Pretty in Pink?

 

I'll be the first to advocate the importance of a resume's appearance. But let's run down the list of what is acceptable and what is "taboo" regarding the visual (and in Elle's case from the video, the "scent") aspect of your printed resume:

1. PAPER COLOR

** White is best.

** Cream is OK.

** Everything else, including pink, is not recommended.

2. PAPER SCENT

** No.

3. PAPER TEXTURE

** Cotton is good.

** Linen is good.

** Others are only recommended if you can't use one of the two above.

Is Your Resume a Cardboard Cutout?

Does your resume contain the phrase "team player"?

Does your resume have an objective that states, "Seeking a position in a dynamic organization with the opportunity for advancement"?

Are you "responsible for..." many things; do you demonstrate "excellent oral and written communication skills"?

In other words, is your resume a cardboard cutout?

I come across 100s of resumes each year that contains the same words and phrases, over and over again. Where do these resume cliches come from? Often, they come straight from the job advertisements, usually in the Qualifications section. You will see calls for "self-starters" who can "manage multiple tasks" and "can be counted on to get the job done" (OK, you may not see too much of the latter- even cliches can eventually be retired). Thus, job seekers will feel, correctly, that they need to replicate the ads as much as possible. But in order to avoid the cliches, the best place to analyze the job ads is in the Job Requirements section. You can find keywords and key phrases that you can paraphrase while avoiding the "cardboard-cutout" items.

There are numerous resume cliches to avoid, so a comprehensive list is nearly impossible; however, here are some to avoid:

Self-Starter
Results-Driven
Team Player
Excellent Oral and Written Communication Skills
Multi-Task Management
People Person
Interpersonal Skills
Attention to Detail

And here's an example from an ad in a local newspaper:

ELIGIBILITY SUPERVISOR

Applicant must have extensive knowledge of Social Security Administration Policy and of State Medicaid policy and regulations.​ Must be a self-starter, independent and demonstrate attention to detail.​ Must have strong communication skills and the ability to motivate others and lead by example.​ Excellent phone, verbal and written skills required.​ 

(NOTE ON PICTURE: Yes, that is a cardboard cutout of Ban Ki-moon, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations).

Keeping a Job Search Contact Log

Job Search Contact Log

Keep detailed notes of each contact. When your search is concluded, it is a good idea to keep this log for your future reference.

 EXAMPLE:

Company Name: NAME OF COMPANY

Company Address: ADDRESS

Contact Person(s): Mr. John Doe     

Phone Number(s): (555) 555-5555

Title or position(s) sought: Logistics Manager

Date advertised (if applicable): 11/1/010

Date Mailed:                           Date Emailed: 11/5/10

Date of 1st call: 11/7/10           Date of 2nd call:                      Date of 3rd call:

Notes: Spoke to Ms. Johnson in Human Resources. They did receive the resume but didn’t give a definite date for a response. Received phone call from Mr. Doe. Interviewed on 11/14. Went very well. Compensation is a bit less than what I am seeking- will continue to look. Sent polite rejection letter- left open possibility for the future.

JOB SEARCH CONTACT LOG

Company Name:

Company Address:

Contact Person(s):

Phone Number(s):

Title or position(s) sought:

Date advertised (if applicable):

Date Mailed:                                      Date Emailed:

Date of 1st call:                                   Date of 2nd call:                      Date of 3rd call:

Notes:

COPY-PASTE THE ABOVE ENTRY INTO A WORD PROCESSING DOCUMENT AS MANY TIMES AS YOU NEED TO IN ORDER TO CREATE A JOB SEARCH CONTACT LOG.

Who Is Hiring?

That's really the question many of us want to know, right? Who exactly IS hiring these days? And more importantly, how do we find these employers? Without sounding glib, the answer is simple:

Everyone.

Now, before you throw the proverbial tomatoes at me through the computer, I'd like to explain what I mean by that. The attitude that one has to have regarding job search is that every company and organization is a potential employer. Certainly, we know the companies that are looking for new hires through the ads they place on sites like Monster or in the Careers section of their website. But how many times have you heard of someone getting a job offer through their personal network? How many times do you think there are openings out there that are not yet advertised? How many times can a company take the leap and hire a valuable employee - even create a position for him or her- when they don't actually have an opening?

More than you think.

Use the traditional methods of job search through advertised openings, because this can certainly be effective- search on SimplyHired, Monster, sites for organizations you'd like to work for, etc. But keep the mindset that everyone is hiring, and have your resume, cover letter, references summary, interview "talking points" and outfit, and everything else ready for a "moment's notice" opportunity. Remind yourself that, potentially, everyone is hiring, and you may wind up securing a position that you truly enjoy rather than one you felt you had to take. Maintain, as a core objective of your job search, the belief that everyone is hiring, and you position yourself much better for success.

