I didn’t think I had money for a job search coach.  I didn’t think I had money to have my resume done professionally, and that I could create a resume just as good as a professional resume writer.  We all know where that got me :)  Anyway…

In a two day job search seminar I went to I learned about job search coaches, and the importance of having one.  This is not a mentor, or a friend, or an adviser who you could lean on every once in a while.  A job search coach is someone who you have a formal arrangement with, and serves a critical role in your job search.

Your job search coach doesn’t have to be a professional job search coach, although many coaches would caution you away from using someone who is just a friend.  I’ll comment on that in a bit.  Let me share three things that I think a job search coach must have.

1. Proper understanding of current job search principles. Let me illustrate this with an example.  If you asked me to be your job search coach 3 years ago, I would have had you spending a ton of time on job boards.  I had assumptions about how to conduct a successful job search, and they were all wrong.  I’m guessing that over 90% of professional job search coaches have current, proper job search principles (which help you create your strategy and tactics), and less than 20% of non-professionals will have the proper principles.
2. The ability to hold you accountable. Being accountable in your job search is critical.  I found, as a job seeker, people treated me with kid gloves, and pretty much leave me alone.  I don’t remember anyone asking me “how’s it going” and really wanting to hear more than “good.”  A job search coach stops that, and makes sure you are doing the right things, doing what you said you would do, and getting results or changing strategies or tactics.  Your job search coach MUST dig down to find out what’s working, what’s not, and keep your performance on track.
3. Tools. A professional job search coach will have tools.  They’ll know where to do company research, and have a bunch of resources to help you as you figure out this job search process (it’s more complex than I thought it was).  Any job search coach can find about 90% of the tools you’ll need in JibberJobber.com (which is my site).

Can you get this from a non-professional?  Many professional job search coaches I talk with don’t advocate this, but I think it’s an option… as long as you understand what the coach needs to have (the three points above).  I think the two hardest things to establish are the first points.

With regard to the principles, if you find someone who has been in a job search, and studied it out, and is using proper job search principles in their own job search, and has helped other new job seekers, I think they’d be just fine.  The fact that they are currently in the ditches with you is good, as they are super-current on techniques and tactics.  I would not look for a non-professional coach unless I know they have had recent/current experience in the job search.  Also, realize that the strategies for a guy making $50,000/year should be different than the strategies for a guy making $120,000/year.  There are many other factors that influence the strategies… so it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing.

With regard to accountability, you must establish this upfront.  Don’t assume a non-professional is going to jump right in and hold you accountable like she should.  Have a discussion about when you will meet, what you will discuss, what you will do and how they need to talk about follow-up action items with you.  Empower them to ask you hard questions.  Make sure they know they are not there to babysit you, that you are an adult, but you need to be held accountable.  And then, when you have sessions, be honest with your coach and with yourself.

Career Resumes does not provide job search coaching (they provide professional resume writing services as well as LinkedIn Profile makeover services).  I’ll blog about where to find job search coaches next week.

Peter recently asked his LinkedIn connections what they thought about the new Group Discussions feature.  I’m shocked (kind of) at the results.  By the way, if you are not happy with your LinkedIn Profile, check out the new Career Resumes feature of revamping LinkedIn Profiles.  Here are the results from Peter’s question:

Dave Maskin says:

Getting lots of gigs from both the Q&A and group discussions…
Businesses ffind me, call me, hire me. It’s as simple as that…

Jim Wahl says:

Group Discussions are nothing more than ads. I completely stopped looking at them.

Glenda Brown says:

I find it a waste of my time - nothing but advertisements and the majority of them have zero connection to the group’s focus.

Martin Thomas says:

it’s all ads or people looking for jobs

really boring

don’t go there any more

Ives De Busser says:

I must say that I am not that long on LinkedIn and I must agree with the comments so far. If you post the same question in the Q&A section or as a group discussion, you get a lot more feedback on the Q&A post. The group discussions are all about looking for people to hire or looking for a new job, and in that extend that I think they are lost for asking real questions that members of that group could possibly make a difference in.

Renato Beani says:

I am in about 15 groups. I thought it could bring me some new topics to think about or a new way to see something I really know. But it seems, like everybody said, people misuse them as a space to ask for a new job. OK, there are groups for that, but not all of them!

