Secrets to Job Hunting From the Pro Who's Seen it All

Chapter One

Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book

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Whether you’re fresh out of school and ready to begin your career, or have been out of the job hunting game for a while, chances are you’re being affected by the aftermath of COVID-19. This pandemic caused, and is still causing, many changes to the work environment in the US and the rest of the world. Many jobs were lost, many jobs changed, and some jobs were created. We will feel the tragic effects of many lives lost and many changes to our day-to-day life for many years to come - but one thing is certain: the world will keep moving forward and in some way, shape, or form, people will need to get back to work. Which means they will be going through the process of preparing resumes, participating in virtual, or physical, interviews, and spending countless hours worrying if they have something lined up through the tedious task of checking various emails, apps, and websites.

This book will help you prepare for every step of the job hunting process: from applying to the job of your dreams all the way to your first day on the job. I will also be sharing some secrets I’ve learned along the way.

I’m an experienced HR Manager and I decided a few months ago to share some of my experiences. This book has everything I wish candidates know before they send out their resumes to me, and additionally, before they come in for an interview.

If you think the interview process begins when you sit down with the interviewer, you are dead wrong! It also doesn’t begin when the company calls you for a quick phone interview either. The process actually begins with you. In the actual moment you apply for their position. If you didn’t know this, you must read this book.

I wrote this book because I was tired and disappointed with the quality of candidates I was coming across on a daily basis. In the course of my career, I’ve read over 6,000 resumes, cover letters, and applications. It was frustrating to see badly written resumes and applications, especially when I knew the candidates who wrote them were capable of much more. Equally frustrating, I’ve met many candidates who showed up for their interviews unprepared - some without even knowing how to behave professionally during one.

I interview candidates from all over the country and overseas. Earlier this year, I had a video interview scheduled with a recent college graduate. I confirm all my interviews with an email that states please be mindful that you’ll want to have a quiet background at the time of the interview. I also recommend you check to make sure that your video, microphone, and speakers are working properly prior to the video call. Keep in mind, this is a professional job interview and we’ll interview you just as if you were present in our offices. The interview was scheduled for 2 pm, so I logged in at 1:58 pm and waited for him. At 2:04 pm, he logged on and all I could see was a shaky cloudy sky and all I could hear was loud traffic.

Hello? Hello? I asked.

Oh... Hi Mr. Gibson, how are you? He replied while walking on a busy sidewalk downtown Seattle. I’m ready for the interview.

I sighed. But for the sake of second chances I asked him, are you choosing to take the interview while walking on the street?

He looked puzzled. Yeah... is there a problem? I had to run some errands really quick. I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal.

If he couldn’t see the problem with that scenario, then I couldn’t proceed with the interview process. If he didn’t respect my time and couldn’t take a job interview seriously, that meant he was already informing me that he was not going to follow directions properly, that he was a difficult person to manage, and that he simply wasn’t professional enough to represent our brand. I loved him on paper - his resume was impressive. But we couldn’t continue the interview and had to pass.

Most candidates could have landed the job they wanted if they had simply prepared better. And this is how this book is going to help you. I’m not the person giving you advice on job interviews - I am the interviewer.

Here’s a secret you might not know: most people in HR are not against you.

I know the perception some people have of HR. Remember those period films that took place in medieval times? When people from a village wanted to storm the castle? And the medieval guards on top of the castle began pouring tar over the villagers to scare them away? Many candidates see themselves as those villagers. They see the castle as the company they want to work for, and they see HR as the guards pouring down the tar to prevent them from entering the company. Some other people see us as the evil gatekeeper - not letting anyone into their dream company and turning everyone around, or finding excuses not to hire them.

In reality, we want you to succeed. We know that when employees succeed, the company we work for succeeds as well. We want you to be great. I wrote this book so you can do that!

I’m a real HR professional, with over 15 years of experience in the field. And yes, I’m still currently working as a HR Manager, and yes, I must have read at least 6,000 resumes (and counting). I work every weekday. Mon thru Fri - and an occasional weekend here and there during busy times. In my day-to-day, I oversee my HR Department, but before I had my own department, I was a one-man show. I read and reviewed every resume and application myself. I scheduled my own phone and face-to-face interviews. I wrote my own candidate recommendations to the COO and CEO of the company. I checked all the candidates’ references. I ran all their background checks. I developed all the onboarding and training steps for every candidate I hired. So all my examples are real and drawn from personal experiences. 

I also have many friends in the Recruiting and Talent Acquisition business and sometimes we exchange ideas, best practices, and yes, funny stories. So, as a professional who prides himself in keeping confidences, I’m omitting the real names of candidates, places, and companies. But I still want to share them with you because of their value.

Before we dig in, let’s go over some ground rules: HR is a department, but also a terminology.