Tag: resume-building job searching process

19 November 2008 2 Comments

Every once in a while, I get really lucky and connect with someone in the biz that I feel could help me grow. If you know me, you know I’m not one to idolize anyone, but I do believe that if you surround yourself with smart, successful people that you will start to gain some of their habits and positive traits. Unfortunately, I could only get a hold of Todd Mintz this time (totally kidding) to get his thoughts on SEO job hunting.

Because I recently found myself going through the resume-building/job searching process myself, I thought it would be great to interview a guy that deals with this stuff all the time. If you don’t know Todd…

Todd Mintz is the Director of Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization for S.R. Clarke and is on the Board of Directors at SEMpdx. He will admit that:

I’ve been doing SEO since 2000 and I will gladly admit that my earliest SEO education consisted of primitive spam techniques. As those techniques ceased to work and as I matured as an individual and a marketer, I now play it straight

Can you tell us a bit more about S.R. Clarke, Inc. and your role there?

With S.R. Clarke, I do all facets of Internet Marketing with end game of bringing job candidates and prospective employers to our company via the web. I also do Database Marketing, Webmastering, Email Marketing, and act as the first point of contact for all the web leads that my online efforts have brought to our company.

And a bit about SEMPDX and its blog?

SEMpdx is a non-profit organization that was developed to increase the visibility of Search Marketing in the Portland Metropolitan area. I was one of the 9 original board members and I still am on the board.

The blog is a platform for our members and others in our community to get informed about what our organization is doing. Also, board members have the opportunity to post their SEM articles there and hopefully get a large amount of visibility for doing so. I tend to post more articles than others…at the time SEMpdx was born, I didn’t have a personal blog (and still don’t…just a website where I’ve posted a few non-SEO stories).

As a college student, I was taught that a resume should be thought of as your foot-in-the-door. The idea is to get an interview, so make the resume shine. As an SEO, I found myself creating a resume that focused more specifically on my past experiences, accomplishments, etc. I ended up with 2 resumes. Can you tell us your opinion on a resume overall? Should it shine with pretty “I’m the best” speak, or should it be short and to the point. What do you like to see?

I definitely think that many resumes are far too long and wordy. You don’t need to list 30 tasks and accomplishments for a job you were only at for a year. Just go with the strongest ones. Use action words and keep each point as succinct as possible. White space is your friend.

Quantify (to the best of your ability) the results of your actions (e.g. Organic Traffic increased 400% in the past year since I commenced the SEO effort). Pull charts from places like Compete (overall traffic) or SEODigger (keyword rankings) that supports your efforts and include those in your materials.

Your resume should exude confidence without being arrogant. If you put enough supporting material in it that shows you got SEO game, any boasting is redundant.

For SEO’s, I would like to see examples of your online footprint (which I talked about in this article). Also, you should remember that care should be taken with Your Google Resume because you must assume that anybody seriously considering hiring you will Google your name.

In said article, you mention that “If you aren’t on LinkedIn, I’d probably disqualify your immediately for you clearly have no interest in networking.” This was, of course, in reference to finding more information about a potential SEO/SEM candidate that didn’t have a resume; but would you say that we are moving to this form of consideration? More specifically, do you feel it important to work on your own online presence, even if you have a resume? Do you think this will hold more importance as time goes on?

It is extremely important to work on your online presence not only if you are looking for a job but for when you are employed as well. A powerful online presence will serve your career well in so many different ways. In all likelihood, somebody interested in talking to you has already Googled your name and done some level of “investigating” of your background prior to making contact.

Sigh. I don’t think I will ever get used to “Google” being a verb.

In the end, what would you prefer: I email you my resume in reference to a job, or that I email you my name and some pertinent information, and direct you to find my Google footprint? Do you think there is a future for resumes at all? I mean for Internet related jobs.

Unless you have a prior personal / professional relationship with your prospective employer, a resume is an absolutely necessary tool for your job search even for Internet Jobs. However, your Google footprint is very important and will grow even more important over time.

Following you on Twitter, it is quite apparent that you see a lot of resumes. More obvious is the large amount of resume no-no’s you share. What would you say should be the top three ‘DO NOT’s’ of resume creation?

Clearly, the biggest mistakes are in proofreading. If you aren’t a good writer, find somebody who is and have them do your resume. And, frequently, the resume might be professional (and likely done professionally) but the body of the email is illiterate (which ruins the professional effect).

I definitely recommend getting a separate email address just for your job search. I receive many professional resumes from people using unprofessional sounding email addresses.

Also, due to a setting in Outlook that adds all email recipients to the applicant’s address book, I end up getting spammed with a wide range of unprofessional chain emails that the applicant is blindly sending to everyone in their address book (which have included inappropriate humor, political messages, Indian Tribal Meetings, and even invitations to poker night).

Finally, I think that people frequently FUBAR their job search technique. I told a friend of mine who recently lost his job that his goal should be to send out 50 resumes a day. Job search is a numbers game and the more resumes you send out, the better you chances of landing an interview. Realize that only 10-15% of jobs are advertised, but when you send your resume to a company, you are applying not only for that posted job but all their hidden job opportunities that they aren’t advertising. That’s why I stress the value of sending out as many resumes as you can, even if the job that is advertised isn’t quite what you’re looking for. As long as you believe the company could potentially use your services, go ahead and send in your resume.

“Spam your resume.” Got it.

But the company just doesn’t know that they need your services until they let you know that you exist :.)

You’ve also shared some pretty funny resume failures. Can you think of the worst of the worst?

I received a resume that I guarantee would get 5,000 Diggs. However, because of confidentiality, I have to keep it to myself.

One guy did email me his resume and cc’ed a few of his co-workers on the email. Oops…

Quick! Last Words!

Within reason, if anyone wishes to use me as a job search resource, feel free to email me.

You can also connect at: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

I would like to thank Todd. This is a topic that I don’t get to deal with all the time, but always seemed to be asked about. Listen to the man with experience.

As much as we would like to rid ourselves of the resume hassle, we just aren’t to that point yet. And if you are in the search industry, or any industry that could even be remotely related, you really should be showing your knowledge by examples. If an employer Googles your name, shouldn’t they find you?

If you’re looking for a job, these surely are words by which to live.

Thanks again, Todd. You rock!