Group Writing Project: Job-Hunt Hurdles

What is the one thing we all have to do at some point in our lives?
Hunt for a job.

I’m launching the start of a new Group Writing Project to create the Definitive Guide to Clearing Job-Hunt Hurdles. The concept is simple:

• Stick a post with your best job-hunting tip up on your blog. You may have already written something on the topic, or you may have something new that you want to share with job-hunters everywhere.

• Maybe you're long past the time when you have to worry about job-hunting, but you can still contribute to the conversation. We want to hear from young job-hunters, not-so-young job-hunters, recruiters, headhunters, career coaches, CV writers. If something you do now, or something you have done in your past, can help someone out there who is facing into a job-hunt, we want to hear from you.
  

• Include links to other people that have written posts for this project, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution. (Myself and the other moderators will be tracking this Project closely and will regularly post updates listing everyone's efforts).
  

  [You don't have to link back to everyone in the project; pick the ones you want to connect with or the ones that really wow you as it unfolds. A link back to this announcement post will help spread news of the project, and would be greatly appreciated.]
  

• If you use Technorati tags or Blogger labels then tag your post "Definitive Job-Hunt"

• Tag other bloggers in the body of your post to spread the meme. Email them directly if you can, to get them involved.
  

• If you link back here to the Fortify Your Oasis blog and pop me an email, I’ll make sure to include a minimum of three links back to you, as I provide updates on the Project. This isn’t a requirement, but it will really help me keep track of what’s going on.

I’ll do my best to collect all of the tips, to give us the Definitive Guide to Clearing Job-Hunt Hurdles. The ideal outcome with all this good stuff flying around the web is that together, we can produce a really useful e-book using a Creative Commons license. Let me know what you think of that in your feedback.

The stages (hurdles) of the job-hunt today, as I see it, are:

• Picking your target and all the research that goes into that.
• Representing yourself to the hilt in writng - CV/Résumé, Cover letter, App forms, emails.
  
• Blowing them away in the interview room.
  
• Jumping the other selection process hurdles - Phone screening, Presentations, Group interviews, Platform tests, Assessment centres, Psychometric profiling.
• Nailing yourself the best possible package.
• And they all lived happily ever after ...
  

Some great folks have already agreed to be involved with this Project:

• Liz Handlin over at Ultimate Resumes gives a career management and resume writer's perspective.

• Evil HR Lady gives ... well, the evil HR perspective. (Interestingly, she has more involvement at the end of the working relationship rather than the hiring end, so her pespective will be particularly intersting with regard to getting the hire and the relationship right from the outset.)

• Jason Warner talks from the perspective of a seasoned hirer. His no-nonsense, cut to the chase style should provide valuable insights.

• Jason Alba from Jibber Jobber has an all-encompassing view - given that he talks to everyone!

• Karen from Please Don't Call Us Headhunters has the headhunter view, feathers and all.

So whether you are an executive career advisor, a resume writer, an HR professional, a line manager, someone's long-suffering mother, or simply a job-hunter; the time has come to share your insights on this game of hurdles. I have long maintained that job-hunting (and wider career management) are nothing more than common sense, but it is sense that is rarely shared. If you are a skilled job-hunter, you don't tend to give away your best tips and tricks, and if you are a seriously unskilled job-hunter, you don't tend to share your latest cringing embarrassment in the pub with your friends. Maybe we should call it uncommon sense ...

Seeing as I’m bringing this project, kicking and screaming, into the 'sphere, I’m tagging Execupundit, Rands, Chief Happiness Officer, Katie Ledger, Lisa, The HR Capitalist, and Wally Bock. But everybody's views on this most trying of subjects deserve a hearing, so get clacking and let's hear your thoughts.

PS: Feel free to use the CV & Stethoscope graphic in your post.