Let Yourself Shine

Just a brief bit of resume advice. If you take away nothing else in terms of guidance in this area, take this: Don’t be boring- or undersell yourself- in your resume.

This is your place to really express who you are in your career. Yes, you can (should) use colorful words (if you are a colorful person). Be bold on paper if you are bold in real life. There is even room for a little gentle humor (if that is who you are). Be creative. Be proud.

In short: Let yourself shine.

Guest Post: Don’t Keep It In… Relief Comes When You Let It Out

I just finished reading an article in Conde’ Nast Portfolio Magazine by Michael Lewis who moved his family into a New Orleans mansion they could ill afford. He pointed out the problem with the upper middle-class, the problem that has gotten us where we are today. A problem I lived through my whole life growing up.

A problem Lewis so clearly illustrated by describing the story of Lilia and Jesus Garcia of Stockton, California. A middle class couple making a combined $130,000 a year each who moved into a mansion-like house they bought for $535,000.Of course they ended up in foreclosure. They couldn’t afford the house. It was a symbol of how well they were doing. But, they really weren’t doing that well at all. Not well enough to live in a mansion.

I knew it was time to sell my house when someone offered $625,000 for it (it was 850 sq. ft.!) and my hairdresser and her bartender husband bought a $750,000 townhouse in our neighborhood.

These people couldn’t afford the houses they were buying. I could see what was coming because I’ve been there. I lived this reality.When I was 7 years old, my parents moved into a show house, like the Garcias’. It was the Old Spanish house at the corner of Old Cutler and Ludlum in Miami, Florida. Everyone knew the house. I never had to use my address. I could just give the cross streets and people would know my house.

I felt special. I’m sure my parents did too. And they bought it to make up for the fact that they had less money and less security and less of a future than the rest of their friends who truly were upper middle class and some of whom were uber-rich.

What people didn’t know about our house was that the kitchen was full of cockroaches. The electricity would frequently get turned off when my dad didn’t pay the bill. We couldn’t really afford to live there. My dad had to borrow money from my grandparents to buy the house. Money he never was able to pay back. My mom always blamed him for that. Didn’t she know they couldn’t afford it? If not, why?

Something tells me my dad didn’t even want that house. My mom pressured him to keep up with the Greenberg’s, the Markowitz’s and the Little’s. That’s why they bought the house.

So, what do you do when you take on a lifestyle you can’t afford? You either find a way to make more money or you take a big step back and start to rebuild.

It’s not the end of the world. You aren’t going to die. Well, maybe a part of you will.  Your ego. It may die. But, that’s not such a bad thing.

You move into a rental in a less desirable neighborhood (in Miami, that was Kendall where the solidly middle class live) and you give up your fancy cars. Your kids get jobs and buy their own first car. Mine was a 9-year old Honda Civic I paid $1,600 for out of my work money and loved. You start shopping at Target (back then Kmart) instead of Nordstrom’s or Saks. You do more with less. And you find out that it’s okay. You are alive. You don’t need all that stuff.

Now that you’ve tasted the good life, you can have it again if you really want it. You’ll just get there on a solid foundation next time. If your marriage is built on deep love and trust, you keep your family together. You don’t blame each other. You take responsibility for your part.

If your marriage is built on the same facade that your life was built on, it falls apart too. My parents’ marriage did. My mom’s crumbled expectations were too big a burden to bear on their marriage. My dad could never give her what he had promised. And on the other side of all of it, you find something new and fresh. You find the truth of who you are. You find what matters.

With any luck at all, one day you look back on all of it and thank God for it because you realize it took losing everything to find yourself.

Written by Alexis Martin Neely, America’s Personal Family Lawyer and the bestselling author of Wear Clean Underwear! A Fast, Fun, Friendly – and Essential – Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and  plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putting it All Together and Writing the Resume

Being a professional resume writer, I’m all for people hiring professional resume writers to do this chore for them. Hire one, compliment the finished product, and then pay them promptly. 1 – 2 – 3 – DONE!

But sometimes you need to try to do it yourself first. I get that. So here is my best practical advice for the actual process of writing the resume.

1. Take advantage of the free consultation. I mean it. It’s free. As a veteran hiring professional, I have spent many years of my life looking at the bad (or just not as good as they could be) resumes of job candidates and not being able to give feedback because of the situation. I am happy to be able to now. Email me your current resume and then we’ll have a short conversation wherein you will most likely get either three to five usable tidbits or high praise for an already-perfect resume (it could happen).

2. Get samples off the web. Google “marketing resumes” or whatever your field is. Hopefully, you’ll get some good examples of resumes for people at your level in your field which you can use for formatting guidance.

3. Pretend you are writing about someone else. If you have a hard time confidently conveying your own talents and accomplishments, try to remove yourself from the process. Otherwise, you are likely to undersell yourself or disregard information that should be included.

4. Use an actual job desciption for a position you would want. Your target job is out there and your resume should be geared toward getting you that job. Go on the web again and find an example of a job you would want and write your resume as an ad for you in that specific job.

5. Break it down. If the idea of actually writing the whole resume is too daunting, take it, as Anne Lamott would say, Bird by Bird. Commit yourself to writing the description of your current job, for instance, or setting up the format. Hopefully, that will trick you into starting the process and you will find yourself feeling more at ease once you have begun.

6. See Resume Rules #1, #2, and #3. Read the resume advice I have provided on this blog, keep it in mind when writing, and then reread it when you are done and make necessary revisions.

7. Show and tell. When you have finished writing your resume, send it to your five smartest, most career-savvy friends along with an explanation of what job you’re looking for. Ask them, “Would you call me in for an interview?” If the answer from more than one of them is anything other than a confident, “YES,” get detailed feedback and do a rewrite.

And then, of course, when all else fails, there is surrender…

8. Know when to get help. Lots of perfectly lovely, talented, and intelligent people lack either the aptitude or the inclination to write a really good resume. If what is keeping you from getting a more satisfying new job is the lack of a good resume, admit it and reach out. A half-written resume or a resume that gets you no replies when submitted for jobs you know you are qualified is not going to get you where you want to go.

Hopefully, you find all of this advice helpful. Regardless of how you get it, an expertly-written resume is the key to getting you that job you’d wake up in the morning happy to go to. Even in this wobbly economy, good jobs are out there. Give yourself the best chance to get one.

Free Resume Winner

The free resume is going to a single mom with three kids who lives on the east coast. She was nominated by someone on 29 gifts and she is also a participant. If she is okay with it, I’ll give you more details of her story later and let you know where this fabulous new resume leads her.

Thanks to all of those who nominated others and who threw their own hats in the ring. I am always willing to do a free consultation so email me your resume if you want some solid feedback.

I’m Giving Away a Free Resume Rewrite

As part of my 29 Gifts participation, I want to write or rewrite/upgrade/revamp/turbocharge a resume for someone for free.  This is a service worth up to $260 depending upon the professional level of the person and whether I’m writing it from scratch or rewriting an existing version.

Problem is, how do I find the person to write it for?

That’s where you come in. Please circulate this offer to anyone who you know who either hates their job or has no job and really needs one. Tell them to send their story to me (what makes their job so heinous, for instance?) at movemeforward@yahoo.com, putting “free resume” in the subject line. On Saturday morning, I will choose the winner.  I will announce why their story won, but not their name (confidentiality is often key in my biz). You can also submit your own story, of course, or the story of  someone you feel is worthy. Just make sure they really want a new & better job because my resumes get results.

Thanks for your help!