Sample Thank You Letter

[Date]

[Name of Interviewer]

[Name of Company]

[Address]

[City, State Zip]

Dear ___________:

It was a pleasure to speak with you earlier this week regarding your current opening. I appreciate the time and information you shared about your current needs and goals.

After reviewing our conversation, it is evident that a key aspect of this position is the ability to work with others and help medical professionals develop curriculum to improve the quality of video production.  As we discussed in our interview, I have worked successfully with many diverse groups, including staff, administration, students, and parents, in order to achieve mutually beneficial goals.  In addition, I have extensive experience working as a volunteer to assist community groups in developing video presentations, including the NAME OF ORGANIZATION and the NAME OF ORGANIZATION. I feel that my strong background in this area has helped me to develop the skills necessary for helping others plan and implement an improved video lesson.   

I look forward to hearing from you again so that we may continue our discussions regarding your organization’s needs and the efforts I could contribute towards their fulfillment.

Again, thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

NAME

An Employment Tirade Against Our Corporate and Government Leaders

CLOSE TO 10% OF OUR COUNTRY IS OUT OF WORK, AND WE AMERICANS ARE TIRED OF INACTION BY OUR CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT LEADERS!

Every once in a while, it becomes necessary to stand on our proverbial "soapbox" and express our opinion about a topic of great concern to us. My beef is with our large number of unemployed American citizens.

WE AMERICANS ARE CALLING ON YOU, CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT LEADERS! You all are in positions of power. You have the power to make decisions that can put more Americans to work. You talk to us Americans about strategic plans, but you do not discuss execution of those plans. You tell us that things are going to be better, that "Good Times" are on the way, that it is not your fault but the fault of the other guy, and that you speak for all of us who are suffering through these trying times.

But we do not need you to "speak" for us. We do not need you to represent us, advocate our cause, champion our plight, or empathize with our situations. What we need you to do is....

DO.

Discuss, debate, analyze and project all you want. Ultimately, we need you to DO. Stop talking and start doing. Employers? You need to analyze, recruit, source, interview, and hire. Government? You need to promote, facilitate, and strengthen any policies that spur job creation. We, the People? We need to search, apply, interview, search, apply, interview, search, apply, interview- and repeat and repeat and repeat until we find work. Everyone has their responsibilities, but ultimately, the most important thing to do is to:

DO.

Evaluating your Job Search Performance

How are you "performing" on your current job search? Are you utilizing as many strategies as possible to locate opportunities and secure interviews? Job search is a complex process that offers numerous possibilities and approaches- which can leave someone somewhat confused and exasperated as to the best paths to follow. Keeping track of our job search activities is important- and so is evaluating our performance.

Use the following chart to analyze your job search performance:

Resume Distribution
1. Number of resumes sent directly to advertised positions
a. Cover letter accompanied resume on    each submission? [Yes/No]
b. Number of follow-up phone calls made for    advertised positions
2. Names of web sites used as sources for job ads (e.g. www.simplyhired.com, www.monster.com, www.indeed.com, www.careerbuilder.com, niche sites)
3. Names of search engines used to find ads on company web sites (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN)
4. Names of registered boards used in job search (e.g. The Ladders, LinkedIn)
5. Number of resumes sent directly to companies without an advertised position (cold call-type of submissions)
a. Cover letter accompanied resume on    each submission? [Yes/No]
b. Number of follow-up phone calls made for    non-advertised positions
Recruiters
1. Number of recruiters used in job search and the names of the firms/recruiters
2. Comments from recruiters regarding resume, cover letter, and job search strategies (the more specific, the better)
3. Continual contact with recruiters? (Yes/No)
Additional Questions
1.      Are you applying for jobs outside of your geographical area?
2.      For any positions outside of your geographical area, does your resume clearly state “Planning Relocation” at the top?
3.      Have you noticed any requirements mentioned in ads that you do not meet? Please list as many of these as possible.

Proofreading Your Resume

 

In this video clip from Friends, Rachel misses an obvious typo in "compuper" instead of "computer." Most of us would laugh at that one because SpellCheck could have easily caught it. And SpellCheck is certainly a valuable tool to use when proofreading your resume. 

But when is SpellCheck not effective? 

SpellCheck does not detect when you use an incorrect spelling of a word that is in itself an actual word spelled correctly. The following are all actual examples from resumes I've read over the years:

** "Reported directly to the district manger."

** "Examined the problems from several different angels."

** "Responsibilities included requirements gathering, design, development, teasing, troubleshooting, and deployment."

Notice the errors in each one? Yet SpellCheck wouldn't detect any of these. It is imperative that you eye-check as well as SpellCheck your resume. If it's difficult for you to do so, here are 2 tips to help:

1. Have a trusted friend proofread your document. It is a proven phenomenon that we can look at what we have written and see not only what is on the paper, but what it is also in our mind's eye and not actually in the document. An outside party- one whom you trust- should be able to assist in this regard because he or she is looking at it with fresh eyes and can see what you cannot.

