a week, that number can rise significantly.

How do you stand out in a sea of applicants?  It’s tough these days.  So many talented people are entering the job market, looking for many of the same positions at companies who are hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
As a certified professional résumé writer, I know what hiring managers are looking for and how they process applicants through the company's applicant tracking system (ATS). We will work to give you that competitive edge through personalized materials and a one-of-a-kind approach.
 
We will write and design your résumé so you can shine above the rest!  How do we do that?  First, we will create custom documents that highlight your strengths.

You'll get:

• Multiple résumé versions (Microsoft Word, PDF, and ATS-compliant documents).
• Built-in keywords so applicant tracking systems (ATS) will rank you in the top echelon of candidates (providing you meet the employer's required qualifications, of course). 
• Unique cover letters that resonate with decision makers.

 
Your résumé will read smarter, look sharper, provide value, and show a ROI to an employer or recruiter.

Schedule your free, 15-minute consultation at www.calendly.com/writtenbyapro.
Ask about our 60-day interview guarantee!

If you are one of the 38.6 Million who Have Filed For Unemployment Since March, you know the stress and challenges that come with navigating a job search during a pandemic. 
 
Who is hiring? How do I make my resume stand out and get recognized?  How do I address gaps in employment?

As a Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW), these are concerns I hear firsthand from executives and mid-career professionals who haven't conducted a job search in a long time. Or maybe, you’re a pro at writing but don’t know how to handle the gaps, furloughs, or layoffs that the COVID-19 economy has brought you.

Click here to schedule an appointment for a free consultation to discuss how to:

1. Gain a competitive advantage (ahead of potentially hundreds or thousands of other applicants).
2. Answer the interview question, "Why should they pick me for the job?"
3. Take advantage of personalized tools to make your job search easy. 
4. See yourself in the best light, gain confidence, and stay motivated.
5. Find the best job opportunities in this volatile job market.

 
Whatever your unique circumstances, now more than ever, having a certified professional help you create your résumé and coach you through your job search will set you up for success!

Leading job boards for biotechnology and healthcare professionals include:

Biohealthmatics​
CareerBuilder Healthcare
​Doc Cafe
Health Career Job Site
Healthcare Careers 2018 
Hospital Careers
Hospital Recruiting
​Indeed Healthcare
Medzilla

When you find a job opportunity that interests you, apply online, but don't stop there. Go online at LinkedIn.com and search for people who work inside the organization. Reach out to set up an informational interview to discover what it is like to work for the healthcare provider. 

Another strategy is to use Google Maps to find healthcare providers within a 25-mile radius of where you live. Make a list of companies that interest you. Visit the company's website and apply directly.

Our specialty is writing for people who work as healthcare executives and hospital administrators, physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals as well as biotechnology and healthcare information technology professionals.
​
Contact info@writtenbyapro.com to discuss your career goals.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, today's job search has many pieces. Conducting an effective online search is one of those pieces. Today, Mission Possible HQ shares an article from the New York Times with tips for job hunting in the digital age. Remember, people (not computers) hire people. How are you using social media to connect with people who can assist you with your job search? 

The professional writers and editors​ at Written by a Pro can help you develop your LinkedIn profile, resume or CV, cover letters, and other career correspondence. Why stress out doing it yourself? Have your social media profile and career correspondence written by a pro!

Call our job seeker hotline 912-656-6857 Monday - Thursday 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm U.S. Eastern. We're here to help you land a great job fast!

Job Seeker:  

To carry out your mission to land a great job fast, you must provide a top-notch resume to your future employer.  

First impressions count. Design an attractive resume using classy fonts. There are two basic types of fonts: serif and sans- serif.  

Serif fonts have small lines trailing from the top-and-bottom edges of the letters. Serif fonts give an elegant, formal appearance. 

Some examples of serif fonts are:
Bodoni
Bookman Old Style
Cambria
Century Schoolbook
Garamond
Georgia
Goudy Old Style
Palatino Linotype

Sans-serif fonts don’t have top-and-bottom lines on each character. Sans-serif fonts give a modern, minimalistic look.

Some examples of sans-serif fonts are:  
Arial Narrow
Calibri
Century Gothic
Futura
Gill Sans
Lucida Sans
Tahoma
Trebuchet
Veranda

Notice the difference in character height and width in the above-mentioned 12 pt. fonts. If you are having trouble squeezing text onto the page, consider changing typestyles. Avoid itty-bitty squint font. Choose a reasonable size font (10, 11, or 12 point for the body text and 12, 14, or 16 point for major headings). You will also notice that two fonts were intentionally left off the list: Arial and Times New Roman. Both are overused. Avoid them if you want your resume to stand out from the crowd.  

You can creatively blend serif and sans-serif fonts in your resume. For section headers, use sans-serif fonts; for the body text, use serif fonts, or vice versa. Be judicious; do not mix more than two type styles in one resume.  

Avoid script-like fonts. They are hard to read.
Don't use creepy fonts (like Matisse ITC)  or outlandish fonts (like Neurochrome).
Your resume is not a playbill for a Broadway show.
Your resume is not a love note. No frilly or flowery fonts. Keep it simple and professional.
I share this advice with you because I like you and want you to succeed in your job search!

Don’t cram text into margins less than.75 width on all sides. Keep healthy margins. Leave enough white space throughout the document for optimum visual appeal.  And that’s the straight skinny on fonts.

Be creative and professional in the design and layout of your resume.

Job seeker, this concludes the mission briefing for today. Check back soon for more details of how to write a resume that will generate interviews and help you land a great job fast.

© 2014 Sharla Taylor – All rights reserved.