#getting-work-with-ink

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Skills, Skills, Skills!

There are lots of places you can go for advice on what you should do during your job hunt, covering how you should write your resume, how you should apply for the job, what to play up or play down during an interview, etc. etc. For the most part, advice from one source will agree with many of the others. The variation will lie mostly in who cares to address what specific topics on any given day. Really, if you're looking for work, read as many of these articles as you can. After a few dozen, you'll get a feel for the common themes to which you'll want to be attentive.

One thing they all keep coming back to, regardless of whether they suggest you brew up a wildly innovative video resume on YouTube or opt for the most buttoned-down conservative suit & tie and resume on fancy linen paper you can imagine, is this:

Employers are looking for applicants with skills.

Of course it's important that you get the attention of potential employers, and there are lots of good stories about people who have gotten their dream jobs with really creative efforts. Just remember, these stories are the extreme outliers, and the people behind them had the skills to back up their unorthodox applications.

Not everyone has the talent to make one of those resumes, and not every job demands that kind of creativity. Draw what inspiration you can from them, but before you decide to pour hours into something you hope will go viral, spend some serious time examining your complete skill set. Sit down and make a list of everything you know how to do. You'll probably be amazed. 

When you create your profile on Cuttlefish, you can add any skills you want, as tags attached to your professional experiences, your eduction, or even free-form, outside of any specific experience. (For example, learning to drive a car.) When you look for jobs matching your skill set, or when employers are looking for leads into qualified applicants, the more skills you have the better. (Of course, if you don't want to be notified about certain kinds of work, feel free to leave your skills in those areas off your resume.)

Don't be afraid to be specific! If you're a programmer, you can enter every programming language as its own skill tag. If you're a medical professional, list all of your certifications, qualifications, and procedures you're familiar with. Warehouse workers, get into what product lines you're familiar with. Never had a job before, but you're really good at makeup? Or tracking sports stats? Or building models? Put it on there! Avocations skills count too, and you never know what kind of work there might be out there for you.

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You Are The Remarkable Applicant – part 3

When you’re applying for a job, you need to make a lasting impression on the hiring manager. Generally speaking, there are three phases to making sure you get remembered. In this final installment, we’ll go over what to do after you’ve completed your interview.

Don’t let them forget about you!

As you're concluding your interview, be sure to get the interviewer's business card, or some other kind of contact info. As soon as possible, write a sincere thank you letter. Sending it by email the same day as the interview is acceptable, but you can also send an old-fashioned paper letter if that’s your thing. Some people content that the paper letter may have more impact, and a physical reminder of your interview may end up lingering on the interviewer's desk for a while. Personally, I prefer the electronic approach, just to avoid any delay in delivery. Both options are good, so long as you send something.

Avoid using any kind of boiler-plate text, or content copied from a "how to write a thank you letter" web page. You’re still working to make an impression at this stage, and wording that is obviously impersonal isn’t going to help you any.

Thank the interviewer for his or her time, and reference the specific topics you spoke about. This is a good chance to expand on any answers you feel may have not been as complete as you would have liked in the heat of the moment. If you’ve thought of any additional questions, or cooked up new solutions for the challenges the company is facing, express them now. Show them you’re thinking like someone who wants to be on the team!

After three or four days – certainly no longer than a week – be sure to call the company back to check up on how the process is going, and restate your interest in the position. Mostly this serves to remind the company of who you are, and that you’re a serious candidate. Sometimes, demonstrating initiative by making this kind of follow up call can result in an immediate second interview. As long as you don't make a total pest of yourself, there's essentially no downside to calling.

If you're being considered for the position, this is the stage when most managers will start checking up on you online. Use that to your advantage! Tweet about the great interview you had with a “very interesting company”, and how excited you are by the prospect of working there. If you have a LinkedIn account (and if you’re looking for jobs, why wouldn’t you?), follow the company’s page. Make sure your Facebook profile picture is actually of your face – you don’t want that interviewer to forget your face, right?

Speaking of Facebook photos, we all like to have fun, and lots of people have some goofy party pictures. Some of us veer away from goofy straight into wild. That's fine, just make sure you have your privacy settings the way you want them. There are plenty of tutorials online to help you take care of that, as well as some newer info about Facebook's Graph Search tool, which may expose more information about you than you realized. Of course, the best protection is to simply not have any questionable info available anywhere. You can check how your page appears to other users or the general public by following these steps.

After that, job hunting often comes down to a waiting game. If you've done all you can – presented a grade-A resume, interviewed with verve, and kept your name on the top of their lists afterward – there's not much more you can do but cross your fingers. Sending a basket of muffins might be a little bit obvious, don't you think?

