We don’t know what we don’t know about the job search

What do the recruiter and hiring manager know that you don’t?

Ever wonder what your career would look like if you knew how HR, recruiters and your manager really think? If you did know what recruiters and hiring managers were thinking, maybe you would have accepted that dream job? Maybe you would have negotiated for the salary you wanted? Maybe you’d have made it into the NBA? Who knows. Stop daydreaming and pay attention. 😉

It’s your lucky day, mate. Today, you step into the light and learn recruiter and hiring manager secrets that will reframe the way you approach your job search and maybe even your career 

Personally, we got a leeeeeetle bit tired of the answers we are used to hearing from HR.  And most managers don’t have the courage to tell you what they’re really thinking (if you have one that does, she’s a keeper). We’re going to share the HR water cooler talk with you and provide insights into what is really said in those HR/manager/executive meetings. We’re going to automate your career search by taking the guesswork out of creating resumes, cover letters, networking, interviewing, and professional correspondence (aka email and LinkedIn). 

Questions to ask yourself

1. Is your current or last job in the industry in which you always wanted to work?
2. Did you have a specific brand, product, or service you believed in and wanted to work on before you started your job search?
3. Do you know if you landed a fair salary?
4. When you applied for a job, did you feel confident that your resume and cover letter would be reviewed?

If you answered “yes” to all of the above questions, congratulations. You must have landed your dream job. If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, you need to ask yourself…

How effective was my last job search?

The above questions were the genesis of Career Tracker.  The setting is Seattle, so of course, Jack’s little bean was planted over a chance meeting in a local coffee shop. A successful entrepreneur with serious dev chops and an HR executive with extensive recruiting experience got to talkin’. 1+1 really can make 3.

We recognized that unless you are in HR or have been in the workforce with a large company for many years, you probably don’t know a whole lot about the inner workings of the interview process. The two of us realized that, with technology and the right knowledge, we can build software that creates customizable resumes, cover letters, application job trackers, and automated email correspondence. We essentially set out to “technologize” all of the traditional pieces of a job search that can be confusing, tedious, and borderline demoralizing. It’s a black hole where resumes disappear and cover letters die. Recruiters and the evil HR department hold all the cards, and boy are they are held close to the chest, our friends. When 30 candidates are qualified for a job, why is one candidate called back and 29 others ignored? We know why and we’re sharing it because, well, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t understand these things…and frankly, everyone needs a job. 

We don’t know what we don’t know

You may have spent $100K on school, but how many credits did you earn learning about the resume writing or interview process? How many classes did you take on the topic of “How to be successful in corporate America?” Our bet is zero, nada, zilch-o. Did that college career counselor who helped you with your resume ever hire in corporate America? Probably not.

• Chemistry 101 credits? Check!
• Western civilization/culture credits? Check!
• Introduction and principles of Sociology credits? Check!
• Effective business email composition and the art of timely follow-ups. WTF?

You may know how to read and write about Western civilization as it relates to the sociological mores of the 20^th century, but what do you know about writing a resume, interviewing for a real job, or managing your manager? Most likely you know what you learned 2nd hand from parents and friends, or snoozed through in your Human Resources or Organizational Behavior classes.  

The stage is set

Enter stage left: An HR Executive who wanted to level the playing field, because in most cases the hiring company holds all the cards and the candidates never learned the odds of drawing to an inside flush. He has been blogging weekly for the past decade to help candidates land jobs and employees move their careers.

Enter stage right: A entrepreneur self-taught programmer working on an app to help candidates create winning resumes because he wanted and knew he could make a difference. 

Peanut butter meets chocolate. Bruce Lee meets nun-chucks. Your career just met an 800 lb. gorilla of a (double) delicious Reeses Peanut Butter Cup of a mentor. Yes, it is indeed your lucky day.

Like a two-man Captain Planet episode, they realized that between them they had the HR and recruiting insight of hiring and screening thousands of candidates, and the technological abilities and entrepreneurial acumen to build homegrown tools for automating your job search process. And since Captain Career was already taken, Career Tracker was born.

Let’s cut to the chase

Examples of things that suck, that we help suck less:

• Creating a resume from scratch. Rather eat street vendor meat off the ground? Perhaps move your entire houseful of belongings every week? Totally understandable. If so, give our resume builder a whirl and in 15-20 mins you will have a resume worth using for your job search.
• Writing a dozen cover letters, one for each company you apply to. What’s that? You’d rather sneeze with your eyes open? You’re not alone. Check out our cover letter creator and you’ll be whipping out cover letters faster than a knife fight in a phone booth. 
• Keeping track of 5–10+ job applications including follow up emails. Yep, we’d rather shave off Hagrid’s filthy beard and eat it too. Give our Application Tracker a spin to receive text message reminders for all of your follow-ups, and access email templates for easy breezy communication blissfulness.  
• Becoming an expert in everything from documentation to company research to interview skills. Okay, well one of us actually did that so lay off! But, we understand it’s not for everyone, so check out our Resource Portal and Blog for all of your questions on the job search process. 

Career Tracker’s may just save your ass

(and all of your job search documents and correspondence, too)

In addition to all of the above, you also get a place to store and organize your resumes, cover letters, follow-up emails in a nice and tidy thread so you don’t lose track of where you are, what you’ve done and said, and which documents you’ve used. And…the blood pressure is lowering…the pulse is subsiding…and you’re realizing this may be a bit easier than you thought it was. And yeah, it’s all free too. Probably not forever, but for now, it’s totally free. 

We are looking forward to working with you and want to level the playing field. So puff up your chest and throw down some swagger. You have an 800-pound gorilla in your corner and you are ready to launch/re-launch your career.

Stick with us, and let us show you our interview loop. 

– Brian and Ringo, Cofounders, Career Tracker

 

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