I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions.  Personally, I make them, but I remember last year it seemed like half the bloggers swore by them and the other half wished they would go away.

I make resolutions I need to make, but don’t worry if I fall off the wagon.  But there is one resolution I’d like you to think about, and that is that you resolve to get canned in 2009.

Actually, how about if you resolve to get laid off in 2009?

Okay, let’s put this in a better, less-mischeivious light: resolve to do a real, serious job search in 2009.  Whether you are in transition or not.  You need to be prepared.

Here are elements of what you’ll need for your job search in 2009:

• The proper attitude. As a job seeker it’s easy to let bad emotions cloud our ability to perform. I had that happen to me, because i didn’t understand what to expect in my job search.  I know that the emotional roller coaster will set in, but understanding a little about what you might go through can help significantly!
• The right resume. You’ll need it eventually.  As I’ve mentioned earlier, my resume was nice but it kept me out of interviews.  Career Resumes helps you figure out what your resume needs to look like and include, and they work hard to get you into interviews!
• The right networking tools. You hear you are likely to get your next job through your network, right?  What have you done up to this point to make that happen?  You definitely should be using LinkedIn and JibberJobber at a minimum.
• The right techniques. My job search techniques were 99% garbage, and I was too proud to get real help.  The articles I read seemed like they were written on another planet, for another audience… nothing was indepth enough or seemed to work for me.
• ___________ - your suggestion?

What do you think you need to have to successfully navigate your termination?  There will be hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions who are in transition next year… you won’t be alone, but you can be more prepared.

Last weekend I spent a few hours putting some of my 2009 goals on paper.  It made me think about my career goals, and what I should do for my personal career management.  Here are some thoughts I have for my own resume, and how to make it what it should be for 2009:

1. Find my last resume. Sounds simple, but when I got laid off I spent days looking for any version of my resume I could use as a template to update with all my new information.   I never found my old resume, but I realized even if I did find it it would be pretty useless - it was about six years old!
2. Check and double check the spelling. When I get my new resume put together, I’m going to go over it with a fine-toothed comb.  I don’t know why I can find errors in others resumes, but I miss the simple stuff in my own, but I do know that one error (spelling, grammar, etc.) is a red flag right away.  People expect resumes to be perfect.
3. Check my branding. What brand messaging is my resume communicating?  I need to see if that message is accurate and the message I want people to know about me.
4. Find a quote/endorsement I can put on your resume. This is a trick I learned from professional resume writers - take part of a recommendation from your LinkedIn profile and put it as a quote on your resume.  It really stands out and adds substance to your overall story or value prop.
5. Figure out what I want your brand to be.  Where do you want to be by the end of 2009, and what do you need to do to get there? Get a new certification?  Achieve something big (so you can put something quantifiable).  I need to figure out what I want to be able to say about myself, professionally, by the end of next year, and figure out what I need to do to make that possible.

Of all of these, I think # 5 is the most important, considering we are about to start a new year.  Where do you want to be by the end of 2009?  What personal growth do you need to prepare for to really make the content and substance of your resume sing?

Career Resumes can help write your resume, but it’s up to you to have substance to put on your resume - what are you going to do next year to beef it up?

Yesterday a friend asked me if I have ever used my LinkedIn Profile as a resume.

Of course a LinkedIn Profile is NOT a resume :)  And since I haven’t been in a job search for a while (since I seriously set up my LinkedIn strategy), I haven’t really had a reason to give anyone a resume (well, except for potential investors, who for some reason wanted a resume).

And then, as I was about to respond back to my buddy, I remembered that I had in fact used my LinkedIn Profile as a resume.  I was doing some work with my insurance agent, getting some new services, and he said he would need my resume.  HUH?  My resume?  Okay.

My resume is about three years old, and doesn’t reflect what I’ve done in the last three years (which is a lot).  I could have changed it to include a few new job positions and roles, but it wouldn’t have the affect I would want on the overall document (my value prop has changed in the last three years, and just adding that to my existing resume would not accurately reflect or communicate my brand).