2. Proofread the resume from the bottom to the top. Yes, this sounds time-consuming, but for a 2-page resume, and your most important career document, isn't it worth it?? Some have found it effective to take a ruler and move it up line by line, reviewing only the line directly above the ruler to ensure correct spelling, punctuation, and overall grammar. 

Proofreading your resume with computer-aided tools is certainly beneficial and recommended. But even compupers can't catch everything that your pupils can.

Emphasizing Current Achievements

I’ll use the example of an American rock band, Cheap Trick, for this entry about “not resting on one’s laurels." Cheap Trick is a musical group that has been putting out albums since 1977, with some familiar hits along the way in the 70s and 80s such as “I Want You to Want Me,” “Surrender,” and “The Flame.” As has happened to many of the bands from that time period, as musical tastes changed in the 90s and 2000s, the songs that used to be hits and played non-stop on radio were overlooked in favor of the newer groups and musical trends. Many groups from these eras elected to end their recording careers at this time, and when they perform in concert, their catalog of songs is limited to the songs from their heyday. Cheap Trick chose a different route. Throughout the 90s and the 2000 decade, they have continued to release CD after CD of new material, and the band represents all eras of their music when they play live, hits as well as non-hits.  Certainly, this is a group that has not rested on its past fame, but has continued to produce high-quality music and maintain an impressive career in this field for 5 decades. 

My question to the modern job seeker is this: are you resting too much on your past laurels? Are you de-valuing achievements from your current position? In my practice, particularly in the current recession where millions have been forced to take positions outside their career fields, I have seen many, many clients who are not as happy with some of their current positions as their previous ones. Their existing resumes are rail-thin on achievements from the past year, 2 years, 3 years, etc., and instead hearken back to their "Glory Days," to quote another famous artist. Even if your current position or most recent positions are outside your primary career field, you can still emphasize some of your achievements with these employers. 

Here are 2 key strategies/sources for gleaning this information:

1. Performance evaluations. Most employers will provide you with formal or informal performance reviews. Use them. Place a comment or two from your written evaluation on your resume. If the evaluations were informal, or verbal, create a statement such as "Recognized by supervisor multiple times for working extra hours and assisting on projects beyond assigned duties." 

2. Positive self-assessment. The self-assessment needs to be focused on the positive. It is easy to downplay current achievements through a negative self-review: "I didn't really do much...I was only there for a year." However, this is not the time to downplay. Ask yourself: was I effective in this position? Did I resolve any problems? Bring projects in on time? Help customers with issues? Make my supervisor's job easier? Once you start focusing on the positive, you can start coming up with key contributions that demonstrated your value to your employers.


You should be able to see value and worth in every single employment positions you've held, with rare exceptions. Because employers are always going to want to know how you've performed in your most recent positions, you will only do yourself a disservice by focusing on achievements from 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago. For the abovementioned band, 2011 is just as relevant as 1981, 1991, and 2001. 

Aggregator Job Sites

Aggregator refers to a web site or computer software that provides a specific type of information from multiple online sources. These types of sites can be very beneficial as opposed to a site in which employers pay for listings. 

The aggregator job sites will function like Google and search the entire web for job listings based on the criteria you provide. Below is a description of the major ones and what they have to offer:

SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com are job search sites that aggregate millions of listings from all the major job sites (with the exception of Craigslist.org), plus newspapers, corporate job boards and other professional sites. These two sites are different from the traditional job site because both focus on the job hunter. There are no services for employers, though they can advertise on the sites. Both sites allow job seekers to search by keyword. Searcher Editor Jennie Starr writes, "Both companies do a good job of providing information on the freshness of the job, listing the number of hours/ minutes the item has been available on the site." With SimplyHired.com, you can search by keyword, location or occupation. You can filter results by job type, required experience, education and date. You can also filter by company size and revenue. In addition, SimplyHired allows users to rate each job result, and when you've rated enough job listings, it will begin suggesting job listings based on your preferences. PC Magazine: "this site should be your new first Web stop when looking for a job."

