Speaking as I was about reverse engineering the other day, the entry in Wikipedia got me thinking…

How do you reverse engineer a resume? I love the idea, so let’s step back a little bit and see how this would work.

Step 1: First, as suggested in the last post, I’d recommend first determining what your ideal next position would look like.

Step 2: Head over to Salary.com and do a search on job titles. Different companies use different terms – marketing director, marketing VP, chief marketing officer – you get the idea. Get a sample for your research.

Step 3: Find a likely resume. You search on those sample job titles at resume writing websites, which would undoubtedly have samples of resumes that actually worked for their owners. Or Google terms like “marketing director resume.” That’ll get you started in the right direction.

Step 4: Get networking. Here’s my three recommendations – which may overlap here and there – for what groups to approach:

1. People in your desired industry.

2. People in your desired profession.

3. People who hire the people in your desired industry and/or profession.

And when you get in there (keeping in mind the Golden Rule of Networking – “Give before you seek to receive”), ask various people if they would kindly send you a copy of a resume that helped to land the kind of position you’re seeking.

Step 5: Between steps 3 and 4, you now have a sample of successful resumes. To paraphrase the Wikipedia reverse engineering definition, now it’s time to “analyze [the resumes’] workings in detail, to try to make a new [resume] that does the same thing [land you an interview for a similar job] without copying anything from the original.”

If your current resume isn’t getting the results you want, why not give this a try, and let us know how it works for you.

Ever get into one of those situations where you find out you’ve been using a word or phrase to describe something, and you find out the word or phrase doesn’t actually mean what you thought it meant?

Reason I ask is because it’s just happened to me. Turns out I’ve been using the phrase “reverse engineering” a bit incorrectly. According to the ever-helpful Wikipedia:

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking something (e.g. a mechanical device, electronic component, or software program) apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing without copying anything from the original.

Me, I’ve been using “reverse engineering” in a “begin with the end in mind” sense. (You may recognize that latter phrase as Habit #2 of Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”)

More specifically, what I’ve noticed over time is that a lot of job seeking folks – from entry level to C-level and everywhere in between - will forage through job postings, find positions that look interesting, and send a resume. (Perhaps stopping briefly to tweak the resume for the particular company, and definitely tweaking the cover letter so it’s not addressed to the wrong company.)

And what I’ve been calling “reverse engineering” recently is just my way of saying that a better way would be to describe for yourself what the ideal next position would look like, before you even get near a job board.

Because if you know what that position looks like, then it’s easier to answer related questions, like:

1. What knowledge or skills would I need to have in order to land that position?

2. What kinds of questions would an interviewer ask in hiring for that position?

3. What would a hiring manager need to see on a resume to confidently offer an interview slot?

4. Where are the gaps between who I am now, and where I’d have to be, to be successful with the three items above?

5. What’s my plan for filling those gaps?

Granted, there’s a lot more that goes into landing a new position, but I think you’d agree that going through this process would increase your odds. Which is never a bad thing.

We have a relative who’s a declared atheist. (I promise I’m going somewhere with this – hang in there.) And because we can joke with this relative, my wife once said to him something like this:

If you’re an atheist and you die, and you’re right, it’s not like you can say “I told you so” to anyone. And if you’re wrong, and you meet God and have to tell him you didn’t believe in him, then you’re in trouble. So you might as well just believe, right?

Ignoring for a moment all those minor little questions of faith and religion and so on, this is a pretty good way of describing how I feel about the recent mainstream boom being made by the Law of Attraction and The Secret.

For those of you not hip to it yet, check out The Secret on Amazon, and an episode recap of Secret author Rhonda Byrne on Oprah. I’ll spoil it for you, though – the “secret” in The Secret is the Law of Attraction, which my favorite website, Wikipedia, partly defines thus:

a person’s thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, and beliefs cause a change in the physical world that attracts positive or negative experiences that correspond to the aforementioned thoughts

Now, there’s a considerably strong negative reaction to The Secret out there, one that refers to the Law of Attraction as pseudoscience, among other, stronger, denunciations. Hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

So here’s my thinking on this whole Law of Attraction thing as it relates to job searches. As my wife said to our atheist relative, you might as well just believe, right? It’s not like going negative has every helped your job search, has it?

Not that this is easy for everyone in every situation – the comments we’ve received on our “Depression and Job Search” blog post attest to that.

I’m treating this whole topic very lightly, but I’d really like you to consider strongly the possibility that maintaining a positive attitude and faith in the success of your job search will lead to you landing the job faster. That’s all.

Ever been asked to tell a story in an interview? You know, in response to something like, “Tell me about a situation where you faced a challenge in a previous position, and how you handled it.”

