Turning heads with the right resume

Company teaches customers how to get dream job

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"I turn lead into gold." Did those five words get your attention? That's exactly what they're supposed to do.

It's the slogan of Mark Hovind, president of JobBait.com, and he helps others get attention when they're searching for a job.

Although Hovind charges anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per client for his services and deals with people whose incomes might be $350,000 or more, he and his associate Art Ritter provide free advice during a support meeting they hold on the second Sunday of each month at First Presbyterian Church, 1515 W. Charleston Blvd.

"My clients come from across America and five continents," Hovind said, referring to those who pay for his services. "We get a wide spectrum of people -- doctors, lawyers, even janitors."

Hovind seems well-versed in what it takes to impress a company. His own work credentials include holding various executive positions. He said he has managed a staff as large as 350 employees and an annual budget of $700 million. He added that he has worked overseas and has taken two companies public.

Art Rader, a JobBait client who previously worked as a taxi driver, originally met Hovind at a dance lesson.

"If he can teach me how to dance, he can help me find a job," said Rader, who attended a recent support meeting.

Another attendee was Andy Vincent, a construction manager who said he was having difficulty snagging work for which he was suited. He brought along a revamped resume to the meeting.

"I'm not a fan of posting my resume online," Vincent said. "You never know who's out there."

Hovind said he wasn't a fan of online resumes, either, except to use them as a starting point to locate which companies were posting positions for jobs in applicants' areas of expertise. In a world of e-mails and thousands of online job sites, he stressed using snail mail. Why? It stands out and is your best chance for setting yourself apart, Hovind said.

"The response rate is up to six times higher than an Internet resume," he said.

The Internet also can twist the facts, he added. In fact, Ritter warned to be wary of statistics on employment trends when looking for job postings. He said some little town "may have one manufacturing plant and now it has two -- so they'll tell you they have a 100 percent increase."

At a recent support meeting, Hovind and Ritter concentrated on helping clients construct an introduction letter that would get noticed. The key -- in the first line, tell the executives how you can make their company better.

"The letter will lead to them asking for your resume, the resume will lead to an interview and the interview will get you the job," Hovind said.

Suggestions included jettisoning buzz words like "diligent" and "effective" and phrases like "collaborative team leader" in favor of a list accomplishments -- such as how the applicant cut costs for his or her last employer or got a job done ahead of schedule and under budget.

Advice from Hovind and Ritter includes scanning Internet job postings to determine what employers are looking for and then matching those needs to your history. They also suggest including a master list of skills, as some employees have a position created for them because they're deemed as highly valuable.

Rader told of a job interview where he was condescendingly asked why he was "just a cabbie." He didn't have a comeback.

Hovind told of being in a similar situation at a job interview.

"I was asked why I hadn't worked in a year and a half," he told the men at the support meeting. "And I said, 'Because I don't need to work. Do you?' "

At the end of the meeting, Rader said he was going to revamp his resume and letter of introduction and focus on "mental exercise, so when something is thrown at me, I won't sit there and go, 'Um.' "

Vincent said he, too, would be changing his resume.

"I put all these bullet points in there, 12 or 14 of them," he said. "I had everything in there."