Memberships on your Resume

I’m a believer in listing affiliations on your resume.  Your local  college alumni chapter, a sports league, a public speaking group – all are worthy organizations.

On the resumes of some people, these are good things.  They spark lively conversations.  Someone might read them and say:

• Oh, I used to go to that.  What’s going on these days?
• You went to _______?  My brother went there.
• I see you are interested in foreign travel. Where have you been?

The same list can also eliminate you from the competition.  Like anything else on your resume, make sure you can say something positive about each item. For the listing of an alumni group, which  of the following statements does an employer want to hear?

• Yes, we interview prospective students each year.  I’m on a committee that does the scheduling.
• Well, I send a check, but am not really active.  They never seem to do anything that interests me.

For a professional organization, which keeps you in the competition?

• I’m on the program committee.  We’re beginning to plan our spring continuing education event.  The topic will be….
• Is that still on the resume? I haven’t attended anything for several years. I meant to remove it.

It is commonly known that one should not list affiliations that may be distasteful or alienating to employers, such as political or religious groups.  It is not so well-known that your own inertia can also work against you when listing organizations.  If your list is out-of-date, it is time to purge the list and replace it with activities that you can discuss proudly.  Be your own best sales rep.  Show your enthusiasm for every item on this document.

The Uniqueness of the Federal Job Search

If there is one thing all federal workers, both former and current, have in common, it is this: they all got their job in the face of that daunting process. Do you want to be in their number?

When officials at the Office of Personnel Management agree that the process needs simplifying, and they agree to do it, many of us have learned to be just a bit cynical.  Remember the written civil service test?  The dreaded SF-171? The next step was the federal resume, creating an industry which supported it, defined it, and for a price, would write you one.

The complication of the federal job search is not an urban myth.  It really is that challenging, with its unique requirements. Just ask an expert.  I did.  She’s Karol Taylor, co-author of Guide to America’s Federal Jobs (Jist, 2009).  Taylor says it is complicated because there is a unique body of regulations for these competitive service jobs, managed by OPM.  If you are serious about applying for one of the thousands of openings in the federal workforce, this is a book you must have.

According to Taylor and her colleague, Janet Ruck, you will need a resume, several essays, and any additional supplemental information the hiring agency may require.  Daunting?  Definitely.  Impossible?  Not at all.

With the help of this wonderful book, you can prepare your application tools effectively and stand a good chance of surviving the screening process.  If you need additional support, or have questions the book doesn’t address about your unique situation, you can reach Karol Taylor ( Karol@tayloryourcareer.com )

I invite any federal employee to share strategies that might help someone’s application stand out from the pack.

Resume help? You may be wasting your time!

The statistics that give feedback to a blogger have consistently told me that my postings about sections of resumes have been the biggest lures to my blog.  Now this is good news – I love having readers.  And those sections do prompt many of you to contact me for further assistance.  Thank you.  That tells me this blog is doing part of its job.

But wait!  It also says that many of you readers believe that the perfect resume (whatever that is) is the object of your quest.  And if you arrive at the perfect position description, work history, extra skills, references, or whatever, the next great job is sure to follow.  And I want to say stop.  Stop now.

It’s not that I don’t want you finding me through searching for terms about resumes.  I just wish more people would search for articles and information about expanding their world.  Yes, I’m talking networking.  I almost never note an upswing in readership because of a search for networking, contacts, or informational interviewing.  Come on, people.  You’ve heard it, you’ve read about it, you’ve experienced it in your own life.

Networking can:

• Keep you current in your field,
• Take you in new directions,
• Get you out of your job search rut,
• Open a secret gate to the hidden job market,
• Provide new perspective,
• Cause you to enter a friendly, supportive new community.

How do you make the switch from obsessing about resumes to becoming an active networker?  Here’s a reminder:  get a copy of Make your Contacts Count by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon.  This book is chock full of ideas you have not considered about how to make the most of the people you know and how to position yourself to meet new ones. Remember that tired (true) statistic about the hidden job market?  How up to 85% of jobs are found through personal connection?  The perfect resume won’t help you in your search for these opportunities, but the helpful buddy from your neighborhood, volunteer organization, or classroom just might.

I’ll know you have gotten the message when I see more searches for networking and fewer searches for resumes.

The truth about the truth on resumes

Tonight on the evening news, I learned that there is an increase in the frequency of lies on resumes currently in circulation.  I also learned that 96% of employers are checking facts on resumes of candidates under consideration.