Well, there’s an effective storytelling tool I’ve come across in the marketing world, and though I’ve seen three or four variations on it put out there by different folks, here’s basically how it would work for you, the job seeker:

1. The strong opening. This is a teaser preview of the story’s big punchline.

2. Positioning. Then you step back and briefly describe your job and company you held at the time.

3. Problem statement. Pretty straightforward – you describe the situation.

4. Failed solutions. If conflict is the key ingredient in making a story compelling, then being able to describe solutions other people tried, which failed, increases the listener’s interest because it deepens the level of conflict in the story.

5. Your solution. Describe it, top level, executive summary style.

6. Objections. Again, deepening the conflict. If there was any doubt cast on your solution, share it, and share how you overcame it.

7. The proof. Numbers, percentages, hard results – that’s the key here. You want incontrovertible evidence that shows your solution worked.

Now, it may seem like this would take forever to do in an interview, and you’d bore the interviewer to tears…but here’s a little stat for you: Speaking at a nice moderate pace, you can do about 500 words in just three minutes.

Think you can tell a good story for an interviewer if you typed it out across two double-spaced pages in a Word doc first, to get the story down in this format (which also serves as a way to practice it in advance)? Yes, I think you can.

Last year, I was part of a small mastermind group with an information marketing expert, whose area of expertise is attracting and retaining clients for service-based businesses.

One of the strategies he revealed about getting new clients for his own consulting work involved going through the local legal paper (he was targeting lawyers), and finding announcements about junior partners.

Knowing a bit about his target audiences needs and pain points (I don’t know them exactly, but I know that bringing new business into the firm was a big part of it), he started off by sending a congratulations letter to the newly minted junior partner.

And in that letter, he made a promise. He said he would send seven pieces of useful information to the JP, once per week, every week at the same time.

Sometimes it was an article written by this marketing expert, with a little post-it note attached. Sometimes it was a CD with a recording of a teleclass on a topic of interest. Sometimes it was a clipping from a newspaper about an emerging legal trend. You get the idea.

Anyway, with the seventh and final piece of info, the marketing expert enclosed a last note. The expert said that, if the JP had found the information useful and would like to talk about how they could boost the JP’s business together, the marketing expert would call the JP at a set time the following week.

Think about that. How many times have you tried to cal into a company, only to find yourself fighting your way through gatekeepers, waiting pointlessly for messages to be returned (that almost never are)?

The marketing expert, eight times out of ten, made one call. And the gatekeeper on the other end of the line said, “Yes, he’s been expecting your call,” and put him right through.

And on the ninth out of ten, the marketing expert didn’t have to call – because the JP was already picking up the phone to call him.

If you’ve got a stalled job search, take a moment today, and see whether you can come up with a few pieces of valuable information for a hiring manager you’d like to target.

I attended a local charity event yesterday and, judging by the attire of the folks in the room, a few snippets of conversation caught in passing, and the comments made by the few people I knew in the room, the 100-plus people represented some of the biggest money and power brokers in our neck of the woods.

A bad time for me to be feeling like a social wallflower, rather than a social butterfly.

I’ll admit, I want to blame it on a long weekend away, a long car ride home before the event, a long night before spent with very good friends and perhaps a little too much imbibing.

But the fact is, when you’re in a prime networking situation like I was, you can’t let your personal worn-down-ness get in the way. Instead of meeting people I don’t ordinarily get to meet, or even come across on any regular basis, I stayed within my comfort zone, and didn’t do myself – or anyone else – any good.

What could I have done better? Two things:

1. Set a goal for myself. I knew what kind of folks would be there. If I had set the intention of meeting people and finding ways to help, say, three of them, I would have had a purpose and drive while at the event. (Remember the golden rule of networking – give before you seek to receive.)

2. Sucked it up. Like many things in life, we humans have a fun habit of making some things more difficult than they have to be. Instead of just going for it, I spouted a bunch of excuses to myself so I could give myself permission to avoid networking.

That said, all is not lost. There is one thing I can do to make lemonade out of the lemons I handed myself:

Send one or more thank you cards. To the event organizers, the sponsors, the facility managers…any of these people would be pleased to get a pat on the back for the effort they put into the event. And because so few people will make that effort, my thank you card truly has a chance to stand out. (Perhaps even more so than if I’d been one of dozens of people who shook somebody’s hand at the event itself!)

I’m watching the Boston Celtics completely dismantle the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Championship. I grew up in LA, but somehow never got attached to the team that emigrated from Minnesota.

(Besides, the Lakers name was inspired by the lakes in Minnesota. Why would they keep the Laker name when there’s not a single lake in Los Angeles worth mentioning?)

One of the talking heads in the game said that NBA executives should be inspired by the Celtics turnaround. They were one of the worst teams in the league last year, and this year, they’re going to win it all. And it’s because, as the TV talking head claims, the Celtics put together a team that was ready to work together from day one.

And that raises an interesting question for anyone in the midst of a career search, sending out resumes right now. Can you answer this one: What are you ready to start on Day 1 of your new job?

