📵 Why You Should NOT Answer the Phone When Recruiters Call, Stupid

Better a return call when you're ready than a missed call when you aren't.

Photo by Matthew Kane

This is a guest post by Graeme Gilovitz.

This has to sound like the stupidest idea you have ever heard.

How can you get the job if you don't actually talk to someone?

Even today, when you can communicate via so many media such as email, SMSes, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook Messenger and any other applications, the only way to actually get the job is to talk to someone on the phone at some point and then meet them.

Yet…

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Two reasons to ignore recruiter calls

1) Get prepared

As a recruiter, we love to catch people off guard because then we get to see (or in this case, hear) the real you and how you behave. Your tone gives us a great insight to your attitude, personality, politeness and professionalism.

So when we call and you have no idea who we are, where we are calling from or what role you applied for, you are already on the defensive and the power is with the recruiter. Most likely, you have applied for a few jobs and after a while the calls all sound the same which makes it harder to answer any of their phone questions.

It would be funny if it weren't so true.

This little conversation is the first stage of the interview process and needs to be treated with as much preparation as a face-to-face interview, even if the call only lasts 5 minutes.

Not answering the call gives you time to gather all the relevant information regarding your application, find a quiet place to talk and focus on answering their questions as well as you can. You can’t do any of that when you are taking calls on the fly, especially in a noisy area.

So instead of rushing to take the call, call them back.

2) Play hard to get (a little)

When someone is a too easy to get hold of, it gives the impression that you are sitting by the phone all the time, which translates into “I am desperate for a job”. But if you play a bit hard to get, you can increase your “perceived value”.

You can always tell them later that you were in an interview, or a meeting, etc., giving the impression that you must be a valuable potential candidate because other people are already meeting with you (simple logic of supply and demand).

Alternatively, just say that you were “unavailable to take the call” – the most universally used excuse ever.

What to do after ignoring the call

When you actually return the call, follow these tips:

1. Find a quiet place to talk and more importantly, where you can listen
2. Have a copy of the recruiter's job ad ready – make sure that you have reread it and have notes
3. Have a copy of your application (resume and cover letter) to reference, and especially selection criteria (if there were any)
4. As you know the name of the person who called (if they left you a message) and where they work, do some background digging – try LinkedIn and Facebook. I wouldn't recommend you using this information but at least you'll know who you are dealing with
5. Apologize for not being able to take the call
6. Have note paper and pen in case they mention anything useful or ask you for an interview and they provide details
7. Anticipate the questions that they might ask

What happens if they don't leave a message or you accidentally answer the call?

1. You need to get off the call ASAP no matter what!
2. Apologize and explain that it isn't a convenient time to chat “as you are expecting an important call” and ask that you call them back at an agreed time
3. Take their name, company, phone number
4. Revert back to the above tips

Ring ring – what are you going to do?

READ NEXT: How To Video Job Interview With Your Cellphone

Bonus: A Recruiter Calls, But I'm Not Prepared

About the author

Graeme Gilovitz is Director of Summit Resumes and Summit Talent (an Australian-based recruitment agency with an international reach and client base), & has worked in-house with the some of the largest companies in Australia. With a background in advertising and marketing prior to recruitment, Graeme possesses an unique perspective on communication, the recruitment process and how to ensure that you get the most out of your job search. He blogs regularly, focusing on his insights.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter to get the most out of mobile video on your job search.

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✈ 50 Great Jobs You Can Easily Do While You Travel

Use your laptop to pay for travel, while you travel.

You might just discover a new career while you're at it.

Photo by Andrew Neel

Background

In a posting to the Digital Eve Israel Yahoo Group, a group member asked the following question:

“Any leads on how to find a job that can be done on my laptop, here and there, so that I can still pay my bills while traveling?”

This reminded me of the time when I was still a programmer at Amazon.com back in 2000.

Living in Paris but working daily over the Internet with people in Seattle, I wanted to visit my family in Montreal without taking a lot of vacation time either. Luckily, Amazon's computer systems allowed people to connect from outside the office and that made it easier to convince my boss to let me go.

In the end, I only took off 2 days for traveling purposes and otherwise worked full days from my parents' house, basically paying for my trip and expenses. A side benefit to Amazon was that having me in a middle time zone (6 hours behind Paris but 3 ahead of Seattle) made some projects easier to finish on time.

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Working while traveling abroad and telecommuting aren't quite the same thing

People usually associate telecommuting with a full-time job that lets you regularly work from home, but it can also be a part-time job on the road.

