In fact, employers announced plans to hire more people in the first nine months of 2009 (169,385) than in the first three quarters of 2008 (89,294), according to Challenger, Gray’s numbers. That’s an 88% increase.

The biggest surprise may be in retail, which led all sectors in hiring plans. Retailers said they would bring on 33,640 workers through September of this year compared to 4,000 in all of 2008. That, however, will barely put a dent in the 95,000 retail job cuts through September.

Government and non-profits was the second largest sector for hiring, with plans to add 28,469 workers. Entertainment and leisure was third at 22,370.

John A. Challenger, chief executive of the firm, conceded the total wasn’t a lot of jobs, but noted companies rarely make formal hiring announcements unless they are building a plant, opening a new facility or store, or announcing expansion plans that might affect their stock value. So these are “real” new jobs.

“Even newspaper and online help wanted ads do not tell the whole story when it comes to hiring and job availability,” said Challenger. “In fact, help wanted ads probably represent less than half of the actual job openings and possibly as little as 20 percent. Within the hidden job market are companies that plan to fill positions through employee referrals, those that use recruiters to find the right candidates, as well as those that have no plans to hire, but will do so if the right person comes along.”

That is not to say the job market still isn’t tough. Government job turnover numbers show there were 2.4 million openings nationwide in August, down from 3.9 million a year ago. But 4 million people did get hired in August.

“There is no doubt that this is a tight job market. There simply are more job seekers than there are jobs,” said Challenger. “However, it would be a mistake to assume that no one is hiring. Companies need to replace retirees and others who leave voluntarily. Everyday people are fired for cause and need to be replaced. Employers are continually reevaluating their workforce needs, so it is critical to persevere.”

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Resume Keywords: A Primer

Beat the Resume-Screen Algorithm

Keywords are important in on-line resumes. A resume that lacks the proper keywords will yield little chance of an interview if it’s evalutated in digital form. The trickier question is: Where is the best place to put the keywords in your resume?”

The possibilities are daunting. You can sprinkle keywords throughout. You can have a separate keyword section. You can put keywords in your profile or professional summary. Or you can use a combination approach. The paradox of choice!

Placing keywords at the very beginning is a good idea. Keywords represent the important, industry specific language and “insider talk” that will get immediate attention from a hiring decision-maker. I like resumes that start with a profile or professional summary. Including keywords in that section is always a powerful approach.

Should Keywords Get Their Own Section?

Should you list keywords in a separate section? Yes and no. Keyword summary sections give you an opportunity to include modifications of a keyword that will not easily integrate into the resume. Repetition makes for a keyword-rich resume, which is a good thing. Keywords sprinkled throughout your resume usually take the form of nouns coupled with action verbs, such as: “managed the trading desk.” Keyword sections, on the other hand, are usually just a list of nouns. Having both can give you the flexibility to say something important two different ways for impact.

However, don’t sacrifice other sections to include a separate keyword section. I strongly prefer resumes with an “Interests” section, for example, because it gives the interviewer a non-business point of conversation which may work in a positive way for the applicant. Who knows, you may both love football, or music. Don’t underestimate the importance of chemistry. While an automated resume scanner won’t care about football, the hiring manager might. I would not include a separate keyword section if it means leaving out your interests. But if you do have room, go ahead and have the section in addition to the words scattered throughout.

Where Can You Find Them?

Because keywords represent skills and experience an employer is looking for in an applicant, the best places to find words that reflect those skills are in job postings, job descriptions, industry blogs, newsletters and Web sites. Track the words you see over and over – those are most likely keywords.

Keeping common industry acronyms is a good idea too. If a word or acronym is not easily recognizable to someone outside the industry but completely familiar to an insider, include that word. The Boston College career center advises: “The best source of keywords is the actual job listing, which is likely to contain many, if not all, of the keywords that an employer will use to search the resume database.”

Summing up, a job-seeker has some freedom of choice about placement of keywords, how often and in what form. If you keep in mind that keywords are an integral part of an excellent resume that will get you noticed, you’ll be able to use that leeway to your advantage.