Most people sit in the HR department all day during their first day in a new gig. What if you did something different? Maybe one day is expecting too much, so brainstorm what you could do in your first 90 days…

If you’re doing your research on the companies for which you’re customizing your resume, you should have at least some idea of what you can do for that company – especially when you already know (and have documented on your resume) the kinds of results you can deliver.

You’ll most likely get the opportunity to riff on your ideas during the interview. Come with questions to ask. What are the challenges they’re facing? What are the strengths of their current team, and their weaknesses? What are their goals for the department, the company in the next year? Three, five, ten?

Use your interview session as a brainstorming session. It’ll keep you sharp, offer the interviewer/hiring manager something different - something that stands out - from what they’ll see for the rest of the day. And show ‘em how you’ll be ready to work from day one.

It’s the opening weekend of the increasingly inaccurately named “Bike Week” in the town next door to us. That’d be Laconia, where the nation’s oldest motorcycle rally (85 years and counting) goes from June 12-22 this year.

Tens of thousands of riders descend on the Lakes Region, and – news flash – they’re not all people with tattoos and beards and aggressive-sounding T-shirt slogans. In fact, many of them are the kinds of white collar executives who read this blog and use services like Career-Resumes.com!

Now, I’m mentioning this because of networking. When most of us think of networking, we think of events that are industry-oriented, trade-group-oriented, or professional-oriented.

I’m not knocking those kind of events, but if your networking opportunities seem to be getting stale, or haven’t produced much for you, maybe you’ll consider indulging in some out-of-the-box networking.

What other, completely non-job-related, groups meet in your city or town, that also happen to attract the kind of demographic into which you fit?

Sometimes people looking for a new position have the chance to find it within another industry or profession entirely – if only they could see their way clear to it. They need to experience a bit of a mind-shift, and meeting some new people, in new situations, can trigger that kind of shift.

No need to take up riding Harleys to find your next opportunity…but there’s a good chance your current hobbies may guide you in the right direction. Look through your local paper, or online, or check in with your local library, for interesting hobby groups meeting in your area. (Don’t have any hobbies? Good grief! You need to check out some of the Work/Life balance posts on this blog. And get a hobby or three.)

Otherwise, the golden rules of networking are still the same: Treat others the way you want to be treated, and seek to give first, before you receive.

Here’s a roundup of hot new articles related to resumes, interviewing, career changes, and other hot work topics. Click through, have a good read, tell us what you liked and disliked, and enjoy a clean email box by getting your fill here!

From Yahoo! HotJobs:

How to Address Being Fired on Your Resume (link)

12 Tips for a Lengthy Job Search (link)

Quitters Can Win (link)

How Long Should You Wait for an Offer? (link)

From CareerJournal.com:

Don’t Ask for a Job During An Informational Interview (link)

Oil Prices Prompt Four-Day Week (link)

SECOND ACTS: A Telecom Executive Turned Bag Maven (link)

For Job Hunters, The Big Interview Is Getting Bigger (link)

From Netshare:

Will the Next Interviewer See You as Cost or Revenue? (link)

How to Brag without Bragging: The Secret to Self-Promotion (link)

From Monster.com:

Are You Underpaid? (link)

Ignite Your Career by Changing Your Circumstances (link)

Turning a Love of the Arts into a New Career (Career Change Profile) (link)

Ten Warning Signs of a Toxic Boss (link)

So my father-in-law, apropos of nothing, suddenly announces that he doesn’t understand why women aren’t allowed to wear shorts in the workplace.

Huh?

I asked him a couple of time to explain how this constitutes a dress code oppression on professional women, and I still don’t quite get it. It’s not like men are allowed to wear shorts and women aren’t, right? And if it’s a comfort/skin breathability thing, women can wear dresses or skirts, so why do they need to wear shorts?

Unfortunately, my father-in-law thinks I’m mocking him when I say I don’t get it, but I truly don’t get where he’s coming from.

Shorts are universally considered casual clothing, and since then, I’ve been in a couple of corporate offices where shorts appeared on both genders – during Casual Friday.

Ladies, are you dying to wear shorts at work, beyond Casual Friday? If I’m out of my gourd, do let me know.

And while the jury may be out on shorts, it’s come in on pantyhose. According to a report on this morning’s Good Morning America, the insurance company ALFAC considers “work-life balance” more important than requiring its female employees to wear pantyhose.

Even though we write about work-life balance here on the blog from time to time, I must admit I hadn’t considered dress code as a part of the work-life balance calculation. But hose, as well as neckties, get covered by GMA, and they’ve also issued a challenge through Diane Sawyer. If you’re a man who wants to try wearing hose for a day, and email their producers, you could actually get your 15 minutes of fame with them.

P.S. The GMA report was an offshoot of a recent Wall Street Journal article on the same subject. (Subscription may or may not be required, depending on who you ask.)