Career Resolutions for 2009, Anyone?

That’s right. It’s November already. (Don’t shoot me. It’s not my fault time goes by so quickly.)

Are you happy with your job? If so, good. If not, think about what you are unhappy about and change what you don’t like. And if what you are unhappy about is unchangeable (the owner of the company is intolerable, you can’t make the salary you want to make, you are bored or burnt out), maybe it’s time to make a plan.

Just a thought.

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.

Rule #3- Your Resume Should Be Easy to Digest

This is the difference between ending up in the YES (contact them now for an interview) or MAYBE (read later) pile. We don’t worry about the NO pile. If you followed Rule #1 and Rule #2, you should be able to stay out of the NO pile for any job for which you are reasonably qualified. The MAYBE pile is a killer at this point.

The MAYBE pile is for resumes that are comprised of huge blocks of text, that have over five bullet points for each job, that use the same nine words over and over again, that have no headlines at the top briefly describing key qualifications so the reader knows something about the candidate as they skim through the professional experience section.

“I’ll read that later,” the hiring professional will say when faced with having to decode a resume with these characteristics. Too much time, too much work. But here’s the thing…

Most hiring professionals NEVER get to the MAYBE pile.

Rule #2- Your Resume Should Have a Compelling Narrative

This is where I lose more people, even those who thought they “got” me on the marketing tool point.

Let me explain. When someone is reading your resume, they are telling themselves a story about who you are. “This is a woman who gets bored easily and bounces around a lot,” they will think when they see a page with six different jobs on it that all last about 18 months. That might not be the truth, but unless something on the page (or at least in the attached cover letter) says otherwise, that’s the conclusion. Maybe three of those jobs were in the same company, just different divisions. Maybe one exit was a due to a non-profit shuttering it’s doors. You’d better make sure these parts of the story are conveyed in your resume.

What story does your resume tell about you?

Rule #1- A Resume is a Marketing Tool, not a Career History

When I say this, it resonates with some people, gives a eureka moment to some, and confuses others.

Don’t tell me everything, just tell me the things I need to know that will convince me that you are the right person for the position you are seeking. And I’m not talking just about the words- although of course they are key. There is also font, the layout, how the jobs are positioned, what is bold and what is not… everything adds up. If you are looking for a creative position, don’t use a resume that looks like you are seeking a job in a bank. Everything counts.

As far as your career history, highlight the skills and the most valuable experience you have for the job you want. You take out or push to the background anything that isn’t relevant. It can be done. I do it all the time for people wanting to redirect their careers or even just jump to the next level.

I have turned a graphic designer resume into an event planner resume for someone who used it to make a complete career change. I have made different versions of a resume for a school director with a big-time business background who wasn’t sure which path he wanted to follow next. I have taken several administrative or junior executive resumes to the next level, positioning them for a move up the ladder.

Everything on that page will either rule you in or rule you out as a candidate for the job. Give yourself the best advantage with a resume that sells you properly.

Full Disclosure: It’s Written All Over Your Face

On one of my on-line “mommy boards,” a woman wrote in for advice from the group because she was interviewing for jobs and she had a gaping hole on her resume during which time she was a stay-at-home mom. She didn’t know whether she should tell the interviewer that she had been home with her little one or whether she should be more vague- “exploring other options,” “dealing with a personal issue,” etc.

Regardless of what a candidate said in an interview, I could smell ambivalence from a mile away. From anyone, not just moms returning to the work force. The seasoned executive assistant who was over the job, for instance. Or the recent grad who thought he was too good for clerical work (though he wasn’t qualified to do anything else- but that’s another story). Or the woman who looked like she might burst into tears at the thought of showing up at the office. Whether she told me she had a baby at home or not, I could see it wasn’t a job she wanted. And I was no more likely to give her a job than the kid with the ‘tude or the been-there-done-that assistant. No HR person wants to set themselves up for that kind of headache.

