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Taking coffee to an interview.  Really?

Don’t bring your hot coffee or tea to a job interview.  We’re not a restaurant, and we don’t want to clean ruined carpeting (or dress your burn wounds).

When I was a kid, I would not dream of bringing coffee with me to someone else’s business.  (Yes, I was a coffee drinker at twelve.)  I was not the only one who felt this way.  There were actually signs on the store doors to let me know that food and beverage were not allowed!

Starbucks changed all of this.

We’re all so used to Starbucks, because there is one on every corner, and most of us stop there repeatedly to get our morning fix, our noon fix, our afternoon fix.  We take our coffee with us everywhere – to the bank, to the store, in the cab.  No one looks twice at you.

I think we would even take it with us to the dentist’s office if it weren’t so difficult to drink while lying down.

I’m here to tell you that the old rule still applies at a job interview.  Drink your coffee and get rid of your cup before you arrive.

I know a woman whose roommate drove her crazy, so my friend put a sign on her bedroom door – “DON’T BRING IT IN HERE” … same thing for us.

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Many people have asked me, “What’s the biggest mistake a person makes on their resume?”

Your resume is really your “brochure” and I strongly suggest that it should be prepared by a professional.

And, just so you know, we don’t do resumes here!!

We do not accept at least 80% of the resumes we receive because they are so poorly written, and many have typos and misspellings.  Most from college graduates.  And, I will talk about the cover letter in a later blog.

Other common errors:

• No personal address
• Indentations don’t line up
• Unclear or inconsistent formatting of job titles, employer names, duties, etc.
• No dates
• Strange choices of font – sometimes several in a single resume

Look, you are selling yourself and the first impression is your resume.  Try this, just pretend you are a recruiter looking at your resume.  How would you feel about that person?  Seasoned recruiters just have a “feel” about a person.  BUT any typo or misspelling is an automatic NO.  Spend the money and get it done right … and I hope I don’t need to tell you about what you have on Facebook.

I welcome related questions.

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What’s new.  Plenty.  3 things.  My new website.  And what’s new is me finally learning how to design and navigate around it!!  I know I shall just get better as I go along and believe me, will welcome suggestions and input from you real techies out there.  You think running a small staffing firm is easy?  Every component of my business has a language and vocabulary all its own and Ive had to learn them all.  Besides knowing the staffing end (has taken me 30 years to get that one down!!) I’ve had to learn about finance, accounting, legal, insurance, technology and now the language of WordPress.  I even know what SEO is!  I hope you like our new site.  Bells and whistles are easy.  Simple is hard.  Just go to the site and see what we do here at Barry Personnel.

What’s new?  My fabulous new staffing manager, Dean Johnson.  Dean will handle recruiting and client services and he’s brought order and harmony to his department.  He has just the right eye to locate those special people.  I will have much more to say about him later but wanted to introduce him now.  They just don’t get much better than Dean and I am so glad he’s with us.  He loves the staffing business just as I do.  And he’s a computer whiz!!

What’s new?  My blog.  My intention is to write a weekly blog and to also have guest bloggers.  Perhaps my clients and some of my wonderful temps and maybe I can even get a few of my own friends to give us their expertise and thoughts.  Certainly Dean will write.  Lots going on in the job market now.  Jobs are hard to find and equally, good employees are even more difficult to find now.  So much has changed since I started in this business 30 years ago but what has NOT changed is the need for responsible, intelligent and skilled employees.  Providing them is what we really do here.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Oh yes….  And check out our new Jobs page!