Yes, you have to submit your résumé electronically. But there’s still plenty you can do to get your résumé seen by the real decision-maker

Dear Liz,
I spotted what looks like the perfect job for me and I sent a résumé in to the company’s online application system, as was required. But it has been a week and I haven’t heard anything. Now I’m wondering whether I should have done more research to find an alternate conduit to the hiring manager, and wondering whether there are additional steps I can take to boost my chances of getting an interview. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Beth

Don’t worry—sending a résumé into the Black Hole (AKA lobbing a résumé into the HR pipeline) is almost always a requirement these days, even if you have a more promising entrée to the organization. You’d need to have that résumé on file in order to get an interview, so you haven’t wasted any effort. Still, there are lots of steps you can still take to increase the probability of getting an interview for the job. Here are six of my favorites:

• Start with LinkedIn to see whether one of your first-degree connections is connected to a relevant person (someone who works in the department where there’s an opening, a peer in another department, or best of all, the hiring manager) in the hiring department. If you do have a two- or three-step relationship to that inside person, ask your first-degree connection to make an introduction for you. (You can do this by clicking on the “Get Introduced Through a Connection” link on your “target” person’s profile page.)
• Next, I’d e-mail a group of your friends and colleagues (using bcc: all) to ask whether anyone has a lead on a person inside the employer (and your target department, if possible) and might be able to make an introduction for you. Not everyone checks his or her LinkedIn in-box (and not everyone belongs to LinkedIn) so sending an e-mail blast is a great backup step.
• If you can make contact with a person inside the company, your aim is a five-minute phone call to learn more about the organization and the open position. You won’t ask your brand-new acquaintance to pass along your résumé (that’s forward and presumptuous, since the person doesn’t even know you) but you’ll ask smart questions about the role. With luck, your new contact will offer to help or, at least, to keep you posted as résumés are reviewed and interviews are scheduled.
• Check the employer’s Web site and use the research site ZoomInfo to see if you can locate the hiring manager’s name. And, of course, you should Google the hiring manager, but in a really smart way: Search the company name plus the hiring manager’s most likely title, like this: Director Marketing ABC Products.
If the hiring manager in your sights has made any speeches, published any articles, given any interviews or been in the news for any reason lately, you may pull up his or her name this way as well as find out something a little more about him or her. Be sure to search using Google News, not just Google.
• If you find the hiring manager’s name, send a hard copy of your résumé and a customized cover letter to him or her directly. I suggest old-fashioned U.S. mail, as an uninvited e-mail message in someone’s in-box isn’t typically viewed as welcome and is also easily overlooked.
It’s easy to get the organization’s snail-mail address from its Web site; all you need is the hiring manager’s name, title, and that street address to send off a résumé/cover letter packet directly to the decision-maker.
• As you write your customized cover letter for the presumed hiring manager, be sure to focus more on the organization and its needs than on your own background and skills. (Of course, you should do this any time you are corresponding or speaking with someone about a job.) Superior to the standard “I saw your opening for a Marketing Research Manager” is “Congratulations on the launch of your Tastylocks edible hair gel line. That should be a sensation at HairExpo this fall!”
There is an element of luck in getting an interview, but you can do more than toss a résumé into the hopper and wait for a phone call. You can work assiduously to find contacts who can put in a good word for you, make introductions for you, and fill you in on the issues that are top-of-mind for the employer you’re targeting. When you spot a job you know you’d love and would thrive at, don’t hesitate to call on your network to help make it happen. That’s what your network is there for!

Jon Jacobs

Recently, two sports stories caught my eye by showcasing opposite poles of an issue many financial services professionals grapple with every day: the perceived relationship between job performance and age.

One story involves allegations that some of China’s star female gymnasts overstated their ages to skirt a long-standing Olympic ban on athletes younger than 16. Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Rebecca Dube made that the jumping-off point for an article about people who misstate their age to steer clear of colleagues’ stereotyped attitudes. However, roughly half of her story dealt with individuals who could be perceived as too young for their job – hardly a plausible scenario for most financial professionals.

