Resolving Resume Confusion in the Age of Social Media

Resolving Resume Confusion in the Age of Social Media By Jacqui Barrett-PoindexterWhile the futurists vie for the first-place ribbon in having predicted the resume’s demise, the  resume  heart beats strong.Social Profiles Are Modes of Transportation For Your Resume The primary challenge with many articles written by these forward-thinking bloggers is that they want to present a replacement to the  resume  when, in fact, they’re simply suggesting methods to modernize the vehicle in which your ‘career story’ travels.It’s really no different than the evolution of transportation over the centuries from horse and carriage to ships, to trains, to automobiles and to airplanes. All of the listed methods are vehicles to transport your body. Similarly, the resume is a vehicle to transport your career message.A recent  Harvard Business Review  blog post, “Do You Need a Resume In the LinkedIn Era?” further underscores the drumbeat (and confusion) about what a resume really IS.   The answer: a resume is a career story that tells the wh o, what, when, where, why and how YOU (the career job seeker) do what you do, and then connects the value of all that to its target reader (the hiring decision-maker).A Good Resume Bonds With the Company’s Pain A  well-written resume  bonds with the pain points of the hiring company and is clear in articulating how the job candidate will help alleviate that pain through a) solving financial issues; b) driving more revenue; c) lifting profit margins; d) eradicating customer service issues; e) stamping out operational problems; f) smoothing employee infighting; and so on.To read the rest of the post, please visit my latest at Glassdoor:  Do You Need A Resume In The Social Media Age?

Career news that will make you happy right now

Career news that will make you happy right now Most of the time on this blog I focus on bursting bubbles. I deliver bad news about finding a spouse, choosing a career and earning money. But the thing that really keeps me going as a career adviser is the good news. My career has saved me so many times that I think of career advice as a sort of trousseau that you draw on to make life more livable. Or, for those of us who are way past trousseau time, career advice is a way to gain equilibrium in our lives after weve completely given up on  the preposterous idea of work-life balance. Which is why I have collected a bunch of tidbits that make me happy and I think at least one of them will make you happy, too: 1. The top predictor of career success is how open your network is. This is great because  it justifies doing all the non-work things that you feel guilty doing. An open network is full of people who are not in related fields and do not have similar skills. The more you fill your life with putting your head down and doing the work, the more likely it is that your network is closed. Closed networks lack  ideas or opportunities. Im sure this is related to the research about how  successful leaders are also weird. Surely weird people have open networks. 2. Doodling makes you smarter. What do you do in all those meetings where you are banned from checking your email? Doodle, of course. I used to worry that I looked crazy  when I doodle, but now theres evidence  that doodling helps people think more creatively. Bonus: people with Aspergers can stare while  drawing and appear to have high creativity instead of low eye contact. 3. You dont have to lie about how well you use Microsoft Office. Word is a great tool, if you are a ninja with formatting. Which Im not. So everything I do looks the same. Like my dog did it. In fact, a few times I have not gotten paid as a freelancer because my invoice looked so not-invoicey. I wanted to believe that people dont care about formatting, but they do. So now we can all go to  hloom to find templates  for all the forms we said we would  make for ourselves but never did. 4. We dont have information overload. Really. None of us. Because our brains can store incredible amounts of data, so really we are just having data recall problems. We need to know how to store information so that it is useful to us later, according to  psychologist David Levitin  (who explains this in his  book that is way too long  so its probably filled with information we dont need to be able to recall.) 5.  You can be a hipster entrepreneur  without hipster instinct.  Use the hipster name picker  to come up with an impossibly cool sounding company name. Then get your business cards printed at moo.com. And then when someone  asks you how many people work at your impossibly hip company, you can  talk about this article in the Harvard Business Review about how the highest performers struggle to fit in with teams. 6. Reading fiction is good for your career. Thank god. Because I get like 500 business books a month that authors and publishers want me to review, and they are generally mind-numbingly terrible. There are exceptions to the rule. Like, Ive been saving this book on my shelf to remind myself to tell you about it: Art Inc: The Essential Guild For Building Your Career as an Artist.  Its good. But really Id rather be reading fiction. I just finished Making Toast, about surviving a tragic loss by struggling to  raise three kids. You should read that book. Itll help your career. Because the New York Times reports that neuroscientists are able to prove that reading literary fiction gives us better social skills. 7. You can make a career out of pasta letters. Nothing calms me down like words. There is a word for feeling this way about words: Hyperlexia. I didnt know this term existed until I was in my sons Aspergers preschool class. All the kids could read. Ten percent of kids with autism have hyperlexia. One of the signs is that a child is reading before age 5. Im shocked, of course, because so many people in my family read before age 5, including me. But then, my family is full of people with Aspergers. A side note about hyperlexia: The therapists in my sons classroom discouraged reading in such young kids. Its not good for their brains because the developing brain should be making other connections at that point, not readingsort of like how walking so early that you skip crawling is not good for the brain. So maybe this paragraph is saving one kid from reading too early. But what I want to tell you is that  I love anything that is letters, so it warms my heart that Fire When Ready featured an artist who  sorts pasta letters. And she makes ceramic cups. Finding the right career for you is finding the intersection of what you love to do and what people want to pay you to do. It bodes well for all of us that someone is getting paid to sort pasta letters and  squish  them into words.