Josh Chernin says:

From what I’ve seen (I belong to about a dozen groups), they range from very useful to a complete waste; one of them is simply enjoyable and amusing.

Victoria Lowe says:

I ‘own’ two groups and have become a discussion Nazi. Spam messages get deleted immediately (well, as soon as I see them… I might have a life outside LI). I’ve found the discussions to be lively and very informative.

I left a number of high volume marketing groups, because it was all-spam-all-the-time, regardless of pleas to the groups’ owners to actually moderate.

Annemarie DeMarco says:

I wish I had the time for group discussions.

Melissa Sullivan says:

I have been utilizing the groups to foster industry discussion of topics. I was hoping to generate new marketing ideas or learn other successful marketing techniques being employed by others. In some instances I have generated lively discussions and have identified like-minded individuals. As others have also expressed there were a few individuals that used these lively group dialogues to ask for business and to hire their company to solve the business challenge proposed. To me, they completely missed the point of the interaction. I admire their gusto but wonder if there should perhaps be some “norms” established for group discussions so that they do not become “ads” or solicitations for personal business.

Firoze Zia Hussain says:

yes its a great place

Melissa Bianca de Teffe says:

Like all things some are good and some are not. It depends on who does what. I found some Q that were uninteresting and others were. I was of great help in providing further indepth answers to a young professional seeking info on EU legislation on immigration/muslims/christians. so you have the chance to link to neat people and although the percentage is low it still brings me happiness so is worth it. Never stop searching!

Grayson Walker says:

While some ‘discussions’ and ‘questions’ are just self-serving advertisements, the F1 (Formula One) group has some very interesting and lively discussions. I find the group more civil than some of the topical boards, such as run by SpeedTV. Nevertheless, they are what Steve Covey would call time wasters.

Gianluigi Cuccureddu says:

Unfortunately, group discussions are polluted with ads and alikes.
Amongst discussions there are interesting ones, but you have to search well.

Hope LinkedIn creates a marketplace or something like that to seperate both.

For the most part, I have to agree with the concensus… but I do think there’s a pretty good Discussions strategy to employ.  I’m going to blog about it on my LinkedIn blog later this week.

I had to do a double-take on the newsletter article from Peter Weddle, titled Your Resume Won’t Get You a Job.  Is that really true?  I thought the resume was super-critical in my job search.  In fact, when I got let go I took the entire week to get my resume ready.  That’s what I would use to apply to jobs oniine, present in interviews, mail to companies, etc.  It was critical in getting me my job, right?

Yeah, it is a critical tool for your job search.  It’s not the only tool, but it’s a critical tool.  In his article, Peter Weddle says:

Your resume is a ticket to nowhere for most employers.

I can’t agree with that.  That’s like saying “a business card is a ticket to nowhere for most professionals.”  I think both are tools, both have their places, and both are sometimes used wrong.   I do agree that:

• The resume is NOT a silver bullet.
• The resume can misrepresent who you are, and what you bring to the table (your value proposition).
• Most resumes STINK.

If resume stinks, or misrepresents you, and you think it is your silver bullet, then I can agree with Weddle.  It’s easy to get this resolved, though:

The resume is not a silver bullet. I thought it was, and combined with the other silver bullet (recruiters), my job search would be a cake walk.  If you think that, you need to do some reading to understand what a successful job search consists of.

The resume misrepresents you. This is a really hard one, and it was my biggest problem.  My resume had big titles (CEO, VP, general manager), and I was applying to different levels of jobs.  The hardest part of this is giving up your professional identity… do you have to paint yourself into a corner as a business analyst when you are really a project manager or programmer?  Does customizing your resume limit your professional capabilities, and the benefits you bring to the company?  Perhaps… but check your ego at the door, because if you put EVERYTHING on your resume, like I did, with no regard to postings you apply to, you’re resume may end up in the garbage.

The resume stinks. My resume didn’t stink… in fact, many people thought it looked outstanding!  A resume writer should learn about you and be able to provide some advice, and customize the resume for your goals.  But let’s go back to that stinky resume… About 8 out of 10 resumes I see that are done by the candidate need improvement.  A professional resume writer will help with formatting (easy, I know, but you wouldn’t believe the formatting I see), key words (stuff you’d never think of), and overall current resume best-practices.

