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.

For Recent Grads: The Insider’s Guide to Landing Your Second Crew Production Job

Congratulations!  You’ve already gotten your first crew production job. 

In addition to calling everyone you knew in the biz to get job leads, if you lived in Los Angeles or New York, you bought a copy of either the Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday or Daily Variety on Friday when they publish their production listings, and you found the movies in pre-production and in preparation in your area.  If you lived somewhere other than LA or NY, you contacted the local film board to find out about productions in town. 

You cold-called every single one, always being polite and friendly and not being thrown off by the sometimes-abrupt phone manners of the production personnel on the other end of the line.  You emailed or faxed your neat, well-written resume to everyone who said they might be able to use you and then you called to follow up until you heard a no or, finally, a yes.

How do you get your second production job?

On your first job, you follow instructions to the letter and do every single thing that is asked of you, you solve problems yourself if you can and notify your supervisor if you can’t, you jump in and help anyone who needs it, and you don’t complain ever to anyone.  You make friends with the other crew members, especially the assistants in the departments you might want to transition into (the bosses are probably too busy to be your friend), and you stay in touch with everyone who might be able to hire you in the future and everyone who tells you they might know someone who can use you.

And, in case you’re wondering, that’s also how you get your second production job.

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.

Is Your Job Like a Creepy Boyfriend?

I’ve had a couple of conversations this week that have gotten me thinking about the way we undervalue ourselves and how that gets us stuck in positions that aren’t utilizing or rewarding us properly.

This is not new thinking for me, of course. A lot of what I do when advising clients is convincing them of their worth in the marketplace and the variety of their marketable skills. And when I do a resume rewrite or create a bio, even for an accomplished and seemingly-confident professional, they often marvel at the way I present them, as if to say, “Is this really me?”

“Yes. That’s you,” I insist. I’m not making things up here.

So yesterday a former client called to update me on herself and a couple of people she referred to me. One referral was a recent college grad whose resume I’d rewrtten. He was getting all kinds of calls for interviews now and was very happy. That was very gratifying, but not surprising. He’d had great paying jobs and prestigious internships during college. He’d clearly been thinking about his career path when he sought them out. All he’d needed from me was to present him and his experience in the best light possible for the specific position he was seeking. 

But my former client went on to tell me both she and a frustrated co-worker she’d referred to me had both gotten promotions and raises, from different branches of their company, after my consulting/coaching sessions with them. 

Now these are both intelligent, confident, capable professional women and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t stand for comparable treatment in other areas of their lives. And yet they were underpaid, overworked and sorely undervalued in their positions and each felt trapped, not sure they could do better. That’s where I came in. I helped them see their worth. 

After our work together, one of them was offered a promotion and a (big) raise without seeking it out. She had been ready to leave. She’d had me rewrite her resume and had started putting feelers out. The other one didn’t want to leave. She liked what she was doing there so she made a last-ditch stand, sure that they wouldn’t give her what she wanted. But she got it.

The other conversation this week that got me on this topic was with a friend who is making a move out of a toxic work environment after enduring it for a long time. “It’s like you’re finally leaving a really bad boyfriend,” her sister told her, relieved. This friend is nervous, relieved, excited. But she is looking forward to something better. And I’m sure she’ll find it.

Are you ready for something better? What do you have to give up in order to get it?

Get: A Whole New Mind

Students, parents, guidance counselors, recent grads, mid-career professionals… READ THIS BOOK!

The world is changing. Law degrees and MBAs are no longer the sure-fire “safe bets.” Daniel Pink’s book will explain to you why Abundance, Asia, and Automation are catapulting us into a brand new age, an age where an undergrad degree in psychology or English coupled with an Masters in Fine Art or Graphic Design might just be a more reliable ticket to a successful career. Or why it would behoove those in Information Age fields to augment their law degrees and MBAs with high-concept and high-touch abilities.

This is exactly why my friend, Alexis Martin Neely’s Personal Family Law program is so perfectly timed. She recognized that people don’t just want a will or an old-fashioned estate plan, they want someone they can turn to on an ongoing basis for counsel and assurance that they are protecting their family properly at all stages of their lives and who can create a way for them to pass along more than just financial wealth. Information combined with high-concept and high-touch! Brilliant! If I was a lawyer, I’d be jumping in. (Which reminds me, I’ve got to get on top of creating my Kid’s Protection Plan. Have you done yours?)

Okay, back to A Whole New Mind… The basic concept is that any job that can be done either cheaper overseas or by a computer or other automated system (and let me tell you, it’s everything from designing software to diagnosing disease) is becoming less valuable and sometimes even obsolete and, in an age when even our not-so-basic needs are being met (have you seen how many varieties of mustard there are at your local grocery store?), those who can provide us with meaning, story, fun, and/or connection are the most in demand.

To me, that’s incredibly good news. How do you feel about it?

Have you read the book? When you do, please come back and let us know what you think.

Kudos to Seth Godin…

One of my favorite thinkers, Seth Godin, a marketing guru and all around great writer, has posted a brief, low-key & brilliant blog entry on how people are spending less time passively watching television and more time on creating interesting things. As usual, he puts it better than I ever could, but it made me smile and maybe it will make you smile, too!

Special Thanks To…

Though there were no great guidance counselors, no Sherry Banks (see “The Guidance Counselor I Never Had” below), in my youth, there were a couple of educators who really inspired me, made me feel good about myself, and shaped the adult I became.

Thomas Hudnut, then principle of The Norwood School in Bethesda, MD (now headmaster at Harvard-Westlake in LA) recognized my love of words. He taught me the difference between etymology and entomology and always complimented my early writing efforts. Whenever I learn an interesting new word or write something I am particularly proud of, I think of the encouragement I received from him. Thanks, Mr. Hudnut!

Walter Bartman, an artist and art teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD (now founder and director of The Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery in Glen Echo, MD), was a mentor to hundreds of students who came through his class, teaching us how to really SEE and how to translate what we saw into powerful visual art. He took us on field trips to New York City, which was an incredible adventure for us budding artists. (On one of those trips, I met Andy Warhol as he was passing out Interview magazine at a Greek Coffee Shop where I was eating lunch. I was 15. Can you imagine?) Many of Mr. Bartman’s students ended up getting college art scholarships and grants as a result of the training they received and the resulting pieces they created. Many of them are making a living as artists still. But regardless of whether we pursued art professionally, all of us were changed by passing through his class. We had our eyes opened. Thank you, Mr. Bartman!

These are not the only educators who inspired me. And of course, there were other adults who made me feel special, encouraged me. But for today, kudos to Tom Hudnut and Walt Bartman. Many years ago, you took an interest in me and it is still paying dividends today.

So, readers, who inspired you? Let us know in the Comments section.