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Tools
The basic tools you need for doing a long distance job search aren't much different from what you need to look for work at home - a resume, cover letter writing ability, examples of your good work, and references. What is different is how you get them to out-of-town employers. Thankfully, technology, here, is usually your friend. However, like any machine or tool, it is only as effective as the person using it or if it is used in the right way.
This module will teach you some simple ways to connect to employers and deliver your goods. It will also steer you to some resources to help you polish up your basic job search tools. We assume you have a draft copy of a resume, but if you don't, check out these
links:
If you live on Northern Vancouver Island, click here to connect with a real live employment advisor who can help you with all of this.
If you live on Northern Vancouver Island and are on EI or had a recent
claim you may be interested in
a new program that assists people relocating
from the North Island to find work. Click
here for details.
Here's your electronic tool kit:
| Phone |
Fax |
Email |
The
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Phone
This is your lifeline and the single most important tool you will use to conduct a long distance job search. This is the only way you can have personal contact with an employer short of actually seeing them in person.
There is a real casual culture that we have built up around making and taking phone calls, and this can be a big barrier to doing an effective long distance job search. We are more tuned into running and answering that little ring than Pavlov's hounds. We don't take time to figure out whether it is a good time to take that call or not. The rest of the time, the phone just sits there inconspicuously on your counter or on the wall, unlike a real live person. So, we tend to forget about returning or making calls that we said we would. We also forget to record vital information like names and phone numbers and times, which we would be more likely to remember if we were meeting a real person. How many times have you hung up after talking to someone for the first time and been able to recall their name? Like maybe once, right?
When you are doing a distance job search, you must treat the phone like it is your future boss personified (remember Charlie's Angels?). Here is some phone etiquette for doing a distance job search:
Get comfortable with talking business-like or professionally on the phone.
That means, go beyond 'Hi ya' or "Whadya want" when picking up the phone and start with a simple hello and identify yourself.
Pick your times to use it.
You don't want to be making a phone call to an employer or picking up the phone (with your employer possibly on the line) when chaos has broken loose in your house, and you are distracted by the baby barking, the dog crying, or the music playing at 100 decibels. Which brings me to my next point…
Invest in some kind of answering machine, service, pager, or whatever.
This will help you manage the above. If you do, make sure your answering machine has pleasant, neutral sounding message (no more jokes on your message like "sorry, I'm chained up and drunk, and can't come to the phone right now).
Get used to leaving messages.
It seems like it gets harder and harder to reach an actual person by phone these days with all those accessories like answering machines, voice mail, pagers and answering services. Nonetheless, most people do listen to those messages and try to return them. But, if you don't leave one, you were never there.
There is also something about talking to a machine that seems to cause us to freeze up or babble on until the tape runs out. Prepare what you want to say ahead of time and you will be able to resist hanging up like a prank caller. This leads into my next point…
Be persistent and consistent.
Keep calling and leaving messages until you talk to that live human being - treat it like the game that it is - Telephone Tag. And follow-through on your calls by making them when you say you will. Schedule them into your day and tell everyone to leave you alone while you make your call.
Have your stuff in front of you, including a pen and a paper.
Have your resume and other relevant information in front of you when you call. Also write down who you talked to, their phone number and what the two of you decided was the next step. It is too easy to put down the phone and forget vital information like the name of your future boss, and that makes it tough to use your
secret weapon.
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Fax
This is probably the simplest way to get a resume and a cover letter to an employer.
Advantages
The appearance and content of your resume, letters, certificates, etc. will stay the same without a lot of tinkering on your part, compared to other ways of electronically sending your stuff.
You don't need access to a computer or the Internet
It's easy to work, usually like working a phone and a photocopier, so you don't need to be technically inclined
You can use the same pieces of paper over and over to send to different employers (until they get dog-eared and jam the machine).
Fax machines can easily transmit copies of original documents like certificates, diplomas, or tickets
Disadvantages
You have no control over the quality of the appearance of your resume on the other side as it depends on how good the employers' fax machine is
You have no guarantee that the employer received what you sent - unless you phone back and check.
Solution: Wait a minute, what a great way to use your secret
weapon. Maybe this should go under "Advantages"
Fax machines are quite 'public' and faxed documents may pass through several hands before actually being handed to whoever you meant it for. This means lots of eyes will see it and there are lots of potential ways to misplace it
Solution: Your secret weapon - call your employer to make sure they got it.
TIP - if lots of eyes are seeing it or hands are handling it, remember to make a good impression on paper (and when you call). Those eyes and ears will be talking to your future boss about what kind of impression you make with them.
Operator error - it is easy to misdial the numbers or worse, dial up the phone number rather than the fax number. This is painful for your employer who picks up the phone and gets that high-pitched fax sound ringing in their ear. This is really bad if you send it using a fax machine that re-dials until the end of time.
Solution: BE CAREFUL WHEN DIALING & phone immediately after to make sure it got through.
What you need:
 Access to a reliable fax machine/telephone line
The fax and phone numbers of who you are trying to send it to
A cover sheet/mini cover letter
What the employer needs
A fax machine that is up and running, and full of paper and ink (You may want to call the business first before faxing, as some businesses have only a part-time fax machine that either they have to turn on using their computer or only have it on during business hours - yet another way to make personal contact with your employer)
What you need to do:
1. Prepare a cover sheet/letter.
Too many people just blindly fax off resumes to different businesses that have advertised a job opening. If you want to waste a lot of time and money and get nowhere - fill your boots. This approach will get you nowhere because it shows how little effort you are willing to put in to your job search. The employer might get the impression you are not likely to put a lot of effort into your job.
Use the fax cover sheet like a mini cover letter and as another way to make an impression. Highlight what qualifications or skills you have in the 'comments' section so that whoever is reading it will want to look at your main event - your resume.