Not spending a few hundred bucks to get my resume up to speed meant, for me, months of lost income.  Ouch.

Oh yeah, let’s wrap up the “your resume won’t get you a job” idea.  The purpose of the resume is to get you a … you know this, right? … an Interview!

photo from howsed.com

We’ve had problems with our bathroom sink for almost five years, since we moved into this house.  It always drained slow.  We tried liquid plumber, liquid plumber gel, some plumber powder stuff, and my infamous homemade tool to fish stuff out of the drain.

Any solution worked for a day or so, but the problem never went away.  I guess now’s the time to admit I have like no man-skills as far as DIY goes, and spend more time frustrated than fixing the actual problem.

Enter Bob.  Bob came over to measure for a project and on his way past the sink we asked him what we could do to get to the root of the problem.  “Oh,” he says, “just unscrew the pee trap and I bet your problem is there. If not, work your way up to the drain in the sink.”  I asked “I don’t have to have that plumber putty stuff?” “No.” he says.  “I unscrew it by hand?”  “Yes.” he says.

I just fixed it.  4.5 years of problems with our sink are now washed away (pun intended ;)).  It took… oh, 30 minutes to get it fixed and cleaned up.

30 minutes, guided by an expert, and my slow-drain sink problems go away.

If I would have gone to a resume expert, like Peter at Career Resumes, I would have avoided a long, dreary, depressing, job search.  I try to DIY (do it yourself) all the time, because I’m cheap.  But in my cheapness I lost tens of thousands of dollars in salary that I would have captured if I only had a job.

And I didn’t get my job because I didn’t get interviews.

And I didn’t get interviews because I my resume wasn’t right.  It was shiny, and looked good, but it kept me out of interviews.

A professionally could have looked at that and said “hm, why isn’t this shiny resume getting you interviews?”  And after some discovery, they would have helped me get into interviews, and then into a job.

Is it worth paying the money?  If I could do it all over again, I definitely would have paid the money.  If you aren’t getting interviews, there’s likely something wrong with your resume.  Contact Career Resumes to see what they can do for you.  It may be a simple, easy, quick, painless fix, but you might need a professional resume writer to help you get there… just like I needed a professional builder/handyman to help me fix my simple drain problem.

I was at a networking/job-search event one evening learning about my job search, and hoping to meet some sharp professionals I could network with.  Before we got to chat with one another, the facilitator shared some thoughts with us.

He talked about how we have a strong identity when we are employed, but when we become unemployed we lose our identity.  I knew exactly what he was talking about, as I went from “Hi I’m Jason, General Manager of XYZ Company” to “Hi, I’m Jason …. …. … I’m looking for a job.”  I didn’t have it down very well and always tried to think of another way to say “looking for a job.”

It was hard, uncomfortable, humiliating, etc.  You may know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, he went on to talk about resumes and business cards, and what the purpose is of each.  Have you ever been to a networking event, probably with people in transition, and had someone give you their resume?  What’s the message when someone gives you a resume?

Please help me, I’m a job seeker and I need your help to land again.

Fast forward a few months to when you are no longer in transition.  What will you give people when you are at networking events?  Probably a … business card! Why?  Because that’s what professionals do… they give out business cards.

No matter where you are, you should have business cards to hand out.  Just because you are in transition doesn’t mean you aren’t a professional, right?  And professionals have business cards, right?  Here are some tips on putting together a business card (some I’ve heard and kind of agree with):

• Get anything but a glossy finish. People complain they can’t make notes on your card if you have a glossy finish.  I don’t totally agree on this one, as I don’t make notes on the card… but it’s a valid thought.
• Leave the back empty. This gives people room to right all their notes.  I also don’t agree totally on this one, as my back is quite different.  And that leads me to the next point…
• Make your card UNIQUE. Can you think of something to do to make your card just a little different?  A friend of mine cut his in a different shape (unique).  Another friend put “My Card” where the title would have been (humorous).  The back of my card is PINK with the words “PINK SLIP” in huge letters (on-brand for what I do).  If you can think of something unique that will help them remember your card, or want to not throw it away, you are doing good!
• Make your business card lasting. If you put some elevator pitch about being a “professional (job title) in transition,” what happens when you land your next gig?  All of your cards will be useless.  Of course it’s cheap to buy cards, so maybe that’s okay, but if you want to have a multi-purpose card, don’t put that kind of information on it.
• Make sure you have a good email address. LongLegs@aol.com is not a good email address.  To be safe, go with your name (like JohnSmith@gmail.com).  I favor gmail.com as a professional address, but that’s for another post!