I find this appalling, yet understandable.  Times are tough, unemployment really hurts, the competition is intense, and applicants must be feeling a bit desperate.

It’s wrong to falsify, exaggerate, or claim more responsibility than you have actually done.  It’s also stupid.  Here’s why:

• The internet makes fact-checking easy and quick.  Employers know this.
• Caught in one lie, you will not be trusted.  How could they know when to trust you?
• It’s morally bad.  And people don’t like it.
• It’s a small world.  You can be sure that someone in the targeted workplace actually went to the college from which you claim a degree.  That person can check (and will be asked to do so).
• Someone else belongs to the professional association in which you claim to be active.  That person may discover that you are not listed among the members.
• You will feel burdened, perhaps by guilt, certainly by anxiety that you’ll be discovered.

There is an easy solution out of this mire of guilt and anxiety.  Don’t lie.  Don’t stretch the truth.  Don’t make claims you can’t substantiate.  Don’t claim authorship when you were a lowly fact-checker.  In this small world, someone knows someone who knows the truth.

It is understandably tempting to want to put yourself in a favorable position.  Please remember that the best recipe for a successful candidate  includes a dash of humility, a refreshing pinch of modesty, and a generous helping of team membership.

Basic career message with a light touch

If you know someone who needs to brush up on the tools of the job search, yet dreads the process of slogging through all those steps, here’s a suggestion:  pick up a copy of Courting your Career by Shawn Graham. This paperback book draws parallels between courtship and the job search in a way that should be appealing to job seekers, especially the young ones.

• What to include/leave out in your resume?
• Why should you write a cover letter?
• Why fill out these tedious forms?

Well, let’s think about it.  When you are going out on a date, or arranging to meet someone,

• does it matter what you wear?
• why take a shower?
• why did you choose that shirt?

I find this analogy not only fun to think about, but persuasive .  According to Graham, the first characteristic in effective resumes is to be attractive.  Easy to read, lots of white space, not too much detail.  And no typos, no spelling errors, no misplaced apostrophes (my personal campaign).  Easily related to no ketchup stains on the shirt or spinach stuck in the teeth.  We get it!

If you have a recalcitrant job seeker in your life, this just might help.  Congratulations to Shawn Graham, who has combined very basic career information with an easy-to-digest, funny metaphor about the quest for romance.

LinkedIn: the new Resume?

Are you on LinkedIn?

If not, why not?  It’s free, it’s more professional than its chatty social network cousins.  Its reputation is far more solid and less gimmicky than those other sites.

If yes, are you using your site to your career advantage?

I recently came across an excellent article by communications expert and wordsmith Kenya McCullum, on using LinkedIn in your job search.  I recommend that you read the complete article, but several points struck me as the most immediately useful.

Complete your profile and keep it that way.  There is space to describe your current job and your work history.  The format is pretty much up to you.  Here you can gracefully intersperse volunteer and paid employment as well as your ongoing studies.  You can identify fields of interest you are researching in a way that sells you the most effectively. You can highlight your dedication to customer service in a way that reflects positively on you and might make employers want to meet you.

Use your status update function professionally.  It’s the first thing people see, and it has huge possibilities for self-marketing.  This can be your job objective, a summary of your skills, or a current highlight of your professional life.  Please don’t clutter it up with descriptions of your family, friends, or social life.

If you work hard to develop your profile, McCullum says it can become your online resume.  For me, it’s not going to take the place of a paper document, but rather serve as a supplement.  I recommend that you read the entire article on the possibilities of LinkedIn for your job search. You can find the article at http://www.examiner.com/x-13521-SF-Workplace-Communication-Examiner~y2009m7d14-How-to-use-LinkedIn-during-your-job-search.

How have you used LinkedIn in your job search?  I’d love to hear your success stories using this twenty-first century tool.

What do you love?

Here’s a piece of advice to you young people out there, in the quest for your first job (okay, maybe a better job than you have now).

• What do you love to do?
• What are you enthusiastic about?
• What have you been recognized for?

This is not a silly question.  I don’t want to hear answers about beer chugging, evading the law, or cheating in school.

I do want to hear that you love to swim, that you try hard to amuse kids in your babysitting, that you can teach a dog to heel, that you showed some underachieving kids how to graph an algebra problem.

There’s a good chance that this interest of yours is not reflected in your resume.  It probably doesn’t fit in an entry about a restaurant job or your high school curriculum.  But remember that you can always have a section labelled  Extracurricular Activities, Volunteer Work, or Community Involvement.