To best answer the question above, let's set out some criteria that make more sense regarding jobs for travelers. Those jobs usually need to be:

• Jobs you can do over the Internet
• Jobs that can be done over a short time-span i.e. during your travels
• Jobs you can get on short notice

This last one is important in case you need multiple jobs to pay all your bills during your trip.

So we're dealing with freelance jobs. However, if you choose well and deliver well, a short-term freelance job can become a longer-term freelance job that you continue from home after traveling.

Jobs you can do while traveling

With that in mind, the list below of online jobs for travelers should give you all sorts of ideas. Each job title points at a real job description, and if the description isn't a good match for you, just do a search on the job title to find more open jobs like it.

1. 3D and Flash Animator
2. Accountant
3. Advertiser
4. Administrative Assistant
5. Article Writer
6. Billing and Debt Collection Representative
7. Blog Programmer
8. Career Coach
9. Virtual Assistant
10. Advertising Poster
11. Copywriter
12. Customer Service Representative
13. Data Entry Provider
14. Data Specialist
15. Database Developer
16. E-book Writer
17. Email Template Designer
18. Flash/Web Developer
19. Graphic Artist
20. Caricaturist
21. Marketing & Lead Generation Campaigner
22. Logo Designer
23. Online Tutor
24. Personal Assistant/Secretary
25. Press Release Writer
26. Project Manager
27. Recruitment Researcher
28. Sourcer (not sorcerer!)
29. Resume Writer
30. Sales Presentation Designer
31. SEO Analyst
32. Foreign Language Voice Talents
33. Technical Support
34. Telemarketing Professional
35. Transcriptionist
36. Travel Planner
37. Typist
38. Video Editor
39. Web Content Writer
40. Web Designer
41. Website Translator
42. Stock Photographer
43. Voice-overs
44. Cartoonist
45. Real Estate Researcher
46. Business Consultant
47. Legal Advisor
48. User Guides and Manuals Editor
49. Game Developers
50. Travel Writer

Don't think this is possible? Not for you?

See how these laptop warriors have built careers while traveling:

• Lauren Juliff, @NEFootsteps: How I Fund my Travels Around the World
• Benny Lewis, @irishpolyglot: How to become a location-independent freelance translator
• Amanda Williams, @dangerousbiz: My Life as a Travel Blogger
• Adam Groffman: @travelsofadam: How to Make Money with a Travel Blog
• Taylor Banks: @learningbanks: Why Working From the Road Is Good for Business (and How to Do It)
• Alyssa Ramos: @alyssaramos: How This Woman Went From Broke To Traveling Full-Time (And Making Lots Of Money)
• Paul Minors: @paulminors: Side-hustle success story (and lessons learned): from full-time job to traveling indie-entrepreneur earning 2X as much in 1/2 the time
• Nathan Buchan: @world_nate: How I earn money while travelling full-time
• Matthew Karsten: @expertvagabond: This Is How I Get Paid To Travel The World

Bonus tip for beginners

Like with any job, having work experience will help a lot compared to a candidate who has no experience. But even having just a little bit of experience will make a difference because it will still allow you to tell potential employers “I've done this online before”.

With that in mind, get experience before your travels by doing some quick, cheap projects. This has the added benefit of getting you familiar with freelance marketplaces, negotiation with potential employers, and actually getting paid with all that's involved.

It would suck to be in a foreign country expecting to receive your pay the next day only to discover that you need to wait a few more days because of some strange policy you didn't know about. Practice before you go!

GET STARTED NOW: Top 50+ Freelance Marketplaces Online and Top 25+ Micro Freelance Marketplaces and Why You Should Use Them

Question of the article

Have you ever worked while traveling for pleasure? How did you find the job? Tell us in the comments.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more travel job search ideas.

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🚩 One Surprising Reason Recruiters Aren’t Responding To Your Job Applications

Recruiters can only respond to your email if they actually get it.

Photo by Karl Fredrickson

One of the most frustrating things about the job search process is the uncertainty. What's it going to take to find that next job? How long will it take? And so on.

There's a particular kind of uncertainty that drives job seekers crazy: not getting a response from recruiters.

When I ask my readers what their biggest job search challenge is, this problem comes up again and again-

• “not hearing back”
• “I have sent some CVs out but haven't gotten responses.”
• “The biggest problem I have is getting responses to my job applications.”

I used to get so many complaints about this that I once blogged An Open Letter to the Recruiters of the World From Job Seekers Everywhere, and that was just to get recruiters to auto-respond to job applications.

If you're like most job seekers, you are probably more likely to be bothered about the lack of recruiter response than you are about getting rejected. Crazy but true.

Here's the thing though-

That lack of response is often because of something you did: sending an email job application that was automatically flagged as spam.