Do you have business cards yet?  I hope you get some, as you are a professional, and that’s what professionals pass around!  But you better have a sharp, current resume ready, for the times when people say “can you send me your resume?”  If you don’t have a current resume, let Career Resumes know.  They do free resume reviews and have a bunch of resume samples you can learn from.

Oh yeah, here’s the back of my business card

The back of my business card

Last week LinkedIn announced they are letting you put “applications” on your LinkedIn Profile.  Career Resumes offers LinkedIn Profile services, including writing that summary that might be too hard for you to write (most LinkedIn summaries I read are just not compelling, and seem half-done or not on-brand).  If you are getting your resume done by a Career Resumes professional resume writer, ask about the LinkedIn Profile services they offer.

How is your Profile, anyway?  Assuming you know what you are doing with LinkedIn, or have a LinkedIn strategy, your Profile should be solid, compelling, and make me want to learn more about you, and encourage me to reach out to you to start a relationship.  When I speak or consult there are four main things I tell people to do with their summary:

1. Put your picture. People want to do business with people they can know and trust, and putting a picture makes you that much more personable to me.
2. Change to a vanity URL. The default URL for your LinkedIn Profile will be something like linkedin.com/pub/0/1234 or something like that.  Putting that in your email signature doesn’t do much… but something like http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonalba communicates exactly where they are headed (to my Profile page).
3. Get your websites, and customize what the label is. You should have a website… like a blog, or where you work, or something like that.  Instead of choosing “My Website” or “My Blog” or “My Portfolio” you should choose “Other” at the bottom of the drop down and then write something more compelling, like “see my professional portfolio” or “Experienced CFO” or something with a hook or description.
4. Write a complete summary. You get 2,000 characters and should use most or all of them.  Tell stories, and don’t be too corporate.  This is your opportunity to connect with me in your own words.  Watch out for spelling and grammar errors.  Have others give you feedback on your summary.  Make sure what you write is on-brand for what you want others to know about you.  Write about where you are headed as much as what you have done (it’s not the place to list all of your amazing accomplishments, rather, it’s a place to sell yourself).

Aside from these four things, I’m still thinking about LinkedIn Applications.  On the one hand, I think they are cool, and have added the Slideshare and Blog applications to my Profile, because I have blogs, and I have three slideshows on Slideshare.net. But I can see this is something that could clutter Profiles and show a lot of off-brand material.  I’ll think about it some more and write something later this week on my LinkedIn blog.

For now, revisit your LinkedIn Profile strategy.  And if you want help, contact Career Resumes, who helps with LinkedIn Profiles.  You can also check out my book, I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? here.

Have you ever wanted to know what excellent resumes look like?  Resume Samples and Resume Templates are two of the hottest searched phrases on the internet because everyone wants to start with an excellent resume template, and just fill in their own information.

Career Resumes has 21 resume samples, which are kind of like resume templates already filled in.  They also have 4 cover letter samples (which, of course could be cover letter templates).  Here are the sample resumes:

• Resume sample 1
• Resume sample 2
• Resume sample 3
• Resume sample 4
• Resume sample 5
• Resume sample 6
• Resume sample 7
• Resume sample 8
• Resume sample 9
• Resume sample 10
• Resume sample 11
• Resume sample 12
• Resume sample 13
• Resume sample 14
• Resume sample 15
• Resume sample 16
• Resume sample 17
• Resume sample 18
• Resume sample 19
• Resume sample 20
• Resume sample  21

Here are the four sample cover letters:

• Sample Cover Letter 1
• Sample Cover Letter 2
• Sample Cover Letter 3
• Sample Cover Letter 4

If you are anything like me, you’ll spend a few hours pouring over this stuff, trying to do your own, and then finally just call the resume experts.  But hey, it’s a good few hours!