Even though it was for an insurance company, I didn’t want to give a wrong impression.

So I printed off my LinkedIn Profile.  It was the closest thing I had to give, and I did it right there while we were doing paperwork.

I still don’t think a LinkedIn Profile is a resume, but sometimes they can be interchangeable.  Benefits of your LinkedIn Profile include:

• It’s available online, with various privacy controls in place. I don’t believe much in privacy in social environments, but it is cool that you can say “show this to people who are not logged in (public view) and this to people who are.”
• It shows the strength (or weakness) of my network. If I have a bunch of connections (let’s say “a bunch” means over 100) and a number of recommendations (five or more, depending on the size of your network) that says something about me.  Would you rather hire a business development professional who has 3 contacts, or 500+?  Clearly, this doesn’t necessarily indicate whether the person can do the job or not, but it does show the person is (or isn’t) connected.
• LinkedIn Recommendations can be powerful. I printed my LinkedIn Profile and it was about 9 pages, because of the recommendations.  Just looking at all of those mini-stories gave me credibility.  I think 9 pages of that is overkill, and there comes a point where it looks like i might have fished for them, but still, having that many recommendations has to mean something.
• The Summary is cool, while an objective statement is questionable. I’ve heard that objective statements are on their way out (depends on who you ask), but the LinkedIn Summary is definitely not out.  in fact, I encourage you to use up to the 2,000 characters you get to write a well-crafted message to convey who you are and why people should talk to you.  This is your elevator pitch, and if it’s done correctly it can be a very compelling, credible messaging opportunity for you.

Once you use your LinkedIn Profile to get in the door, make a first impression, etc., and you get closer to a job opportunity, make sure you have a real, traditional resume ready… my experiences has been that eventually you’ll need to have it so they can check “submitted resume” off their little checkbox

On Monday we talked about “resume presentation,” where I shared thoughts on how important the actual presnetation on paper is (amount of white space, use of bullets, etc.).  Today we talk about the actual substance.

I’ve met job seekers who want to be  ________ or an ________.  After talking with them for a little bit I realize they just don’t have what it would take to be what they want to be.  Since I’ve been in hiring positions I’ve always been observant to find someone who would be the right addition to my team.  I think it’s important that when you present yourself, even in information gatherings, you always think that the other person might be interested in bring you into their team.

Stay positive, don’t talk bad about other people or projects (even if you are just trying to be “honest”), don’t slouch, give good answers, be interested and interesting, etc.  More on this stuff later.

Let’s get back to the content.  Who are you, and do you have the qualifications to do the job I need done?

I’m always interested in someone who is “high speed, low drag.”  That is, someone who is low maintenance, and high performing.

I want someone who is creative.  I’ve never thought of myself as creative (although people tell me I am… I just compare myself with creative artists, which is not good because I’m not artistic).  If you come to my team, though, I need you to be creative.  Creative people should be lower maintenance than non-creatives (who will probably have to ask how to do things, instead of trying to figure it out on their own).

I also want someone who is curious.  How does this work?  Why do we do things that way?  What if we tried it another way?  Who, what, why, where, how… don’t get me wrong, I don’t want someone who is going to ask me this all the time, but I do want someone who is going to wonder this, and try and figure out the answers.  I once worked with an engineer who was the king of creativity. I would tell people “give him a bucket of sand and a blow torch and he’s build a silicon chip.”  Probably technically impossible, but the idea was that his curiosity ate him up until he figured out solutions.

I want someone to figure out solutions.

This is what I’m looking for in my ideal candidate.  How does this apply to your resume?  Your resume must:

1. (obviously) have all of the factual stuff that traditionally goes on a resume.  Schools graduated from, dates, employment history, job roles, duties, etc.
2. the message that you are the right person for me.