5 Ways to stop being late

5 Ways to stop being late The reason I know so much about being late is because recently, I have been late a lot. So I have been telling myself that each time I am late I have to honestly think about what sort of behavior is causing me to be late, and write it down. The write it down part is important. For me, writing something makes it more serious. Like I am taking more responsibility for changing something if I write it down. I know I am not alone in this. I see blogs about losing weight and sticking to a budget, and those people say that blogging about it helps them stick to a plan. I think being on time is a similar type of goal in that you have to think about it every day in order to make a real change in your life. Hopefully I will not end up writing a whole blog about being on time, especially since theres such a good one already. Hopefully a post will be enough to get things back in order. Here are things Ive come up with for myself: 1. Schedule the event into your calendar. If you block out time to be somewhere then you wont be doing something else when its time to go. I amazed myself when I tried to do this. I discovered I had enough on my schedule to last 48 hours a day. It would have been impossible for me to be on time for anything. (Note: If you are a person who is about to recommend to me that I read Getting Things Done in order to be better at time management, here is a link you might like.) 2. Practice saying what you need to say. Heres a great thing to say: Excuse me, I hate to cut you off, but I have an appointment. It is hard to cut someone off, but they will respect you for sticking to a schedule. The higher up you go in corporate life, the stricter the people stick to a schedule. The good news is that this means its perfectly acceptable in work life to say this short speech. Get comfortable doing it at work and then you can do it at home, too. Often saying no takes forethought and practice. 3. Be a time pessimist. Assume everything will take a little longer than your first estimate. This will either make you right on time for everything, or itll make you a little early. People who run early are calm, organized, and always ready. Not a bad place to be. 4. Prioritize. Some people are late because they simply dont have enough time to do everything. The only way to change this is to stop doing so much. Face the reality that you cannot get your whole list done. Figure out whats most important and just get that done. Tell the people who depend on you like your boss that you can only do what you have time for, and things at the bottom of the their list of priorities will not get done: a reality check for everyone in your life. (Another Getting Things Done note: The only people I know who are really good at prioritizing have read the book. Heres an overview of the book for the uninitiated.) 5. Be honest with yourself. Why do you let yourself be late? It is disrespectful and makes you look unorganized and out of control. Why are you not getting control over your time. So much about being on time is actually about self-knowledge. Often, we are scared to make the decisions that we must make in order to get control over our time and become someone who runs on schedule. But there is no other way to run a life. To run on schedule is to plan the life you want to live and execute that plan.

Book Giveaway Dealing with People You Cant Stand

Book Giveaway Dealing with People You Cant Stand Lets face it, you are going to have to deal with people you cant stand at work.  Your challenge is to learn how to effectively deal with these difficult people while  staying positive and not getting frustrated.  You have to develop creative ways to deal with them because, unfortunately, you cant change their behavior. Dealing with People You Cant Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst is a bestselling guide that will show you how to successfully combat the know-it-all, the whiner, the rude, the crude, and the inconsiderate people who can ruin your day at work, in stores, on the street, in restaurants, at the movies, in waiting rooms, by fax, phone, and E-mail. My favorite part of the book is how to change your attitude. I know it seems crazy to have to take responsibility for someone elses bad behavior.  But I have found that if I am able to change my reactions and attitude, it usually changes how the other person reacts to me as well.   To join this book giveaway, here are the things you need to do using Rafflecopter below. Each task you accomplished is equivalent to 1 point. The more points the better!  Good luck! Like  Classy Career Girl on Facebook Follow us on Twitter  @classycareer Tweet about this giveaway (make sure you mention @classycareer in the tweet) Leave a comment below telling us how you deal with the people you cant stand. a Rafflecopter giveaway This giveaway is open to US  residents only. It begins NOW and ends on September 21st, 2012 at 12am EST. I will be giving away FIVE copies so there will be FIVE lucky winners for this giveaway. The winners will be selected via random draw using rafflecopter, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 24 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Good luck! Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of the book to review but this did not change what I wrote about the book.