Career-Resumes writes resumes.  That’s obvious.  So you got your resume, and it’s great!  What are the rest of your job search tools?  Here are some that I try and keep on-hand:

Your resume is the industry standard document which everyone knows and accepts.    You may make progress in your job search and networking without one, but there will eventually come a time when someone asks for your resume.

Business cards are what professionals share between themselves, isn’t it?  It isn’t common to go to a business networking function and see a bunch of employed professionals passing out resumes, but it is common to see them passing out business cards.  Aren’t you a professional?  Yes, you are… and you should have business cards.  I get mine from VistaPrint, but you can get yours from a ton of different places.

A professional email address. If you can’t spare the $10/year to get your own domain name, and have an email address like me@myname.com, you should make sure you have an email address that looks professional.  Something like Jason@gmail.com is much better than basketball77@gmail.com.  When

A pen. If you are in a job interview, or at a networking event, you shouldn’t have to ask someone else for a pen to write down an email address, phone number, date for an appointment, etc.  You should be prepared with your own pen.  You can ask, of course, and you should if you don’t have one, but having your own tools (pen, in this case) makes it look like you are there on-purpose.

A professional-looking binder that zips. Something you can put documents in, keep a notepad for notes, or just keep your miscellanous stuff.  Walking around a room with a bunch of loose papers just doesn’t look good… keep it all nice and neat.

Gum (or some kind of bad-breath-killer). I like to keep gum on hand (which is hard when my kids figure out where my stash is), but once saw a professional speaker pull out a listerine strip.  You can also get just minty hard candies… anything to help keep bad breath under control. If it’s gum, I usually spit it out before the event (job interview, informational interview, networking event, etc.)

These are some of my tools… what are yours?

On the My Virtual Power Forum Yahoo Group someone posted asking advice about resumes.  He said something like “I’ve been reading a lot about the power of a resume….”

That really struck me. It’s funny, I’ve been in job seeker / career management mode for almost three years now.  In that time I’ve heard a lot of talk about the resume dying.  Is the resume going to die, with all of these new technologies pushing their coolness into the job search process?

The LinkedIn Profile has gained a lot of ground, since many hiring managers and recruiters use LinkedIn.  Did you know you could (you really SHOULD) export your LinkedIn Profile as a pdf document?  Then, you can email it, print it out, etc.  Kind of like what you would do with a resume, right?

What about sites like emurse.com, which allow you to post your traditional resume(s) online?  And once you do that, you can point people to your own link, like JasonAlba.emurse.com, where they can see your resume and download it in a variety of formats (if HR wants it as a pdf, fine.  If they want it as an html, fine, or doc, etc.).

What about sites like VisualCV, which has heavyweights like Guy Kawasaki evangelizing their goodness?  VisualCV allows you to have a very rich online portfolio, including video, images, etc.  Think of the LinkedIn Profile, but fun and flashy.  Is this going to be a resume killer?

What about something I’m a HUGE advocate of, which is a personal PROFESSIONAL blog?  Why should I have to give you my one or two page resume if I can just point you to my blog, where you can see it all, and then some?  Will that be a resume killer?

I think all of these are cool, and can be fun.  For many people, they can round-out your overall online presence, and help you control what people see if they google your name.  They can put you in a different light than what you get on your resume, since you can put rich media, colors, personality, etc.

But I just don’t see these “killing” the resume.  Why?  Because in the end, HR still wants that traditional resume.  They need that round peg that fits into the round hole.  The resume is the format that companies are familiar with… it won’t break their system.

I remember when I got my first real job.  I was fortunate enough to write my own job description and name my salary.  After a few days of negotiation (I got the original salary I named), they finally made the decision to bring me on as the company’s first-ever IT manager.  And then they said something that really surprised me:

“Could you please fill out the employment application?”

What??? I thought we went through everything, the decision was made, they had my resume… why in the world would they need me to fill out the employment application (which I didn’t realize people at higher levels do)?

Because it was part of their system.