Need a cover letter - try our quick
cover letter generator - really handy for people who print like a doctor.
2. Call the business to make sure they are ready to receive. Be real nice to whoever picks up the phone. Most hiring decisions are influenced by front line people more than you would think.
3. Dial very carefully and fax according to the machines instructions or find someone who knows what they are doing.
4. Call the person (who is doing the hiring) sometime that day to make sure they got your fax. BE PREPARED TO DO A MINI-INTERVIEW OVER THE PHONE. If the employer hasn't had time to read your resume, ask when might be a good time for you to call them back in case they had any questions about you. You will, of course, make sure you call them back at that appointed time.
5. Follow-up with that employer immediately before the closing date to make sure they have all the information they need to decide to inteview you.
Was this more work than you thought? Yes, it is hard work, alright. Which is why you want to pick your targets for your job search. You want quality over quantity in any job search, but it is more critical when doing a distance job search. You don't want to waste valuable time and money on dead-ends, plus you must work atleast three times as hard as the local talent to get that employer to notice you.
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Email
E-mail is another fast way to get your resume to an employer.
It has added value as your e-mail message can serve as a cover
letter. With e-mail you have two fundamental choices. You can
either put all your resume information in the text box of your
email or you can attach your resume as a separate document. The
safest way to ensure an employer gets the information is to use
the first method, but you have to stick to a very basic layout
for your resume. Attaching your resume can also be very
problematic if you don't know how to set it up right. This
module will give you basic instructions as to how to do both of
the above. If you want more information and options on
electronic resumes, try this
online
workshop.
A note of caution… with all the spam (computer junk mail), and computer viruses floating around out there, many people are choosing to only open e-mail messages, and especially attachments, when they know who is sending it and what it is about. You must use your
secret weapon first before sending your resume off. Otherwise an employer will probably end up deleting your email without reading it or your resume.
Advantages
You are able to send your resume quickly to an employer
It goes directly to whoever you intend to see it and does not have to pass through other people's hands
It saves on paper, copying and mailing costs
Disadvantages
Viewing a resume as an attachment to your email is a real problem for a couple of reasons:
Everyone is very afraid of computer viruses these days so we are all afraid to open emails that are unfamiliar as so many viruses get into our systems this way -
Solution : Make sure the employer knows you are going to be sending your resume by e-mail
Incompatibility of software programs and versions of the same software mean that unless you know what you are doing, the employer will not be able to open up your resume or it will be such a mess to look at, which would destroy any chance you have of getting an interview
Solution: Put the contents of your resume in the text box of the actual email itself, or save a version of your resume as a rich text format file. For information on how to prepare your resume so that an employer can open it up, Click here (link to info on how to create an electronic resume)
Storage on an employer's hard drive can be a problem especially if an employer is running a job competition and ends up getting thousands of e-mailed resumes. Yours may get somehow deleted or lost on their system.
Solution: See your secret weapon
You need:
An email account (Don't have one? Get one free here
at Canada.com)
A computer with Internet Access
A phone to follow up your email with to make sure your resume came through OK
The Employer needs:
An email address and computer with Internet access
An understanding of how to open up and download attachments. There are ways to diplomatically help them to do that.
Learn how here.
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The
Internet
Using the Internet offers a whole range of options to show off your resume. In order to set your resume up to be viewed on the web or as a web document, you need to be technically savy or find someone do it for you. Once your resume is up on the Net, then all someone has to do is type in the web address that you send them while they are on the world wide web, and they have your resume. By the way, it is usually better to send web addresses by email then recite them over the phone because if someone writes one letter down wrong, they won't be able to get to it.
Advantages
Once set up, your resume can be easily viewed by anyone who has access to the Internet
Your resume can be really dynamic and go beyond a piece of paper with things like photos, sound, or even video (but you really gotta know what you are doing with those items). Combine a nice looking resume with some personal touches and some well-placed phone calls to the employer and you can place yourself solidly in competition with the local talent as pictures can speak a thousand words, right? (of course, it is which thousand words that count).
The Internet version of your resume can serve as a back up and can be updated readily for as long as you have it posted because it is like having it on someone else's computer that you can access from anywhere there is Internet access
Disadvantages
This is not easy to do unless you are technically savy and have some knowledge of how to design things so they look good and work well on the web.
Solution: Find someone who does - maybe your kid, or a friend who's into this stuff
The whole world potentially could see your stuff and you need to take care these days about privacy or security. Unfortunately, there are nasty people out there who could easily find out where you live (and other personal information) if you put too much information on your resume.
Limiting the information that identifies you only to your name and e-mail address may help. You may also want to leave out the towns or cities of where you worked in your employment history. These things will help protect you, but then you may run the risk not providing enough of the information an employer needs to know (for instance, that vital phone number they can reach you at, or enough information about companies where you worked), which could decrease your chances of being considered for an interview.
The employer may find printing your resume off the web awkward if it's too fancy in it's design
Solution: Have your online resume designed so that all the information prints out and is readable on the net or in print.
What you need:
An Internet service provider that offers free web hosting with your account. Fortunately, most do!
or if you don't have an Internet account,
A website/company you can find that will host your stuff for free if you don't mind advertising slathered all over your resume.
A software program that will help you draft an resume with and some basic understanding of that funny language (html and its various relatives) that can viewed on the Web,
or
The ability to write, think, speak and dream in html.
A lot of patience and time unless you're a wiz, in which case you just need a lot of patience
What the employer needs:
Internet Access
Your web address
Simple, eh? Only for the employer, but that is who you are trying to reach.
If you are interested in learning more about how to create a simple web-based resume, check out these links:
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Need help? A NIEFS employment advisor
is waiting to help you
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Toll Free 1-866-286-6788
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