Of course, you could always pass the time searching for more great jobs on Cuttlefish!

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You Are The Remarkable Applicant - part 2

When you’re applying for a job, you need to make a lasting impression on the hiring manager. Generally speaking, there are three phases to making sure you get remembered. This time we’ll look at the interview itself, and how you can conduct yourself so they remember you favorably.

Make yourself stand out in the interview

If you were using a mainstream job hunting site, this would be the Danger Phase. The moment when you and the interviewer meet face-to-face, and the shocking truth emerges: that person who looks so good on paper has visible tattoos!

The interview is the moment when you get to impress the employer with who you really are. You’re not just a list of appropriate skills on a resume anymore. Now you’re a living, breathing, unique, vibrant person who is going to fill the gap in their roster. You have this opportunity to tell your story, explain about your past accomplishments, and make them want you.

Just remember - if they posted the job on Cuttlefish, you’re dealing with a company that doesn’t discriminate against tattoos. You might very well be able to use those tattoos to your advantage in this interview! Instead of being “the one with the glasses and a blue shirt,” you get to be “the one with the wrought-iron ivy tattoo”. (Or whatever!) Your goal is to be remembered, and be remembered favorably.

Bear in mind, “tattoo-friendly” doesn’t mean they can allow absolutely anything. If some of your tattoos are R-rated, you might want to consider keeping them to yourself at this stage. Even if it’s the most artfully executed tattoo in history, your “Murder-Orgy of Zombie Caligula” tableau might not be the image you want to leave in your potential boss’s head. But who knows - once you’re on the team, they might think it’s awesome.

Your interview wardrobe presents an interesting conundrum.  If you’ve got visible tattoos and applied for a job through Cuttlefish, you’re already dealing with a company that is probably fairly progressive. This gives you more freedom with your choices than an interview with a more conservative company might tolerate. So, do you wear something traditional, even borderline boring? Opt for something edgy, which better expresses who you are? Whatever you do, don’t go sloppy. You’re making a statement beyond what your tattoos say about you, so consider carefully. Unless you know better one hundred percent, jeans and wrinkles are not going to cut it.

Be sure to do your research on the company before showing up for your interview. You'll want to ask insightful questions, or at the very least, avoid spending time on easy ones that you can Google up answers for on your own. You can always be prepared for some interviewers' stock questions, like "what is your greatest strength/weakness?" Come up with solid, honest answers to these questions, and have brief stories ready to demonstrate the characteristic in question.

As for the interview itself, don’t be afraid to engage the interviewer. About half of all people are introverts by nature – even people with tattoos! ­– but this is a situation where it pays off to put yourself forward. Ask the interviewer questions about the company, about the position, about future projects, their competition – anything you can think of! A job interview is two-way, so demonstrate how much you are interested in them. And when you answer their questions, try to adopt the mindset that you are already on the job, and you’re working to solve the company’s problems. Care about the job like it’s your job. Just don’t actually say, “Oh, in my mind I’ve already got this position!”

In general, the more you interact and put yourself out there, the more there is for the hiring manager to remember when it comes time to pick the best candidate.

[cuttlef-sh]

You Are The Remarkable Applicant - part 1

When you 're applying for a job, you need to make a lasting impression on the hiring manager. Generally speaking, there are three phases to making sure you get remembered. First – but not actually foremost! – is your resume.

Catch their eye with your resume

The first thing every hiring manager needs to know is: does this person have the skills I am looking for? When you build your resume on Cuttlefish, our Experience Builder lets you tag each of your work, school, and life experiences with related skill tags. When you apply for a job, we 'll automatically highlight those skills that match what the employer is looking for, so they jump right out for the hiring manager.

Another thing to bear in mind: keep it short. Resumes are not read, they are scanned. Hiring managers often have dozens (or hundreds!) or resumes to look over, and they simply don 't have the time or energy to read six-page biographies. Which is not to say you arent fascinating; it 's just a matter of economy!

To help you keep it short, you can custom tailor your Cuttlefish resume to include only those experiences & accomplishments that are most relevant to the position you are applying for. And don 't worry about formatting - we 'll fit your details into our clean template, to ensure readability and a good layout.

One last thing, and this is important! Write an honest, conversational cover letter. Once your resume is deemed a good match, this is where a manager will turn to get to know you a little better.

Your cover letter should still fit on a single page, but it 's your chance to shine, and really show who you are. Tell a story about yourself. Avoid stilted phrases, jargon, and definitely pay attention to your spelling and grammar.