While you may whoo decision makers, hiring managers and recruiters with all the flashy online stuff, I bet you you’ll still need a resume.  If you are looking for a resume review, or ready to get your resume prepared for your next gig, you’ve come to the right place: Career Resumes.

A couple of months ago Peter asked a question to his LinkedIn contacts: What is the worst career advice you’ve ever heard? Here are most of the awesome replies (there were 42 responses - see them all here):

• You’re set for life! (… when someone has just taken a job in the public service. Set - yeah, like a jelly is set!)
• get a degree in accounting
• “So, you want to be a lawyer?!! Get a real job first! Work in a factory for some years, to see the real life!” I didn’t follow the advice…
• “You have a good job at a utility: stay there.”  Safety equals dullness. (there’s more)
• The worst career advice is not to have any when you are first starting out, especially with the graduation door slamming shut on your rear -end on the way out!
• 1976, upper midwest, town of 7,000, 10th grade - you guys don’t need to learn to type…typing is for girls.  How’s that worked out for you guys?
• “Listen, I know you have a staff job but I think you should take that really great, totally secure freelance position!”
• “Seek advice from random strangers on the Internet.”  (lol - thanks Alex)
• In a counselling setting: Don’t worry if people don’t come back, they just didn’t like what you said to them. (of course I worried about why they didn’t come back.)
• In a government job: Don’t leave, there’s a lot of job security. (I left)
• In private practice: You don’t have enough experience to do that. (I have it now!)
• You have to not work so many hours. (But I love my job and am enjoying myself so much)
• “Your neurosis problems are making you fail in your job…”
• 26 years later, I still try to find out if I have neurosis problems and I have found nothing…
• “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Yes, it is a question, but it implies that you should have a 5-year plan, Total BS this day and age.
• Always say you have extensive experience doing X when someone asks you if you’ve done X before.
• “You’re a Rhodes Scholar! You’re all set! What could go wrong?”
• You deserve better, they are just exploiting you. If you resign, we will immediately take you… Needless to say that words vanish like smoke….
• ” When you are a “fresher,” better stick to your company atleast for one year”
• To volunteer for low level tasks as an intership or job starter.
• “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Management will notice.” I was thinking ‘yeah I want to be known for my clothing and not my experience or education.’
• “Plastics.” (Anyone remember THE GRADUATE with Dustin Hoffman?)
• [my current job is] a total wrong fit and whenever I talk to people and ask for some advice the line I get is “at least you have a paycheck.” And I think to myself, great, what do I do with this?
• don’t push to have a managerial post, just settle to become a secretary a top noch one, though…..
• I approached [a speaker] and asked how I could move into that career (I was already a trainer for a company). his response…”Just do it guy.”
• “don’t take risks by thinking outside of the box so much”
• “In order to become a Genetic Engineer, you have to study Civil Engineering!”
• “You’ll be limited if you don’t have a degree”
• “You have to wait for your turn and grow your wings before you can be considered for leadership positions. It’s the same with other companies.”
• “Closing three small deals is better than going for that big ambitious project.”
• You have so much potential - hold out for 2 more years and you will go places!
• “around here, you are nothing more than a strong back; get about a good 8 years of experience in the lab, and then you can break into the 60k salary tier!”
• Stay at a job your unhappy with - you have too much tribal knowledge.
• I arrived for what a thought was a job interview and turned out to be a head hunting firm. Looked at my resume calculated I had been in the work force over 25 years and said you have one good job left in you.
• “Hey go check out Enron, they’re looking for talented auditors”
• “You are too smart to be a business major! You should do engineering.”
• “You have a special calling to do this.” I gave working in the church a try before becoming a recruiter.
• My Father: “No Daughter of mine is going into this business!!”
• “The IT job market is HOT!”… Uh… no… IT workers have about a 13% unemployment rate, and over the next few years I expect 1/3 to 1/2 more Americans in IT to permanently lose their jobs. Every day I ask myself… Why, oh why, did I not become a Dentist? Now there is a stable career.
• “Do ANYTHING you can to get into __________ firm.”
• “Girls can’t be engineers - only teachers or nurses.” - Midwest, late 1960s. HA!
• “A Bachelors is all you need”

What’s the worst career advice YOU’VE ever heard?