The first is what most people focus on, and what we all think resumes are.  If your resume reads like an “obituary” it’s not going to stand out… it’s going to be just like most of others.  You focused on the wrong thing.

Focus on “the message.”  Why are you the right person for me.  This is where networking comes in, as you could network into my team and ask them what my hot buttons are.  There shouldn’t be any grammar and spelling mistakes, as I’m a stickler for that on a resume.  And of course put in evidence of curiosity and creativity.  That’s just me, maybe the hiring manager you are applying to has different hotspots.

Find out what they are and incorporate those into your marketing material (I mean, your resume).

So this post on substance and resume content took a different twist than what I thought it would take… I originally planned on writing something like “here are the 15 content components of what goes in a resume.”  I didn’t write about that because there’s already a ton of information about that elsewhere… and really, I think it’s more important to talk about your resume as a messaging tool, a marketing tool, rather than just a list of acheivements or employment history facts.

Does your resume properly show your substance as the right person for my team?

The last few weeks I’ve spent hours painting.  I painted one wall a dark red, which complements a dark tan and a mustard yellow.  I didn’t think it would look good but they all look very nice together.

A fresh coat of paint has made a huge difference in the presentation of our house.

Have you ever seen that?  Compare the difference between an old worn-out barn with peeling paint to the barns famous in New England that are pristine…

Think about your resume.  I’ll admit I’m not a resume expert, but it seems to me you have two significant factors in the success of your resume:

The Presentation - this is how it looks.  From the font, to the paper, from the placement of things to how much white space is on your resume, the presentation is critical.  As a hiring manager I remember discarding resumes just because they looked off.  They were weird… I couldn’t imagine that someone who didn’t take enough time to at least get the easy part of their resume done right would take the time to do the job right, if I were to hire them.  They failed before they even had a chance to interview.

The Substance - I’ll talk more about this later in the week, but basically this is whether you have the credibility and credentials to do the job.  More later…

Back to the resume presentation… is this important?  Is it wrong for me, as a hiring manager, to discard a resume simply because the presentation is not what I’m expecting?  Whether it’s right or wrong for me to do that, I know it happens.  And if it happens, and you can avoid it, you should do what you can.  Here are some tips on resume presentation:

• White space. How much?  A lot.  If I pick up a resume that has so much text I know I’m going to need to spend more time on it, I might put it in a “check this out later” pile.  Understand that I wasn’t seeing HUNDREDS of resumes a day, and I’m guessing that HR and recruiters who see something with too much text will have a different tactic (garbage?).
• Font. Don’t put anything in font that’s too big, and please don’t get too small.  I’m in my 30s but my eyes aren’t so great, and staring at a monitor all day makes them tired.
• Folds. I think it’s hilarious to send a resume in an envelope… folded.  Please don’t fold your resume.  If you do, and I like it, I’ll likely have to make a photo copy so I can keep it with all the other resumes I like.
• Margins. You *can* change the margins in your document, right?  Cool … but *can* doesn’t mean *should* … be careful to not change something that will give me printer problems (like, making the margins too small!).
• Graphics and photos. Unless you are in design or need to exemplify your creativity, be cautious about using graphics.  I’ve found many people don’t know how to make their graphics small, so a document that could be 100kb becomes 2,000kb, and I don’t like getting 2mb files in my email!  Aside from file size, the graphics could be a distraction, off-brand, or cause funky formatting on my computer (so I don’t see it the way you see it).
• Proper use of bullets. What icons do you use for the bullets?  Are bullets properly indented, etc?  Bullets are cool to help format your resume, but if you do it wrong it will look like you used a typewriter or very old word processing system.  Yuck.
• File compatibility. When you mail me a document and I can’t open it, we have a problem.  If you use Word 2007, for example, make sure the document you send me is in the 1997 - 2003 format… make it easy for me to open it with one click!

For some examples in presentation, check out the resume samples page.  What do you think is important in the resume presentation?

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

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!

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.