The article also suffered from a common flaw: touting the urban legend that impending retirements somehow make employers less hostile to older candidates. “Suddenly, having a few grey hairs isn’t such a bad thing,” Dube cheerily wrote.

Similar assertions occasionally show up in stories on eFinancialCareers News. Among sources we regularly quote, corporate HR departments and some external recruiters have obvious self-interested reasons to portray a near-empty glass as 70 percent full. But even career counselors, whose sole client is the candidate, sometimes paint too sunny a picture on this topic – especially if they have no Wall Street background, and so may not be fully aware of the finance industry’s obsession with 20-somethings.

I’ve heard a more sophisticated variant uttered at career fairs when someone inquires about age discrimination: “If you can make money for an employer, they don’t care how old you are. All a hiring manager really wants to know is, ‘Can this candidate make me money?’”

Many Don’t Even Bother to Deny Their Bias

These eminently rational viewpoints align with the belief in market efficiency that underlies some sectors of our profession. Unfortunately, they don’t align with observable reality.

“I have had 4 companies tell me they were looking for someone younger,” one user in his 50s wrote in response to a story on our sister site, JobsintheMoney. “Many of the interviewers do a double take when they expected someone 35 and not 50. Companies are no longer afraid to discriminate because the hand-picked federal attorneys are unwilling to prosecute.”

“It was so blatantly obvious in several job interviews that I asked directly if my age was an issue,” another user wrote. “The interviewers, unwisely, confirmed that it was, whereby I pointed out that such was illegal. I appreciated their honesty and did not pursue the legal aspect as I was more interested in spending my time getting a job.”

Too Old to Pitch Deals?

The second sports story came from a major league baseball game on Aug. 15, in which the opposing pitchers were 45-year-old Jamie Moyer and 42-year-old Greg Maddux. Both performed at a high level, as Moyer’s Philadelphia Phillies beat Maddux’s San Diego Padres by a score of 1-0.

Thinking about those two guys, who while young enough to duel on the mound would be considered too old to pitch deals to banking clients, I was reminded of an e-mail I’d sent to a headhunter some time ago. “If an employer gets the idea I’d be any less physically energetic or any less emotionally committed to the task than a 30-year-old (excepting certain very narrow job categories, such as firefighter, dancer, astronaut, ski instructor, or professional athlete), that employer would be shooting himself or herself in the foot,” I wrote.

I guess I could have left “professional athlete” off the list.

Here’s Our Playbook

What’s a candidate to do in an industry so firmly resolved to shoot itself? First, home in on those situations where an employer appears at least partially motivated by whether a candidate can make money, rather than basing everything on a checklist. Then, go tastefully all-out to defy age-based stereotypes that hiring managers and prospective teammates may hold.

Maintain a trim body and an up-to-date appearance in everything you wear, from hairstyle and eyeglasses (if any) down to your shoes. Keep your skills at the cutting edge – especially anything related to technology. (That includes the communication device you bring to an interview, even though you’ll turn it off before walking in.) Show the utmost respect toward a youthful interviewer. Talk up your energy level, and seize every possible chance to trumpet your desire to learn from colleagues.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that “learning at work” is something only junior or entry-level staff are supposed to do. Quite the contrary: being open to others’ ideas positions you as modest, easy to get along with, and the opposite of a rigid or preachy “father” figure.

Jon Jacobs

The longer this recession goes on, the more transitioning professionals will stumble into the “overqualified” pit.

Too much of a good thing is wonderful, said Mae West. But that’s not how hiring managers see it. Relevant work experience, advanced degrees and credentials – while prerequisites for many finance jobs – can disqualify as well as qualify. If a candidate previously held a role at a higher level than the one she’s seeking, or her education or certifications exceed a position’s stated requirements, she’s unlikely to pass the initial software-driven screen most employers apply before even looking at an incoming résumé.

Moreover, many employers blithely use the word “overqualified” as a barely concealed synonym for “too old.” That’s the evident meaning when a hiring manager or HR person says an opening is “too junior for you,” when you know it pays four times what you made in your last job. (This happened to me a few times.)