You get aggravated by not hearing back, but the recruiter never even saw your email, and good luck getting them to check their spam folder when you have no better way of contacting them directly.

Stop shooting yourself in the foot.

Here's what you can to do to increase your chances of getting to recruiter inboxes. And you'll see how I also have to do better.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

3 ways to avoid recruiter email spam filters

A) Blacklist check

If your job search email address is from Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook, you can skip this tip and go on to the next one, but pay attention if your email address is from your own personal website or any kind of organization (your current employer?) that regularly sends marketing emails such as client newsletters.

Email spam being the massive problem that it is, companies and others have compiled blacklists of mail servers that are being used for spamming. Spam filters then check incoming email against those blacklists.

If you're sending email from a blacklisted server, your email will be flagged as spam and the recruiter will never see it.

Use a free tool such as MX Toolbox's Email Blacklist Check to quickly check over 100 different blacklists for the mail server used to send your email:

Running the check will generate a list of results. If all goes well, you should a lot of green OKs like this:

However, if you see any red LISTED results, consider getting a different job search email address before applying for any more jobs over email.

You can also compare your results with another tool such as IsnotSPAM.

B) Score how spammy your job application emails are

A email blacklist check is just one kind of anti-spam tool you can use. Another kind will take your email and score it according to how likely it is to be considered spammy by spam filters, such as Mail-tester.com.

Before emailing a recruiter, send your job application email – the actual email you were planning to send – to a unique mail-tester.com email address shown on their homepage:

Next, click “Then Check Your Score” and Mail-tester gets to work scoring your email:

When it's done, your final results will show where your score lost points:

Clicking any line in the report will provide details. You can actually see my results here.

For this test, I simply forwarded a recent newsletter I'm subscribed to, which means that their message “contains errors”.

More importantly:

Argh! My email server is on 3 blacklists!

It's only 3 lists out of 21 checked, so I should be ok, but it's still worth trying to do better. I want to be sure my email will always get to where I want it to.

C) Avoid doing things like a spammer

Spam filters use many rules to score your email in deciding if it's spam or not, just like Mail-tester above.

SpamAssassin, one of the most popular spam filtering programs out there, provides tips on their official website on how legitimate email senders like you can get your non-spam email past their filters.

Based on those tips, here are some of the most common things you should avoid in your emails to potential employers:

1) Email priority

If you're using Outlook or another email program that lets you set priorities, don't set your message to high priority/importance. Classic spammer tactic to make their junk stand out in an inbox.

2) BCC

Don't send your job application to multiple employers by using the BCC (blind carbon copy) option.

If blindly emailing different people the same generic message isn't spam, what is?

3) Subject lines

Don't leave your email subject lines blank. That screams ‘spam!'

A subject with an exclamation point can also look spammy, especially when together with a question mark.

If you need ideas for your great subject lines, there are so many good ways to fill them.

4) Email content

Don't address the recipient with a “Dear Madam,” “Hi friend,” “Hey girl,” or anything remotely generic. Where job seekers are more likely to trip up is with a “To whom it may concern” or similar, which is just as bad. Do your company research to get a contact name.

Your conversations with recruiters often start with an email cover letter, and that shouldn't include any special formatting or attention-getting design using colors and images.

You definitely don't want to use any spammy language such as “urgent reply needed”, even if you clearly do want a response asap. Even mentioning sums of money, such as how much you earned for a past boss, can look spammy.

5) Attachments

Some experts recommend not attaching your resume but it really is common practice. However, stick to safe file formats such as PDF, RTF or DOCX as opposed to any kind of compressed file (ZIP, TAR, RAR).

There's no reason your resume should be larger than 1 MB (and even that's quite large for a 1-2 page document) and large attachments will look suspicious.

6) Marketing email tools

In How These Smart Job Seekers Used Blogging To Find Jobs, I compiled case studies of job seekers who used a blog to find a job.

Many of them were in the marketing industry and mentioned how they used professional marketing tools as part of their “job search campaigns”.

If you're also thinking of being creative and e.g. using marketing email tools to spam mass email recruiters, your emails will have a much higher chance of being flagged as spam unless you know what you're doing. Be careful.

Finally, you can test all these tips but by checking what's in your own spam folder.

What other experts are saying

• Job Seekers: How to Ensure Employers Get Your E-mails
• 5 Ways To Stop Your CV Being Blocked As Spam

Question of the article

Has a recruiter ever told you that your resume was caught in their spam folder? Have any other spam story? Tell us in the comments.

Subscribe to JobMob via email and follow me on Twitter for more funny tips on good decisions for your future.

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👉 One Handy Job Interview Technique You Need to Master

Start your first impressions with a good first impression.