Having a friend read your cover letter before you send it is often a good idea. Another set of eyes will often catch errors you miss, and friends can let you know, "Yeah, this sounds like you!" You can also get proofreading help online. There are dozens of people available on the service marketplace Fiverr.com who will edit your writing for five bucks.

If you have a resume that matches what a manager is looking for, and an introductory letter that piques their interest, with a little luck you 'll be called in for an interview in no time. And that will be part 2.

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Your Ink Can Be Expressive. Your Email Address?....

Before you even get called in for an interview, your resume needs to make a good impression. With our Experience Builder tool, Cuttlefish tries to take a lot of the layout and formatting work off your hands, so you can concentrate on describing your skills and work history. But no matter how exemplary your skill set, any hiring manager is going to think twice about contacting someone with a lewd, silly, or otherwise unprofessional email address.

A friend of ours put this out on Facebook today:

Here's my free career advice of the day- if you are applying for a professional position, the email address on your resume should not include the following words: cutie, stud, or sassy (as in "cutie231" or "uva_stud" or "sassy.b"). You're welcome.

This brings up something of paramount important for any job hunter. Any time you are trying to get a job, you need to be on your A-game. Even when you've identified a tattoo-friendly company to approach, you must bear in mind that "tattoo-friendly" is not synonymous with "will put up with unprofessionalism."

There are numerous free email providers, though the one most commonly recommended is definitely Gmail. Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL are still viable options, but may seem a little out-of-date. Regardless of who you create a job hunting email address with, keep the format clear and simple. The safest bet: your first name, your last name, and if necessary some kind of numerical suffix.

Avoid using numbers that might reveal your age – such as your date of birth or graduation – or any other potentially sensitive information that might influence a manager's decision to contact you, e.g. religious references, medical terms, or political affiliations.  (Although discrimination based on those items is against the law, it would be hard to prove that you didn't get a job because your email address is "[email protected]")

It may seem like a frivolous point to address, but it's for real. Managers see oddball email addresses on resumes every day, and really do use them as an easy way to separate the serious applicants from the throw-aways.

When it comes to getting a job, you should have as many details working in your favor as you can get. Even with a progressive, tattoo-friendly employer!

[cuttlef-sh]

Don't Lose Your Tattoo!

Integrity - the temporary staffing & recruitment agency famous for hiring for tattoo-friendly Amazon.com – published an article a couple days ago addressing the issue of whether to remove or cover up a tattoo in preparation for an interview. While they did a fair job of weighing the pros and cons, their conclusion ultimately came to "If at all possible, and if it makes sense in the company, try to cover it up during your interview. They can learn about it later." In a world without Cuttlefish, that's probably the best advice anyone can give... but it doesn't really satisfy, does it?

Say you cover up the tattoos, and the hiring manager for your dream job learns about them later... just like Integrity advises. And then you don't get the job. It's not a far-fetched scenario, and has happened to many people! Wouldn't it have been better for both the prospective employee and the hiring manager to have spared themselves the time, energy, and frustration in the first place?

By posting a job on Cuttlefish, an employer is telling you "we are interested in your skill set, and your ability to Get The Job Done," not your tattoos!

By searching Cuttlefish, job hunters save themselves the time and uncertainty endemic to scouring those other job sites, hoping that the next dream job won't demand a weekly budget for concealer.

There is a better answer than covering up, or paying for expensive & time-consuming laser removal: do your job hunting on Cuttlefish!

[cuttlef-sh]

Job Hunting With Tattoos

When the idea for the Cuttlefish project first came up, I started looking around for existing job hunting tools for people with tattoos. I found very little that was worth anything; most of what's available is shoddy articles on link-baiting sites (that pretend to offer useful content, but really just want you to visit their page to boost their ad impressions), and a few blog posts about how much it sucks to have a great interview, but lose the job because of a little ink you didn't –– or couldn't –– cover up.

It's pretty insulting to scour the Internet for tips on what kinds of jobs you can get without worrying about your ink, and the best you find is along the lines of, "You can be a roadie! Or an artist! Or a dishwasher! Or –– really vaguely –– some kind of office worker!" There's never a mention of whose office that work will be with, and the major employment sites offer nothing to make the search any easier.

So obviously it would be helpful to have a site that lists only jobs with companies that don't discriminate against tattoos! That's what Cuttlefish is for: to help you find good jobs with good companies, who won't turn you down on the basis of skin art.

Additionally, we'll feature contributor perspectives on job hunting with tattoos, articles related to the tattoo & body modification scene, and throw in a splash of stuff from the Twitter feeds of some of the best tattoo artists in the country.