What Employers' always looks for in interviews, resumes, and cover letters

Take a few minutes to review your resume, your cover letters, your elevator pitch and your interview answers, and look for opportunities to add numbers. Think about the critical questions you must answer to land the job you want. Then match up the numbers that prove it. Numbers will show you are a doer, not just a talker. 

How does an employer know that you are someone who produces results? That by bringing you on board they will be better off? 

Proof comes in many forms. Yet, one of the most powerful and easiest to apply is numbers. 

Numbers prove that you are the real deal. And when done right, they can seriously change your job search. Let me explain.

Here are typical examples of phrases that individuals use on their job search (across resumes, interviews, and cover letters). Where a few numbers would make a difference. 
"Improved company sales" Was that by $500 or five million dollars? By 2% or 20%? 

"Revitalized school, resulting in improved academic performance" 
Did student's academic achievement improve by a 1/10th of a grade level or two grade levels? Did graduation rates improve by one student or 100? 

"Implemented stroke recovery best practices, expediting rehabilitation" 
Did the stroke sufferers recover 1 day faster or a month faster? Did they return to 60% of pre-stroke functioning or 90% of pre-stroke functioning? 

As you can tell, adding numbers makes your arguments a lot more persuasive. You move from being vague to being specific. More importantly, you move from seeming like a talker to a doer, someone who produces results. 

Put another way, if you leave off these numbers, it's like leaving off a Grade Point Average for a recent grad. A hiring organization can only assume you are a C or D level performer. Average or lower. You'll see below how you can do better. 

If you are like many people, you're saying, 

1. "Numbers don't really apply to me," and 
2. "Even where they do apply, I don't know what's right. I'm not going to say something that's dishonest." 

Let's dispel each of these. 

Numbers always apply. For instance, let's say you worked in a non-profit that educates consumers about avoiding debt. Here are just some of the numbers you could include: 

• How many people were on your team educating consumers?
• How many events did you host?
• How big was your budget?
• How many people attended one of your programs?
• How many people received your literature?
• For those people where you do know results, by how much did they reduce their debt, or reduce their interest rate on debt?

As you can see, there are a lot of numbers you could use. Yet you may still not be sure because you're thinking about the other really common excuse- 

That reason is just: I don't know the exact number, so I won't say anything. 

Here's what you do. You guess. 

Not just an out of the blue guess. Rather give your best guess at what the right amount would be, an amount that if an interviewer asked you about it, you would feel like it was pretty accurate, something that you would feel comfortable defending. 

For instance, let's say you decided to participate in a 5K race to raise money for breast cancer research. You don't know exactly how much money you made. 

But, you do know that it was more than a $1,000 and less than $5,000, probably somewhere in the middle. You could either say, "raised over $1,000 or "raised ~$3,000". Either number helps your audience to understand the scope of the accomplishment. 

What are other ways you can use numbers? 

Level of participation: 

• Hosted over 500 conference attendees from four countries
• Led 8 member team
• Received over 400 sign-ups.

Duration: 

• Month-long project
• 5-year strategic plan

Percentage change: 

• Decreased processing time by 10%.
• Decreased customer returns by 20%.
• Responded to customer calls up to three times faster.

Before / After comparisons:

• Went from 20% to 65% of students reading at grade level.
• Moved from 60% on time deliveries to 85% on time deliveries.
• Improved from one help desk call needed per hour to three per day

3 BEST SECRET JOB DIRECTORIES

Hello Friends, how re you doing today?Great i guess?It my privilege to introduce to you three 3 powerful  secret Job directories i discovered lately.

Here are three of my powerful secret  job "directories". These are places where you can find jobs -- if you know how.

They are unknown to most people -- or, if folks do know about them, they're overlooked (either way, to the savvy, opportunities are ripe for the picking).

There's no tease today, no big build-up.

BUT -- there is one crucial caveat, which I'll tell you about at the end. (Make sure you read it, otherwise you might not know how to use these resources.)

Okay?

Here they are:

#1 -- Chambers of Commerce (and trade organizations)

The more local organizations list their members in an online directory, sometimes with a contact name. Guess what? Many of these members are hiring -- if not formally, then they're at least looking for talent.

You need to find companies and organizations that are a good match for your skills, then reach out to them and see if they're interested.

(More on this in a moment -- remember my caveat.)

#2 -- CraigsList.org

This is still a GREAT resource for job opportunities. You can drill down into different towns and cities, or by different professions.

It's one of those websites that should be on your "radar" -- you need to keep coming back and checking for new opportunities at least once per week. Jobs move here.

#3 -- MeetUp.com

Now, before you start throwing your rotten fruit my way, let me say really quickly: YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ANY "NETWORKING".

Here's the deal:

Look for professional meetups in your area where people with similar skills to yours go to socialize and network. What many folks -- and, until recently, myself included -- don't realize is that recruiters often turn up to these events and announce job openings, or you'll have hiring managers asking their team members to "poach" people from these peer groups.

You just need to turn up, lurk in the background while people make these announcements at the beginning or end of the meetings, and then approach them later on when it's more quiet and relaxed.

There you have it -- three overlooked/unknown resources for finding new job opportunities. Add these to your list, and I'm confident they'll help you find your dream job even faster.

Before you go out and give them a look through...

I said there's a caveat.

What you absolutely do NOT want to do is treat these resources like job boards, where you send in your resume and wait to hear back.

Because if you do that, you'll be treated like an "applicant" and your resume will be put "on file" where it will lie forgotten (i.e. the black hole).

There's a better way to approach these hiring managers -- one where you'll be treated like a talented professional rather than a piece of livestock, one where you get to skip the whole HR process and go straight to the interview.

I show you how to reach out to hiring managers cold, win their respect and trust quickly, and then have them line you up as their next hire -- without you asking for a job, or hinting that you're "currently seeking new opportunities".

You can learn more about this program here

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