Although users can't post their resumes on SimplyHired, the site's recently added Resume Post feature will post a resume to five major job boards (including CareerBuilder.com, Monster and Job.com) for free. For a fee, SimplyHired will post your resume to 80+ job boards, spanning everything from HotJobs.com to niche job sites. From each job you choose to save on the SimplyHired website, you can also link to LinkedIn.com and search for connections in that company.

www.simplyhired.com       

www.indeed.com

Oodle.com is a classified-ad aggregator that pulls its listings from thousands of other sites (though not from Craigslist.org). The site links to ads found elsewhere, with some tools for refining a search and an option to receive e-mail updates about new listings. Classifieds are especially useful for those searching for non-corporate, non-technical jobs. PC Magazine: “Oodle is a formidable Web presence.”

www.oodle.com

Hound.com is a new job site that narrows its search results to employer websites only. The idea is to weed out "junk" listings and positions that have been filled in favor of the most current postings from company sites. The focus on quality over quantity could save time wasted by chasing dead or worthless links. To directly search employer ads, JobCentral.com is a membership organization of major corporations like IBM and HP. It posts job leads at a fraction of the cost charged by Monster and HotJobs.com, and might be worth a try if you're looking for work with a huge corporation.

www.hound.com

CareerOneStop.org is the Department of Labor's site that replaces the now-defunct America’s Job Bank and allows users to search state job banks, which incorporate a wide variety of non-technical and non-business categories. The new site retains the InfoNet section, which contains occupation profiles, median salary information and education statistics.

www.careeronestop.org

Addressing Employment Gaps on a Resume

Have you been fortunate to leave your old job on Friday afternoon and begin your new one on Monday morning? Or do so within the same month? If so, then you're more fortunate than many of us who have gaps in our employment history. These can be attributed to a variety of reasons, including health-related issues, lack of an immediate offer of employment, and severance packages that allow for additional time in one's job search.

No matter what the reason is, having a gap in your employment history never looks good on a resume. Unfortunately, hiring decision-makers can be quick to judge that the gap shows a character flaw rather than a legitimate reason. In order to combat being a victim of this unfair approach, you can use a key strategy to eliminate the "gap" issue on your resume:

** Use the year-year format rather than the month/year-month-year format. This is perhaps the most effective strategy to use for covering a gap, as it provides an accurate date yet does not reveal a gap. In fact, you can ethically cover a gap of over 1 year using this format (e.g. If you leave former Job X in February of 2004 and begin current Job Y in March of 2005, you can use the format XXXX-2004 and 2005-XXXX- thus, the reader can only determine that you may have left Job X as late as 12/2004 and begun Job Y as soon as 01/2005).

EX.:
NAME OF COMPANY, Location. Job Title, 2006-Present.
NAME OF PREVIOUS COMPANY, Location. Job Title, 2003-2005.
NAME OF PREVIOUS COMPANY, Location. Job Title, 2000-2003.

Of course, it is important to note that you may need to provide the month/year-month/year format on an application once you are called in for an interview, and you can certainly be asked about your specific dates of employment (and reasons for any gaps) during an interview. Remember, though, that interviews allow more time and context in which to explain items that cannot and should not be addressed on a resume, including employment gaps.

Should You Be Job Search-Selective in This Economy??

When I ask the question "What type of positions are you looking for?" to my clients who are seeking new employment, I have frequently heard the same answers: "Whatever is available" and "I'm open to anything." Seem like fair answers to me. Particularly over the past 4 years, this response has popped up more and more, and how can you blame individuals for wanting to keep their options as open as possible? As a matter of fact, the response that might raise some eyebrows would be "I'm only looking for X positions with X types of companies in the X industry." Our first reaction might be, "Don't you think you're keeping your job search too narrow?" or "Should you really be that selective in this economy?"


Perhaps.

The truth is that those who are too open-ended in their search may actually be doing themselves a disservice, and those who have a targeted focus may achieve more success than by using an anything-that's-available approach. Look at it this way: employers are certainly not using an open-ended approach. Hiring managers and recruiters have a specific position or positions that need to be filled, and they are looking for candidates who meet their specific criteria as much as possible. When they review resumes, they are looking for years of experience, skill sets, educational and professional development, and job-related achievements that reflect the qualifications for the position (s) they wish to fill.

Thus, it may be to your benefit to target your job search to a specific industry and companies. Rather than spend your time endlessly rewriting your resume and letter to match distinctly different requirements across multiple fields (which still may not guarantee success, particularly in a heavily requirement-specific field such as engineering), you can invest your job search time in researching companies within your target, increasing the frequency of your responses to each targeted company (e.g. identifying the decision-makers and contacting them directly), and initiating contacts within your network inside that specific field. Your focused job search will align with employers' targeted searches and will likely end in success (I have interviewed several of my clients who used this approach and they all vouched for its effectiveness).

The exceptions to this recommendation depend upon geographic and personal factors. For example, if you are struggling to make house payments, put food on the table, or pay basic bills, as a stop-gap measure, you may need to apply for anything you can and take whatever comes along. The adage "desperate times call for desperate measures" comes into play here. However, don't stop looking for the targeted position even after accepting employment for one that is not your true preference. Ultimately, you want to secure a position that you truly enjoy, so even in this scenario, you can be job search-selective.