It’s Not About Pay

Contrary to widespread opinion, pay is rarely a significant factor in these decisions. Although age and credentials may correlate loosely with a candidate’s compensation requirement, employers usually are more concerned about culture and fit. Their greatest risk in hiring an older, better credentialed or more experienced person than required is the team’s harmony might be disrupted. That’s why employers routinely reject overqualified applicants whose compensation need is well within (or even below) a position’s budgeted range.

Recognizing how lethal the “overqualified” label can be, Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary recently dubbed it “a scarlet letter on (a) résumé.” In an April column headlined “Landing a Job When Your Résumé’s Too Good for It,” she offers four tips for avoiding “the ‘O’ word.”

Two are well taken. First, “simplify” (dumb down) your résumé. “If you have an advanced degree such as a master’s, don’t list it” if the position doesn’t call for it, Singletary advises. And, “watch your attitude.” If a hiring manager suspects you see the role as beneath you and will bolt once conditions improve, you’re dead.

Being Procrustes

Amy, a professional colleague and long-time friend, takes this further. Forget about what you were, she advises. Re-set your expectations to the here and now, and throw away any assumptions based on titles or pay levels you achieved before your previous job ended.

If you make history your baseline, you’ll come off as feeling entitled – perhaps the most toxic label in today’s job market. And if you’re older than 40, you’ve no choice but to start from scratch anyway, because you no longer meet an inflexible criterion for new hires to your former roles: the age ceiling.

So instead of presenting your proudest achievements, focus like a laser on what your target employer is looking for. Think like Procrustes: shrink your qualifications to match or only marginally surpass the required level for the opening you seek.

Singletary’s other two tips are less useful, in my opinion. She advises beating the manager to the punch by raising the “O” word first and by explaining forthrightly you’re willing to work for much less than before. In my view, a candidate who mentions either compensation or a possible weakness – even in order to dispel it – before the interviewer does will come off as defensive.

‘Won’t You Be Bored?’

Here’s another interview pitfall that touches on overqualification. A hiring manager may ask in a skeptical tone, “Will this position challenge you?” or the inverse, “Won’t you be bored?” That question could mean a number of different things:

- Are you too ambitious, too much of a go-getter, to be satisfied with any potential career path within our company that starts from this role and this department?

- Are you pursuing this job as a stopgap in troubled times, just to have a paycheck and something to put at the top of your résumé? Will you be looking to flee as soon as something better comes along?

- Are you a team player who will happily contribute to your group by performing any legitimate task that’s asked of you? Or, will you resent having to roll up your sleeves and do things you didn’t expect or that seem beneath your credentials?

If you are sufficiently tuned in to the situation, you will be able to discern and respond to the interviewer’s real concern.

Jon Jacobs

With pay expectations ratcheting downward, jobless professionals need to consider the possibility of working for less. The key question is, “Less than what?”

Commenting on a recent eFinancialCareers News story, one user wrote: “It’s bad out there. I guess the only thing left is to put out resumes saying that you’ll be glad to fill the role of any existing finance executive for half whatever they are being paid now.”

Clearly, that approach won’t improve your odds of getting an offer. Perhaps it would, if you’re applying to mow someone’s lawn or mop their floors. But for a professional role, any viable for-profit employer will choose the best worker over the cheapest – regardless of economic circumstances.

More familiar is the opposite extreme: the proud individual who rejects “returning to the bottom after being at the top.” Or the one who grouses that employers are “low-balling,” and holds out for more than today’s market will pay for his skills and experience. If your expectations are too closely tied to your earnings history, you might repeatedly shun openings you qualify for because the compensation falls short. In that case, who is out of step? Employers – or you?

Option Holder’s Dilemma

I don’t mean to dismiss the long-term costs of accepting a major cut in salary. Whatever compensation level you accept now automatically sets the baseline for your bonus and annual reviews, as well as for what you can realistically seek in your next job after that. So it’s probable you will feel the financial sting for years – perhaps long after the job market has recovered.