On my mommy board, I said I felt that this mom should go ahead and mention her baby if not mentioning it was going to make her uncomfortable or appear shifty, but, more importantly, that she should make sure to convey that she was ready to work and would happily show up every day and get the job done.

Ideally, rather than trying to fake it, that meant that she would “process” any ambivalence and find a way to be happy about getting a job- some family-oriented upside, like having less stress about money or more outside stimulation. I know, easier said than done, but there has to be a reason why working outside the home will benefit her little one and, even if her first choice is spending all day with them, if she keeps in mind that motivation, she will feel like a good mom for going out and getting a job. And she may just ace the interview.

What We Can Learn From Olympians

As the 2008 Summer Games draw to a close, I am reminded why good sports stories are always so compelling.

When I started watching football with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, he knew how to hook me. “That guy broke his back two years ago and they said he’d never walk again,” he’d tell me pointing to the beefy linebacker running onto the field on TV. “That guy was in the Canadian league and they took him as a third string quarterback,” he’d say about the now-champion NFL player. He showed me that it wasn’t just about scores and stats. It was about human beings challenging themselves physically, mentally and even spiritually, as is the case with all athletes who take to the field, court, pool, track, etc. and reach for an elite level.

So in the last two weeks, the come-from-behind, overcoming-the-odds, feeling-the-pain-and-doing-it-anyway stories have been filling the airwaves and I’ve been noticing that the population of bikers and runners on the streets in my neighborhood has gone up. But I’ve also been thinking, as I know a lot of people are, about how I challenge myself- Am I in the best condition I can be in? Do I try my very hardest to reach my goals? Do I believe in my ability to make it happen against all odds, to win my own version of the gold?

Of course, we are also seeing a lot of stories of those who came up short in competition in Beijing, but still there they are. They have reached athlete’s mecca, they have made the journey, and even if they didn’t reach the podium, they fought with everything they had. They inspire us with their sacrifice, with not giving up even when gold is clearly out of reach.

David Neville, for instance, lunged at the finish line in the men’s 400m finals and with that split-second act, he beat the fourth place finisher by a split-second to take home bronze. Is bronze better than fourth place? You bet it is. And even better, he knows that he left nothing on the track. He has the bruised and skinned knees to prove it and, in the years to come, long after the wounds have healed, he’ll have the medal to prove it, too.

When was the last time you lunged to reach your goal? Why not try it now and see what happens?

Google Yourself

Or, if you prefer, “Yahoo” yourself.

Do you have an online presence? Is it the presence you wish to have?

If you have no online presence, you don’t exist. Well, to be fair, you do exist, of course, but you don’t exist to anyone who hears your name and wants to know more about you. They’re not going to call your mom, are they?

Start with LinkedIn and go from there. Create a profile. It won’t take that long, but it should be as thorough as possible and reflect the you who you want to present to the outside world. If that’s all you do, fine. You now exist.

But what if you do an online search for yourself and it’s not reflective of the you who you want to present to the world? Even your private pages, such as those on Facebook and Myspace, can sometimes be viewed by people you have not made friends with.

I was once doing a search for an executive assistant and I saw on someone’s myspace page where they described themselves as moody and seemed rather committed to staying that way. That person’s resume was in the garbage in about ten seconds.

So clean up your act or get an act if you don’t have one, and if there are things online that you cannot get taken down (party photos of you posted by other people, poorly thought-out or obscene comments made to blogs, etc.), your only option is to start adding content that shows you in the best light. Professional profiles, well thought-out comments to other people’s blogs, even articles about topics you are passionate about posted to websites can push the bad stuff down the page on a search of your name.

And if you don’t have the time, the skills, or the inclination to get an online presence that gives you a professional leg up, you always have the option to hire someone to do it for you, to write your profiles, your blog comments, your articles. As someone who has ghostwritten online content, I know you wouldn’t be the first and it would be worth it.