Tony Beshara, Author at Tony Beshara Blog

About Tony Beshara

Tony Beshara is the owner and president of Babich & Associates, established in 1952, and the oldest placement and recruitment service in Texas. It is consistently one of the top contingency placement firms in the DFW area and has been recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work in DFW” by the Dallas Business Journal. He has been a professional recruiter since 1973 and has personally found jobs for more than 12,000 individuals. He sits behind a desk every day, working the phone literally seven hours of the twelve hours a day, making more than 100 calls a day. He is in the trenches on a day-to-day basis. Tony has personally interviewed more than 30,000 people on all professional levels and has worked with more than 75,000 hiring authorities. Babich & Associates has helped more than 100,000 people find jobs using Tony’s process. Tony is one of the most successful placement and recruitment professionals in the United States.

…five biggest resume mistakes

1. people overestimate the value of a resume…it isn’t going to get you a job…sending it, thinking that it is magical, is an error…it may not even get you an interview

2. the average resume gets read in 10 seconds…don’t think someone is reading and digesting what you wrote…if you don’t get their attention in 10 seconds, it isn’t working

3. people underestimate the number of resumes they are competing with…on average …300

4. people overestimate the qualifications of the people who will screen, read and or “pass” their resume along…if you think the “right” people are reading your resume..you are wrong…

5. people write the wrong content on their resume…they write what they understand about themselves …forgetting that unless they are clear about what their company does and what they do, most people won’t understand it…if your resume can’t be understood by a high school senior…who doesn’t know you…you are writing the wrong content…

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-25T21:32:35-05:00September 25, 2008|resumes|

…informational interviews

so much has been written and spoken about these over the years…save your breath, time and trouble..

no employer in today’s market…who is worth talking to, has time to give you an “informational” interview…now if it is your uncle, or your dad’s best friend…maybe…

but don’t call someone and ask for an informational interview..you are either looking for a job or not…and if you are..talk to people that might have one…ask for a job…not information…how wimpy!

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-23T21:49:48-05:00September 23, 2008|communication, interviewing, job search strategies|

…keep ’em short and to the point

get this right!…long emails to potential employers don’t get read…

just like cover letters and even resumes..keep ’em short and to the point…emails should be four or five lines..no more..

hiring authorities get hundreds of emails a day…they even miss some…but anything longer than four or five lines will get shorted…use bullet points and “hit ’em quick and hard”

you are going to read it four or five times before you send it…your hiring authority is going to scan it once…maybe read the first two sentences or so…

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-22T21:26:10-05:00September 22, 2008|communication, resumes|

….my clinical depression

wonderful candidate…great job opportunity…makes it through four interviews and near the final one he talks about overcoming clinical depression…all of a sudden the conversation got real strained and silent…now they are thinking about it..

the employer believes the job is really stressful and some of the folks there are wondering if the candidate can take the pressure…

the sad thing is there was no good reason for him to talk about his depression…simply no good reason…he thought it would make him appear as someone who had overcome personal challenges…

Lesson:..anything, …i mean anything that may be a personal liability, that isn’t essential to the job..DON’ BRING IT UP…

don’t know yet what the company will decide, but candidate didn’t need to bring this up

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-14T21:08:12-05:00September 14, 2008|communication, interviewing|

…excuses for your screw ups

if you have made a couple of screw ups in your career..(and who hasn’t) don’t try to make stupid excuses about why they happened…

just today, i interviewed a candidate who blamed everyone but himself for all of the mistakes he had made..it was always someone else’s fault that he or his situations failed…and this is over a 15 year history…give me a break!

hey, none of us haven’t made mistakes…accept the responsibility…don’t moan or groan about it…tell a perspective employer how much you learned from it..but admit to having made an error in judgment…make lemonade out of the lemons…

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-09T22:07:07-05:00September 9, 2008|communication, interviewing|

…”well, my severance is about to run out”

…hello! …wake up! what employer is going to want to hire a candidate that says that the reason he started looking for a job is that his severance is about to run out…

..on top of that, the candidate put off looking for a job for four months, and in the next two months his severance will end, and so he has decided to look for a job…

THINK THIS: “How does what I say appear to a perspective employer? Do I come across as a hard working, determined employee who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done?”

By Tony Beshara|2018-07-25T13:39:25-05:00September 8, 2008|career development, job search, job search strategies|

..politics

we know that sara palin kicked butt…but don’t you dare discuss it in an interview…

if there is even an hint of being drawn into a political conversation…don’t do it…YOU need a job…not get elected..

simply nod your head and say, “It’s all very interesting.” then s-h-u-t u-p!…bring the conversation back to the interview…what you can do for the company

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-04T21:11:36-05:00September 4, 2008|communication, employers, interviewing|

don’t play not to lose..play to win

our candidate made it to the finals…after four interviews, he made it to the last two interviews…

he is a dynamic guy…aggressive, assertive, bright, witty and really knew how to sell himself…he had a great track record..frankly, he was perfect for the job..

but as he got closer to the final interviews, he started thinking about how well he was doing in the process and then started thinking…”i’m doing so well…better not screw up!”

so, instead of interviewing the same way he did to get to the finals, he toned down, didn’t want to take any chances, quit being aggressive, assertive, bright, witty and, unfortunately quit selling himself….he was afraid to loose..

well, he didn’t get hired…

lesson…dance with what ‘brung ya…keep doing what you did to get where you are…don’t alter your interviewing style when you get to the finals…

By Tony Beshara|2008-09-03T21:47:41-05:00September 3, 2008|communication, interviewing, job search strategies|

“my business on the side..”

candidate thinks that he wants to communicate he is an entrepenure, so he tells the hiring authority that he has a business on the side…that is very successful, he adds…

now, if you are trying to hire someone to work really hard for you, whose money do you think the candidate is going to protect first…your’s and your company’s or his???

if the business is so successful, why would one look for a job?

pleeeeez…if you have a business on the side you will kill your chances of getting hired by telling an employer about it

…on top of that …you’ll look stupid!

By Tony Beshara|2008-08-28T21:26:10-05:00August 28, 2008|communication, interviewing|

goatees and beards

i know that many will say that i ain’t “with it” or an old fuddy-duddy…BUT…men (..women too, i guess) who grow or keep goatees and beards while job searching, should rethink the decision..

employers are prone to ..even subconsciously..question a candidate’s viability if the candidate is wearing a goatee or beard more than those that are clean shaven..

don’t ask me why…and you can claim all you want that it isn’t fair …but there is a tendency to think that people are covering up “something” when they grow at goatee or beard

and the truth is, they are…they are covering up…. their face..

studies have shown that there is a slightly subconscious, distrustful, negative feeling toward candidates with goatees or beards…it is very subtle, but nonetheless, there…and, as a candidate, you simply don’t need even a subtle negative feeling toward you

it doesn’t matter if your wife, girl friend, mother, etc. think you look great with a beard…unless they want to hire you, get rid of any facial hair during your interviewing process..

you can always grow it back after you find a job…

By Tony Beshara|2008-08-25T21:18:02-05:00August 25, 2008|communication, interviewing, job search strategies, psychology|