How to Write a Resume Picture

How to Write a Resume PictureWriting a resume is easy, but it's far from easy to write a resume picture. It's not as easy to capture the right picture of you, or write something that will grab your employer's attention. However, when you realize how important a good resume image is, and how you can take an otherwise generic resume and make it stand out, it can help you get your foot in the door and land that job.There are two ways to think about what a resume picture is. The first is to think of it as a visual representation of you, so it's as if you're in the picture. In other words, you can't describe your academic career without describing yourself first. For example, you don't describe someone with glasses, you just call them 'Tom,' and so on.If you have a job interview, for example, you probably will be photographed, and in many cases, given a letterhead. For some people, this letterhead is their resume. And just like the letterhead, the resume also needs to communicate somethin g about you. So how do you get it? If you're applying for a job in a city where you've lived, you'll want to use a picture of the city.If you're applying for a job in a smaller town, you'll want to use a picture of the town. The important thing to remember is that your resume is a direct representation of who you are. The way you look, how you speak, and how well you think... these are all part of what you are, so you should be proud of your accomplishments, no matter how small they may be.The first part of how to write a resume picture is to find a picture that speaks to you. Once you know exactly what your strengths are, then all you need to do is to paint them out withyour colors. This way, you can get a professional-looking picture that will say exactly what you want it to say.If you haven't worked for a company before, don't hesitate to take a shot at their company's website. The more times you see someone else's work, the better you'll get at creating the resume image you want .A great place to look for photos is at places like Elance.com. There are plenty of images and companies just waiting to give you an estimate for your resume. You can get your resume done for much less if you use this site. Using a lot of images can help you create a more professional look, and thus will help you land that job.A picture is the best way to make a professional appearance, especially when it comes to a resume. It tells the reader who you are, and how you think. It shows them what you can do, and why they should hire you.

Make Sure Your Resume Demonstrates Your Value

Make Sure Your Resume Demonstrates Your Value Make Sure Your Resume Demonstrates Your Value If youre writing your own resume, it can be tempting to include everything youve done over the last 20 years. Or longer. A long, boring, job history is the perfect way to make sure no one contacts you. If you want to get the attention of recruiters and hiring managers, it’s essential to demonstrate YOUR value. Immediately. Highlight your achievements. Present your resume in a modern format. Focus on positions that are relevant to employers. #1 Listing your responsibilities doesnt impress anyone because people in similar positions do similar things. Highlighting your achievements, the impact youve made is the best way to set yourself apart from your competition. #2  A snazzy format cant overcome boring, task-based content. But assuming the content is strong, a clean, modern format thats easy to scan can both get readers to actually read your resume AND will enhance your brand. #3 Focus on the last 10 to 15 years of your career. While you may think that providing details on a position 5 jobs and 20 years ago is critically important, recruiters and employers wont. A better way to present earlier positions is an Earlier Career section with title and company only. No dates. If you feel the urge to write lengthy resume that catalogs every position youve held over the last 20+ years, resist. A generic resume designed to appeal to everyone appeals to no one. Want to learn more? Here are Top Ten Resume Donts.

Close the deal; ask for the job - Sterling Career Concepts

Close the deal; ask for the job Close the deal; ask for the job If you feel an interview went well and you want the job, be sure to end the interview on a positive note. As you are wrapping up the conversation, thank the interviewer for his/her time and reiterate that you are very interested in the position: “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me this afternoon. I really think my background is a strong fit for this role, and I look forward to continuing the process.” or “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I am now even more excited about the opportunity to join your group; I think my experience is a strong fit with your needs. I look forward to hearing back from you.” Bottom line: an interview is not successful (on your part) if the interviewer comes away liking you as a candidate, but questioning your interest level in the position. Don’t leave anything to chanceâ€"especially in this job market. If you want the job, be sure they know it!