In 2002, many job seekers are reporting that job search can be a miserable experience. Hiring is down and employers' standards for marketability are up, resulting in longer job searchers and more challenging circumstances for anyone involved in the process of finding new employment. In my job search coaching, I hear many clients express frustration with hiring managers and recruiters. A common lament is, "What do they WANT?"

In response,I interviewed Mary Nurrenbrock, a recruiter specializing in one of the hardest hit employment areas of this year: Product Management, Product Marketing, and General Marketing. Mary has been recruiting since 1996 and is the principal of Product Management Resources in Dayton, Ohio (she recruits nationally). She works in a variety of high tech vertical markets including but not limited to B2B software applications, wireless, and Internet. She came to recruiting after a successful career in sales and marketing, including eight years of Marketing and Channel Marketing in the ADC marketplace. Mary is a member of Top Echelon Network, the largest professional association of independently-owned recruiting firms.

I met Mary after noticing her post a particularly reflective and helpful message about job search strategies to PSPM (Puget Sound Product Marketing Forum), a Yahoo! group for professional product management and marketing professionals. I contacted Mary and she generously agreed to share her wisdom and insight about effective personal marketing strategies during an economic downturn.

JS: So this has been a really tough year for Product Management and Product Marketing. What hiring trends are you seeing now?

MN: I have seen more talent on the market in the last year than I did in the previous seven years. There are just so many more candidates who are really good than there are job openings. I do see a slight uptick in the industry, but I don't see demand coming close to equaling available talent for a long time. Because the high tech PM market is so depressed, I'm also working Sales and CPG as a diversification strategy.

JS: Should candidates do the same? In terms of diversifying their search if they can't find work in their chosen specialty?

MN: More and more people are making that choice. First the bad news: Employers want candidates who have "been there, done that." So the idea of "transferable skills" isn't really working in this economy because there are too many candidates who are already an exact fit with what the employer wants. Next the good news: It is never too late to make a career change if you are willing to re-train or to do something more entrepreneurial. I have a good friend who has been in IT recruiting for 20 years and she has closed shop and is going back to school to become a nurse. This lady is in her 50's! A former CEO of high tech startups in Virginia is now the General Manager of a car dealership, and he is loving it! A former hiring manager I know, someone with a pure high tech VP Marketing background, is going to run a small medical transcription contracting company. These folks are happy, fulfilled, and leaving the business.

JS: Those are inspiring stories. What about those PM professionals who don't want to leave their first love? What advice do you have for them?

MN: Well, as more people leave the field, there will be less competition for available spots! If you want to stay in the biz, you've got to focus, network, and research. There are market areas that are going to need talented PMs: Internet and data security, insurance, consumer goods, the medical field, biotech, government, and anything to do with biohazards. And there are many software companies servicing these markets. How do you get into these? Well, you don't send your standard resume and cover letter. "Paste, click, and send" ain't gonna work. It is the quality, not the quantity of resumes you send that counts. Research the company, find out what their problems are, and offer a solution. Rewrite your resume to address their needs. Highlight the experience that most applies to them and get it to a decision-maker. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it good!

JS: You mentioned the medical field and biotech. Lots of PMs from the high tech field are hoping to switch into these other fields because they are perceived as "hotter." How would they approach such a transition?

MN: Well the major difficulty is that most folks in the medical and biotech fields are highly educated, up through the Ph.D. level. And many doctors and nurses are bailing on their direct service careers because of the managed care phenomenon and they are choosing to transition into other areas of medical and biotech business arenas, too. So there is stiff competition, often for salaries that are far less than the high tech PM is accustomed to earning. I'd say most high tech PMs don't have much of a shot at landing a job in the medical or biotech fields right now unless they have some background or education that enables them to compete. If these fields mirror the dot com trajectory, however, it could be the case in two years that there will be more openings than candidates, and then the necessary qualifications will be fewer.

