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Are you an active or passive job seeker?

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A passive job seeker selects a few job boards, posts a profile/resume on all of them, and waits for employers to find and contact them. An active job seeker, on the other hand, in addition to posting their profile, spends 1-2 hours every day searching for jobs and applies online.

If you are a passive job seeker, you might want to change your strategy and become more active, if you are in real need of a job. An active job seeker has higher chances of getting a job, because employers often don’t have the time to actively search for candidates. Many employers prefer and expect the job seekers to come to them [everyone loves the easiest way].

If you see a job for which you have 85% of the required qualifications, apply for this job online by clicking the ‘Apply Now’ button. This will send your profile to a person responsible for the hiring processes at the organization/company in question. This person may not be directly responsible for making hiring decisions, but they will definitely be in the position to make a winning hiring recommendation. If your profile/resume and cover letter are written properly, you will be noticed and considered for the position, which will give you a good chance of being invited for an interview. If, on the other hand, you are merely waiting for employers to contact you, you are placing yourself in full dependence on the employer’s time schedule, search preferences, and similar circumstances, all of which decrease your chance of landing the job you want.

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How much information should you include in your resume?

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If you are applying for a particular position and satisfy minimum 85% of the job requirements, provide as much relevant information as possible. This will help employers remember you and single you out from the crowd. All information you provide should contain nothing but “proofs” to one assumption, i.e. an assumption that you are, indeed, the best candidate for the job. You page limit in this case is within 2-4 pages.

If you are sending your application to an employer without having a particular position in mind – which is not a good idea to begin with, unless you are working with a recruiter – limit your information to the most important points: your name, address and how to contact you, your objective (what kind of positions you are interested in), relocation preferences, legal employment status, highlights of your past experience (limit yourself to the last 5-7 years), and the highest education. Make sure to include only relevant [from the employer’s point of view] information. Remember, do not tell employers your life story, tell them what you can do and show how good you were at using your skills in your previous experience (provide 3-5-7 examples for each position you list). The page limit in this case is 1-2.

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Do you always write a targeted cover letter?

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 - You should.

Apart from the fact that it is only polite to do so, it is also highly functional. For example, every time I open an email containing a job application, I am “expecting” to see a couple of lines which would help me quickly grasp the situation, before I even begin reading the details.

I understand that writing an individual cover letter every time you want to click the ‘send’ or ‘apply’ button can be time consuming. However, if you always send a generic cover letter with your application, you are always risking a “generic” reply.

So how to always include personalized cover letters and yet not spend hours and hours writing them? All it takes is some preparation which you only need to do once. Create a few templates of your cover letter in Notepad or another plain text editor. Save each file under a long name, it will later help you locate the required files quickly. Then, before you the hit ‘send’ or ‘apply’ button, paste one of your templates in the cover letter space and make certain adjustments to reflect particular circumstances of your application. After you do it a few times, you will learn how to make these adjustments quickly, and your employers will receive a job application which will look serious and professional.

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OHA convention report

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Ontario Hospital Association

Ontario Hospital Association is currently holding its Annual Convention and Exhibition at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Yesterday, I attended the first day of this convention in Toronto and was very happy to mingle with the healthcare crowd. I love conferences. What a great excuse to travel and socialize at the company’s expense! And you can even learn something.

So what’s in it for you? – Overall, good news, i.e. shortage of healthcare workers and the extreme necessity to minimize the approaching disaster. This news by itself is quite bad, actually, but for you it’s good, since in the nearest future you might see healthcare employers hunt you the way high tech companies used to hunt programmers two years ago, waiting for them by the elevators and grabbing them by the arm. It won’t be you looking for jobs, it will be employers looking for you, provided you have the right qualifications.

The “right” qualifications will be primarily nurses, general physicians, and physiotherapists. Since there are so few of them being trained domestically, HR officials are preparing to fulfill the need through immigration and temporary foreign workers. One should not, however, expect immediate results. The government regulations on the matter have not been finalized, and the process might take a year or more before we will see real life changes.

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 - The End -

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To give me your feedback or ask a question, write to me at anna@pulsehr.com . I personally reply to all questions in the hope that my information and advice will be of help to people seeking employment, i.e. means to advance in life while supporting themselves and their loved ones. If you send me an email and do not receive a reply within two business days, there might have been a communication error or our server may have rejected your email, in which case please re-send your message.

Anna Tulchinsky,

Ph.D.Can. & PulseHR Co-founder
+1(613) 231-6308

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