Your swimming accomplishments don’t relate directly to the office job you’re applying for, but they say good things about you nonetheless.  You probably have a strong competitive streak and a commitment to health and fitness. These traits may add up to a positive work ethic which your new employer will appreciate.

Irrelevant to your job search?  Not at all.  People reading your resume know that you don’t have a lot of job experience, and they will be happy to read about what makes you a unique person.

If you need help in making sure that your resume reflects really good things about you, feel free to contact me.  You may visit my website at www.anneheadley.com for contact information.  The things you love may be what makes an employer want to meet you.

Resumes: Paper or Cyber?

Several people have mentioned that they heard on NPR that paper resumes are gone.  According to an expert, that document on beautiful paper, carefully folded and clipped to its matching cover letter, belongs to the ages.  What’s going on here?

Several trends have contributed to this mostly-accurate observation.

First, the world of IT has been emailing its resumes for some years now.  They exchange credentials and qualifications with the greatest of ease, and were never known for beautiful papers in the first place.  

Second, the volume of resumes in circulation today would crush anyone’s inbox.  Tools exist which can read, sort, scan, and select the best candidates for the job in a matter of seconds.  

Third, there is a matter of security.  Remember anthrax?  One of the first changes in the twenty-first century has been that of increased security in the U.S. mail.  Mail entering a government building must be decontaminated, and no one can tell you how long this process takes.  If one attempted to mail an application or resume, the job would be filled long before your document reached its destination.  

Is there an exception?  Well, I think that if you are applying for a very small, independent business, very hands-on, which focuses on human relations, such as a wedding consulting firm, day care center, senior center, auto repair shop, or retail shop locally based, a paper resume and cover letter will still be acceptable. 

New skills are called for in today’s world of job hunting.  Formatting, effective words, and computer software that transmits accurately can be combined with the highlighting of your skills, accomplishments, and goals which always made for a great resume.  Stay up on resume trends for today and tomorrow – you’ll be glad you did.

The recession and your career: survival tools

It is official: because of some statistics, we can now state that we are in a recession and have been so for some months. You and I already knew that. Anyone who watches the news, reads the newspaper, has conversations with neighbors, or makes plans in the workplace knows that.

Now that we have moved from maybe to actually, it is time to look at career survival.

If you have a job, now is the time to:

• acquire a new skill or two,
• be a problem-solver,
• present impeccable behavior,
• excel at customer service,
• remain optimistic.

If you are unemployed, now is the time to:

• revisit your resume and add examples of problem solving and customer service,
• make every day count in your search activities,
• volunteer in the community in a related field (keeping skills and work history up to date),
• form an informal alliance with another seeker or two for mutual encouragement and goal-setting,
• drop by the library and read an article in a current publication in your field,
• remain optimistic.
  

Also, remember that this uncomfortable period we are in will someday be in the past. How will you remember it? With a shudder? With a smile, because something great came of it?

Could you use some support? If you would like to meet with a career counselor to structure your job search, please visit my website at www.anneheadley.com for contact information.

A Career Secret: Consent to Living a Fuller Life

Say yes.

You’ve probably heard the cliché–it will be the things you didn’t do that you will most regret. So do yourself another favor. Say yes to more of what you’ve always wanted. Make the list, start picking things off, add bigger dreams to the list. Be the person at Thanksgiving dinner with the most stories because you’ve done the most living. You don’t have to say anything at all–the sparkle in your eyes will make a great contribution to the festivities – Maureen Anderson, The Career Clinic, 8 Simple Rules for Finding Work You Love (2008)

Saying yes opens one up to opportunity, adventure, humor, and a new line on your resume.

Saying yes opens you up to ridicule, risk, and even failure. It can also offer a darned good story once you get the whole thing in perspective.

Saying yes can provide fodder for an interview question. I’ve heard stories of applicants being asked to describe something they’ve failed at. Can you imagine saying that you’ve failed at nothing? That would strongly suggest that you haven’t tried very much.

Saying yes can take you in new directions you’d never dream possible. I once heard an experienced career specialist ask a class to list things they were doing now that they couldn’t have imagined doing ten years ago. Whatever appeared on our lists represented a risk, an opportunity, and an adventure in saying yes.

Saying yes is an exercise with infinite career potential. If you need a nudge toward being that more affirmative person, please visit my website at www.anneheadley.com to contact me. I’ll remind you of the possibilities in risk-taking, I’ll help you adjust your resume to reflect your new skills, and I’ll even help you explain your actions if it doesn’t work out (“growth opportunity!”)

Saying yes is a step whose time is now.