Photo by Jonas Vincent

Have you ever noticed this?

People shake hands all the time. Unless your handshake is particularly bad, people will rarely react negatively to it and they'll ignore the occasional jitter or semi-clasp. On the other hand (pun intended), if your handshake is particularly good, you will stand out and people will remember you.

But here's the kicker:

When it comes to job interviews, the opposite is actually true.

A 2008 University of Iowa study showed what you may have already suspected:

a firm, solid handshake is an important part of a successful job interview, while a dead fish can end the interview before it even begins

Put differently, while a basic handshake is expected and won't stand out, a bad handshake can ruin everything.

Ultimately, since a handshake is such a common thing, expectations are relatively low. That also means you can easily achieve good results.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Free bonus: The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need is a handy reference to help you prepare for any kind of job interview. Download it free now

The Best Handshake Ever?

My secret handshake is just me high-fiving my dog.

— Jawbreaker (@sixfootcandy) September 1, 2017

A friend of mine has the best handshake in the world.

No, really.

The first time I met him and we shook hands, I was literally wowed.

Here's what made his handshake so great (over-detailed analysis coming up…):

1. Softness
Nobody likes shaking hands with sandpaper. Although you don't necessarily need to carry around a bottle of hand moisturizer, at least make sure that your hands aren't rough to the touch. Introduce coconut oil into your diet somehow.

2. Moisture
Without being sandpaper, your hands should be dry and not sweaty or clammy. Let them air out.

3. Temperature
Your hands should be warm, not cold.

4. Texture
Do you like shaking hands with someone's scabs or callouses? Enough said.

5. No bandages or casts
You don't want people to think they might hurt you by shaking your hand.

6. Clean
The only thing worse than worrying about hurting someone's hand is worrying about catching a virus from it like warts, a cold, etc. Even feeling just one Band-Aid is discomforting.

7. Few rings to none
The fewer rings there are, the less chance of pinching and hurting someone's hand.

8. Confident reach
Don't wait for someone's hand to come to yours, reach for theirs and meet it.

9. Good timing
Lock hands without any jitters or fumbling, sliding one hand into the other. Don't aim to grasp fingers, aim for the palm.

10. Perfect position
Aim for the webbing of your hand (skin between thumb and forefinger) to catch the webbing of their hand. Thanks to David Tra for pointing that out.

11. Solid grasp
Everyone hates the dreaded “dead fish” where someone leaves a limp hand in yours. Do the opposite; clutch the palm without squeezing so hard that it becomes painful for the other.

12. Positive
Grin or smile while shaking hands.

13. Be sincere
Don't just grin or smile, do it like you mean it. A fake smile ruins the whole effect.

14. Look them in the eye
The best way to prove you're being sincere.

15. Shake source
“Shake from the elbow, and not from the shoulder,” says international etiquette expert, Denise Zaldivar.

16. Shake method
“Aim for 2 pumps when shaking,” Denise also recommends.

17. Shake vigor
Don't shake too vigorously, but don't let them shake your whole arm either.

18. Know when to let go
A good shake usually involves a palm squeeze and release, but be careful if the other person is too quick or too slow, which could lead to an awkward moment. Instead, with a confident reach, be first to engage and disengage.

19. Synchs with your personal brand
For most people, this just means following all the previous points to being a handshaking professional, but for some people this means having a unique handshake or one that's more in tune with their profession. If a clown always shook hands in a serious way, you'd wonder about his sense of humor.

20. Memorable
So few people do this that if anyone ever impresses you with their handshake, you won't forget them just like with my friend above. If your handshake is memorable, it is successfully building your personal brand.

21. Viral
Not in a bad way… this whole article came about because my friend's handshake was so terrific I had to tell you about it.

Bonus tip

22. Encourages loyalty
A great handshake is one that makes people want to shake your hand again. For that, they'll need to have you around them again.

READ NEXT: The Most Powerful Job Search Tool You Didn’t Know You Had

Question of the article

What was the best or worst handshake you've ever felt? Or, do you have a job interview handshake memory to share? Tell us in the comments.

What others are saying

• The Perfect Interview Handshake
• Start your Job Interview with a Proper Handshake
• 7 Tips on Proper Handshake Etiquette

Free Bonus

If you want a handy job interview resource that you can keep on your smartphone or print out for easy reference, I’ve got a special bonus for you.

This free download contains:

• 130 positive personality adjectives to describe yourself
• 444 of the most popular job interviewer questions to prepare yourself with
• 175 questions that you can ask in job interviews to make a good impression and learn about your future employer

Click the image below to get access to The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need:

JobMob Insiders can get this free bonus and other exclusive content in the JobMob Insider Bonuses area. Join now, it's free!