JS: Hopefully the biotech industry won't crash like the dot com industry did!

MN: Yes, hopefully not!

JS: Speaking of the dot com crash, it seems that the high tech downturn in general has really affected compensation levels, with many companies much less willing to negotiate with candidates - is that what you are seeing?

MN: Definitely. The bubble was like a dream world, with hugely inflated salary levels that are no longer being offered. If I meet a downsized PM who was earning $130K in his or her most recent position and I find out he or she was only earning $85K prior to 1999, I advise that candidate to get real about salary expectations, especially if the last place of employment is now out of business and no product was ever launched. In many cases, the $130K figure was not justified by performance. A lot of people are going to have to settle for pre-1999 compensation levels.

JS: It is good to know those type of market trends so that individuals don't take it personally. Any other job search advice?

MN: We are all feeling frustrated. We are all feeling the financial pinch. We all need to vent occasionally. But the most important assets you have are not the ones on your resume: attitude and friends. Use both creatively to your advantage. Keep your chin up, a smile in your voice, and network, network, network. Don't forget how to laugh!

JS: Let's talk about resumes. You must see a ton of resumes and have ideas about which ones are doing a good job of marketing for candidates and which ones are not.

MN: Absolutely! Some of these folks are doing themselves more harm than good.

JS: Will you share with us what the best resumes have in common?

MN: Yes. I prefer chronological resumes with a good summary (not an objective) at the top. Only include relevant experiences to the position being targeted. Describe each former employer's primary business so that readers can tell with what type of companies you've worked. Two pages is a perfect length - one page isn't sufficient for most people to describe what they have done and more than two pages is too long. Keep formatting simple - no text boxes or tables or tabs that will do weird things when recruiters and employers use software to manage their resume databases. Use Microsoft Word, not Excel or PDF files where the software can't parse and grab content. Use keywords liberally, including acronyms that we use in boolean searches to find candidates who are a match with the employer's needs.

JS: I bet you have a lot of tips about what not to do as well.

MN: YES! Here are some common mistakes people make on resumes that keep them from being taken seriously:

• Don't try to use a "one size fits all" resume and cover letter. Your competition is tailoring their materials, so you must do so, too.
  
  
• Don't describe generic job activity such as "Expertise in market requirements documents, market research, and product launch" that is generally expected for your field - include more detail about the documents you've written, the results of the market research you've conducted, and the outcome of the product launches you've managed. Don't forget to say what products you've managed - this is a critical detail.
  
  
• Don't put contact information in a header that will get stripped out on the reader's end and then he/she will have no way to contact you. Also don't forget to include an email address because much of the initial contact in hiring these days is done electronically.
  
  
• Don't use unprofessional email addresses. Also don't use the email address of your current employer to job hunt for your next position.
  
  
• Don't include references on resumes.
  
  
• Don't name your resume something like "resume.doc" - the person on the receiving end can only have one document open at a time with the same name. Instead, name your document something like like "Smith, John, Resume.doc."
  
  
• Don't forget to check both spelling and grammar.
  
  
• Don't include former supervisor's names and phone numbers on your resume.
  
  
• Don't include information that makes your resume look like a personal ad: "Single, Caucasian, Male," for example, is totally inappropriate to include.
  
  
• Don't put your social security number on your resume. This puts you at risk for identity theft.
  
  
• Don't use "cutesy" intros on a cover letter like: "If you need someone to enter the den, tame the lions, fight the alligators, and take the company to the next level..."
  
  
• Don't send a resume to a woman-owned recruiting firm and address it as "Dear Sir..."
  
  
• Don't list education as "Ohio State, 1990 - 1994" if you took one class per year and never attained a degree.
  
  
• Don't copywrite your resume - to do so looks paranoid.
  
  

JS: Mary, this is so helpful - thank you so much. If someone wants to contact you, may they email you?

MN: Yes, my email address is Mary_PMR@TopEchelon.com