Maine's Job Matchmaker

Thousands of Mainers find jobs in slowdown. Fortunately the numbers are still on the upside:  more Mainers found jobs than filed for
unemployment last month. The numbers are close: 15,219 filed initial
claims for unemployment and at least 15,571 were hired for jobs. What does that mean for you the job seeker? That means to stay positive. Keep a positive attitude, keep up the job search, and if you can’t find that one perfect job for you, perhaps you can find a job for right now.  It reminds me of dating, you may not be able to spend time with “Mr. or Mrs. Right” so why not “Mrs. or Mrs. Right Now?” Who knows, the temporary job might actually end up being the perfect one for you.

Last week I had a conversation with John Murphy, Director of Recruitment for Aspen Dental Management, Inc. John told me that even though the state of Maine has had some job losses, the numbers of resumes he is seeing for open positions in Maine are far lower than the numbers for positions posted elsewhere. His advice to job seekers was “to highlight any newly acquired skills and market yourself better than you ever have before.” He refers to resumes as needing to be able to sell yourself quickly such as you would in an “elevator speech: if you happened to be on the elevator with a hiring executive from a company you want to work with, what would you tell them in the span of time it takes you to get to the tenth floor?”

It is definitely an employers’ market out there. They have more choice than they have had in at least the past couple of decades. It is more important now than ever to put your very best foot forward when job searching: from the first contact all the way through the offer, you must be on your “A game.” If you don’t get offered the position, it is important to be professional about the rejection. If you made a good enough impression to land the interview, make sure you keep that good impression going even if you don’t get the offer. Companies do remember the candidates that they like; and when the right position comes along for those candidates, they may get a second chance. I know this from experience and luckily with the second interview, I got the offer. That could very well happen to you as well.

524 apply for 17 positions at Oxford store. This headline truly brings
to reality the dire unemployment numbers that Maine and the nation is
facing.  Not even half of the 17 positions were full time, and the starting pay was roughly a dollar over minimum wage.

How does one stand out in the job-seeking crowd that today’s unemployment rate is causing? One local hiring specialist gave me great insight. He told me, “Job seekers need to make sure they give all of the information that is requested: the application, the resume, the references all must be included” or they will not get very much of his attention. Another important aspect is to make sure the screening questions are answered constructively, intuitively, and that you portray yourself in the best light possible. These questions are what is being used to screen through the piles of applicants that are coming across his desk. And there are a lot of applications including recent college grads all the way through professionals with many years of experience who are looking at entry-level positions to simply get a job. The competition has never been more fierce; and the employers who are hiring have never had more to choose from.  It is overwhelming to all involved.

The hiring manager summed it up best when he said that job seekers must think of the application process as “the one-minute preview to a movie.  I’m
going to watch the preview and from the information provided to me I
will decide if this is a movie I am going to see.”