I originally published a version of this article on the terrific Personal Branding Blog.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on job search body language.

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📞 Top Free Consultation Questions To Ask Job Coaches

Choose the right coach by asking the right questions.

Photo by Jordan McQueen

Many job search and career coaches offer free consult calls as a way to connect with you.

But the free consult isn't really a chance to get a lot of free advice. Instead, it's a way to explain your situation and then flip the tables around to interview the coach and see if you should hire them to help you get hired.

To make the best choice, you need to know the best questions to ask during a free consultation.

I polled coaches from my 50 Career Coaches Who Give Free Consults On Every Topic You Need for their favorite job seeker questions, and here's what they suggested.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Free bonus: Download JobMob's Free Coaching Consults Guide which contains a directory of coaches offering free consults, and a list of the top questions to ask them during those consults.

 

17 questions job seekers should ask in a free consult

Name: Thea Kelley

Based in: San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA

“Based on what I’ve told you about my situation, how can you help me get more interviews and then succeed in those interviews?”

“Why do I need interview coaching now? I’ve just started my job search.” (Answer: A phone screening or informal “conversation about an opening we might have soon” could happen any minute.)

“What’s your approach to interview coaching?” (My answer is: It’s proactive: not just “how to answer common interview questions” – and we will cover that – but knowing what you want to emphasize, why, and how.)

 

Name: Ford Myers

Based in: Haverford, PA, USA

“Here are a few great questions clients have asked during the initial consultation:

– How do I figure-out what kind of work I’d really like to do and how I’d ideally like my career to be?

– How can I identify what’s holding me back and getting in the way of reaching my career potential?

– How do I close the gap between where I am now and where I want to go in my career?”

 

Name: Shayna Lee

Based in: New York, NY, USA

The best question any job seeker or person can ask a coach is, “How are we measuring the progress I make by working with you”.

While the client is the one doing the work and generating the results they desire, it is the coach's job (in my view) to hold that client accountable to the process and help them to stay on task. So tracking and monitoring tasks/milestones will be a key factor for defining success!

 

Name: Sharon McCormick

Based in: North Carolina, USA

The best questions are when my clients tell me that they care about people and our planet, and they want to know HOW to make a career change to do more for humankind. They want to know HOW to develop as greater leaders. I LOVE that. I looked through my client communications and those questions are a common theme and the best in my opinion. I love people who think like that – like how to help others!

 

Name: Tina Monk

Based in: Neutral Bay, NSW, Australia

I think that the best question to ask is: How do I get the most out of our time together?

 

Name: Hamza Zaouali

Based in: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Towards the end of the consultation, the #1 question I would ask a coach if I was a job seeker is:

“I need to tell you that I'm currently in touch with other coaches as well and I want to make sure I make the best choice. In your opinion, why do you think I should choose you?”

If the answer is not convincing, move on. If you feel your question irritates him/her, I wouldn't pursue either.

 

Name: Naren Chellappah

Based in: Melbourne, Australia

The typical questions we get asked are “why can’t I get interviews and why won’t the recruiters/companies offer me the job?”

The other common questions are – “Is there something wrong with my profile stopping me from getting a job?”

After we have assessed the person’s profile, we can advise them on the issues holding them back – such as poor quality job application, no local experience, poor interview skills or competition from stronger candidates (which we need to help them match).

 

Name: Michelle Flint

Based in: USA

The best question (which I frequently get) is, “Can I really do this?”

Many times, my clients come to me discouraged because they are really stuck. Perhaps they have no idea what they want to do with their lives, or perhaps they have been job hunting for a long time with no results, or perhaps they have a terrible, critical boss who has left them completely without confidence. As a result, they are afraid they will never find a good job that makes them happy.

I appreciate when clients bring this question to the table right away because then I can talk to them about what we're going to do differently together that will get them where they want to go. Usually clients leave that initial consultation with a lot more hope about their worth and their future– that's why it's such a great question to ask.

 

Name: Bethany Wallace

Based in: North Central Arkansas, USA

The best question job seekers ask me during an initial free consultation is:

“What is the next step I should take as a job seeker?”

In my opinion, this is the best question because it demonstrates a willingness to learn and grow, and it's not just asking for facts (like how much I charge as a career coach). It's gathering real advice.

 

Name: Mark Anderson

Based in: Brighton and Sussex, UK

1. Can I contact any of your previous clients to discuss their experience?
2. What makes you different from any other Career Coach?

Question of the article

What do you think is the best question to ask in a free consult? If you've asked it, did you like the coach's response? Tell us in the comments.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for job search answers from job search experts.

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