Ranger Up Presents: How to Get a Job

In early 2012, Ranger Up CEO Nick Palmisciano posted a series of four videos on YouTube to help veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan find work. Having worked as a hiring manager, and having fought tooth and nail to climb the professional ladder, I found these videos fascinating and entirely legitimate - I can't remember a single thing that Palmisciano said that I disagreed with. The thing is, the advice Palmisciano offers is potentially useful for anyone trying to get hired. As such, I figured I'd post them for the benefit of any readers for whom the content would be relevant.

Ranger Up Presents: How to Get a Job Part 1, The Approach


Ranger Up Presents: How to get a Job, Part 2, The Resume


Ranger Up Presents: How to Get a Job as a Vet, Part 3, Networking


Ranger Up Presents: How to get a job as a Veteran Part 4, The Interview


Another resource that some folks may find helpful is Your Resume Stinks! from the Manager Tools Podcast. I'll add a few more tips that I've run into as both an interviewer and an interviewee.

Answer questions honestly while being interviewed. I once interviewed a guy whose answer - twice - to the question, "What's your greatest weakness?", was "I don't have any weaknesses, I'm a really strong person." All three members of the interview panel voted unanimously not to hire him.

Limit name-drops. On that same interview, the applicant couldn't answer a single question (other than the one about his weaknesses) without reminding the panel that he'd been in the Army. Things like that are okay to mention once or twice, but you should expect that if you've been invited in for an interview in the first place, you should expect that the hiring manager is aware of your qualifications and experience.

It also helps to anticipate your competition, and that's a follow-on from the last item. Most of the resumes I received as a hiring manager were a dime a dozen, and I tended to interview and eventually hire folks who could offer something different. I've also usually been hired because I could offer my potential employer something different than my competition could.

Be smart about what information you volunteer about yourself, and this is another one that's mentioned by Palmisciano. One candidate informed me that he'd shot off his toe - I didn't care that he was missing a toe, I cared that he'd volunteered information that called his personal responsibility and attention to detail into question.

Know what job you're applying to. If a hiring manager is trying to fill a recquisition for a technical writer and they get three hundred resumes for forklift drivers, the forklift drivers aren't going to receive responses inviting them to come in for an interview.

That's it for today.