But the alternative of holding out for a better offer entails hidden costs, too. As the months stretch out, your skills will surely fray around the edges. Even if you stay sharp through workshops and project or volunteer work, potential employers are likely to perceive your skills, and even your business relationships, as having dulled compared with a rival candidate who remained employed. The longer you’re unemployed, the more your market value will diminish.

A friend of mine captures the dilemma neatly with the phrase, “call option value.” By holding out for the rare opening that could utilize his full skill-set, he maintains the possibility of picking up his career where it was interrupted by layoff (i.e., at comparable levels of responsibility and salary). Taking a much lower-paying job would surrender that option. On the other hand, every option has an expiration date, and the option’s value decays over time.

Current conditions dictate that some financial professionals simply will not be re-employed at levels of pay close to their last previous job. Outside of trading and staff positions, bonus expectations for most front-office roles are sliding further from 2008′s depressed levels, Johnson Associates concluded from major banks’ first-quarter reports. The need to adjust expectations is particularly salient for professionals in transition, whose last bonus may have been awarded for 2007, when Wall Street bonus pools hovered near record highs. And while taxpayer-aided banks are raising salaries to offset government-imposed bonus limits, those raises appear confined to managing directors and senior management.

How to Start Over Without Appearing Desperate

Even if you’re willing to step down the ladder and work your way up again – and you find a prospect who doesn’t reject you off the bat as “overqualified” – the challenge doesn’t end there. There is still the delicate matter of discussing pay without seeming to cheapen your value.

Recruiter and author Nick Corcodilos tackled this issue recently on his “Ask the Headhunter” blog. He likens career change to jumping from a tree branch that is rotting to one that’s healthy. While the jumper backtracks to a lower starting point on the new branch, he raises his prospects of eventually climbing further by leaving a branch that would soon end or fall off the tree.

Corcodilos recommends a job-seeker present such a decision as an investment in long-term career growth: “Every step along my career is an investment, and if I can see profit at the end of the tunnel, I’m willing to go in.” While Corcodilos’ example referred to changing careers or industries, it also seems apt for any professional whose previous career path is blocked through no fault of her own.

Amy Rauch Neilson

You may feel desperate. In fact, you may very well be desperate. But blurt out, “I’ll take anything!” at a job interview, and you may blow your chances of being offered a job.

“I’ve seen a lot of desperate people and they are very scary,” says Cathy Fyock, director of recruiting for consultant Resources Global Professionals, headquartered in Irvine, Calif. “When an interviewer hears those three words, it’s a total red flag. It’s the worst thing an applicant can say because it implies that anything will do for the time being – and that they’ll be looking for what they really need in the meantime.”

It’s All About Them

Keep in mind that the employer is looking out for the company’s best interest – not yours. “A job interview requires that you put your feet in the shoes of the HR person,” says Sandy Allgeier, a former corporate HR executive and author of The Personal Credibility Factor. “The HR person who is interviewing you is interested in meeting the company’s needs. Your job is to demonstrate that you’ve done some advance thinking about what they need, and how you can help them.”

That calls for preparation. “An employer wants to hire a discerning employee – someone with the skills and passion for the job, someone who has taken the time to research the company,” says Fyock, who is also the author of five books, including The Truth About Hiring the Best. “You should know a lot about the company and the position. That’s what makes you a strong applicant.”

Play It Cool

You’ll also likely score points by playing it cool. “I think there can be a fine line between enthusiastic and over-enthusiastic. A candidate who is a little too excited would make me a bit nervous about offering them a position,” says Doug Gerlach, the vice president of strategic business development for BetterInvesting, an investment education organization headquartered in Madison Heights, Mich. “In fact, I think that sometimes it’s better for candidates to play it a bit cool during and after an interview.”

That’s a piece of advice best used in moderation. “I’m not suggesting that people who are looking for a job should be unprofessional,” Gerlach says. “If you don’t reply to my phone calls, messages, or e-mails promptly, then you’ll be moved down in the list for sure.”

The bottom line? “Be confident, not desperate,” says Steve Angel, chief executive of the Angel Group, LLC, a Louisville, Ky., executive search firm. “Interview to sell yourself and your skill set, and they’ll remember you. Even if you don’t get the job, they may invite you back at a later time for the position you really are suited for.”

Amy Rauch Neilson is a business writer based in Belleville, Mich.

“I’ve interviewed for a position with a company that wants to contact my current employer for a reference. Obviously, I don’t want anyone in my firm to know I’m looking for a new job, in case I decide to stay put. However, I’ve worked here for the last 15 years, and so no other references seem relevant. What should I do?”

Your prospective employer’s request is unrealistic: It would put your current position at risk. But you may have more options than you realize for providing professional references.

First, create a list of your business contacts. These could come from professional associations you belong to or community groups for whom you’ve volunteered or taken on leadership roles. In each case, people you’ve worked with can attest to your performance and work ethic.

Also, consider reaching out to colleagues or supervisors who’ve left your current firm. These people will be familiar with your work – and in the context of your recent experience. It’s worth considering whether any co-workers – or even supervisors from a different area of your firm – might be willing to provide a confidential reference for you, though obviously you should only approach people you fully trust with such a request.

Finally, there are clients: If you have a close enough relationship with a satisfied customer, they may be able to give the new company a clear idea of your skills and the quality of your work.

Whatever you do, before providing references be sure you get permission from the people you’re listing. Contact potential sources and ask if you can provide their names and contact information to the potential employer. Let them know what position you’re seeking, and the names of the organizations that may contact them. Offer to send them your resume so they’ll know what you’ve been up to.

Your question underscores the importance of keeping in touch. It’s essential to have at least three professional references at all times. Vow to integrate networking into your work life, and you’ll never again have to search for a reference.

Career management advice is a lot harder to evaluate than investment advice. There is no GAAP for how to craft a resume or dazzle an interviewer. So it’s only natural that highly experienced career management experts sometimes voice conflicting opinions as to how a candidate should navigate this or that facet of the hiring process. And there is often no credible published research that can help settle the question.

Having observed this time and again, I am reminded of a former boss’s remark: “There are no rules, only guidelines.” A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor, he was talking about the news-gathering process. Today his dictim strikes me as equally applicable to job-hunting.

Yes, there are things every job-seeker should do, and things no one should do. In between, however, lies a vast region of choices that might succeed in one situation but fall flat in another – and it’s often impossible to predict the result in advance.

Solid preparation can help. For instance, while it’s usually unwise to mention an unconventional hobby, you might score points if you’ve discovered your interviewer has the same hobby herself. Still, oftentimes a candidate is in the dark when weighing alternative answers or courses of action.

Views Differ

Take the post-interview thank-you message. You wouldn’t think such a seeminly routine item could be a hot-button issue among career authorities. But it seems to be just that. Some coaches tout a hand-written, hard-copy thank-you note as an ace in the hole that can help any qualified candidate stand out from the pack. Others say an e-mail thank-you is timelier, more businesslike and more likely to reach its intended target (how many hiring managers open and read their own hard-copy mail?). While I find the second group’s views far more compelling, it’s clear there is no authoritative consensus on this question.

That tells me that neither I alone, nor JobsintheMoney’s expert sources and writers, can resolve every major “best practices” question that job-seekers will face during the hiring and interview process. Some questions can be answered definitively, while for others the best anyone can do is explain the pros and cons – with each side’s advocates named – so each job-seeker at least will have the means to make an informed decision.

Another challenge when acting as a gatekeeper and arbiter among career management experts is recognizing that chance plays a big part in any particular interview or application process. I often hear of instances where a job-seeking tactic that clearly was not a “best practice” – such as blast-mailing 500 identical resumes to target employers, or asking about compensation during an initial interview – ended in success. In such cases, the news media and many individual job-seekers are prone to wrongly draw a causal arrow, and pronounce a tactic sound because it appeared to work in this or that isolated case. My experience at JITM and eFC has taught me to view those as “outlier” results: successful outcomes achieved despite, rather than because of, the particular tactics used.