Barbara pulls some mistake examples from various sites and include things from typos to “subtle” humor.

Go read the list of things.  I wanted to share this with you for two reasons:

First, you MUST proof your resume, and have others proof it as well. It’s easy to make a simple mistake (and for you, if you write the resume, to continue to keep missing it).

Some people have very little tolerance for such mistakes… their first look at an interview might be to look for weaknesses on the document, not any strengths you are presenting.

No matter who prepares the resume, whether it is you or Career Resumes, you must review (and, in a sense, approve) the final document.

Second, humor might not be an appropriate technique in your job search. On Barbara’s list you’ll see someone put “gossiping” as an interest.  Or an achievement is that someone was nominated as a prom queen (not chosen, just nominated :p).

Perhaps these weren’t meant to be humorous but they were lifetime accomplishments or interests… but think about it: your resume isn’t your opportunity to brag about yourself – it is a marketing document that will either help sell you (get you the interview) or not.  That’s the bottom line.

You might get one chance… don’t risk it with a poorly designed, poorly executed document.

If you are need resume help contact Career Resumes, or submit your resume for a free resume review.

That’s right… out of the blue, pick up the phone and have a real conversation.

You could say something like:

I was just thinking of you and wanted to see how your job search was going. Is there anything I can do?

You might not get far, so here are some other questions:

• Is there anyone you are trying to network into?
• Are there any companies you are trying to network into?
• What industries are you targeting?
• Can you have lunch next week with me?
• What networking events are you going to?
• I have a friend who just got laid off, do you think you can share some ideas and tips with him?

Job seekers need help but many times they are at a point where they don’t want to call you and ask you for help (they might not know how to ask for help).  So why don’t you extend a helping hand to them?

Even if you don’t help them land a job, the mere effort and interest you show can change their day 1000%.

He makes himself call someone from his chicken list regularly. He psyches himself up, telling himself that they can’t hurt him… and he makes the call.

Sometimes it ends with great results, sometimes it ends in a way that he crosses their name off the “maybe this person can help me” list forever (because they are jerks).

It is critical to do this… otherwise you walk around with the “I should call this person” for days, which turns into weeks, which turns into months.

All this does is add undue stress to your otherwise stressful job search.

So I challenge you:

TODAY: DO SOMETHING HARD

It might be to sign up for a job search club, or to go to a networking event, or to call someone, or to email someone.

You know what it is … that hard thing you’ve been putting off for so long…

DO IT. TODAY.

Playing soduko online would have been more productive.

Still cracks me up to read that :p

I don’t want to steer you away from doing stuff online, though.  I just want you to think about what you are doing and is it effective.

Something that you seriously need to consider is how talent (that is, job seekers) is being found.  If I’m a recruiter (or hiring manager), where do I go to look for you?

I’m hearing of two main places to look:

• LinkedIn
• Google

Google (or any search engine) owns this vast database we call “the internet.”  So the question is, if I’m a hiring manager and I’m looking for a project manager in Seattle, will I find you?

Go to google and do this search: “Project Manager” seattle (or just click on that link)

What comes up? DO YOU COME UP?

You can come up on the front page of the searches, if you know how to do it.  It’s not rocket science or black magic, it is pretty straight forward.  It will take work, but wouldn’t it be worth it?

Here are five things to do to show up:

Blog. This is my #1 suggestion for showing up on the front page of Google.

LinkedIn account. The cool thing about this is you are hitting two birds with one stone.  Your LinkedIn profile is actually searchable by search engines (unless you turn that off by default).

Twitter account. Have the key phrase (project_manager) in the handle/name.

Write articles. Submit them to free ezine sites, which means you’ll be a “published author” (not to diminish other work from real published authors).  This could be impressive to some people, but more than that, could help with the search engine results.

Comment on other peoples blogs. This is pretty easy – go find blogs that have to do with project manager or Seattle and leave comments.  Many blogs allow their comments to be spidered by the search engines.

This stuff doesn’t just happen – you have to intentionally work at it!

Can you be found on Google … or LinkedIn?

“Hours of his days the past nine months have been spent in front of his laptop screen.”

I remember those days.  Totally fruitless.  Playing soduko online would have been more productive.

“I’ve spent about two hours a day, 10 to 15 hours a week searching for jobs,” the business management degree holder said. “Posted my resume on monster.com, Careerbuilder, tried Linked In, Facebook networking, had probably the most success off of BYU’s recruiting website… Craigslist, whatever.”

Tried LinkedIn? What does “tried” mean? Gone on, created a lame profile (like so many are), and waited?

What is the value of posting a resume on monster or careerbuilder, if that’s all you do there?

There is a lot more to a successful job search strategy than what you do on the computer… don’t just “try” LinkedIn – understand it and do meaningful stuff there.

Don’t just post resumes online, or apply to jobs you find online… if you spend 5 minutes online looking for a job without having gotten any training on how to look for a job online, you are waisting your time.

Take it from me – I excelled at waisting time, even though I thought I was doing really good job search stuff.

Can you help me?

Seriously, can you give me a hand?

Actually, what I really want is an introduction.

Any introduction will do.  Oh wait, how about an introduction to that really, really big company.

Please?

No?  WHY NOT????

I see this ALL THE TIME.  Here’s an example, from a LinkedIn Group:

I can’t help this person.

Even though I immediately thought about my contacts at Costco… there is no way I can help.  Is he looking for someone to get a food in, or a book, or a job, or a … ???

Beyond that, I don’t even know this person.

IF you ask for help (and you should), here are some things to consider:

1. I might help you if I know what I’m helping for (and can feel comfortable with that)… I want to feel comfortable with the introduction I’m doing and not just throw mud on the wall.
2. I might help you if I am comfortable recommending you.  I have to know something about you, and your character. I don’t want to risk my relationships for someone I don’t know.

Communicate those two points and I bet you’ll have more success when you ask for leads and introductions.

The spew was unfounded and I wondered if this person should have been on medication for some personality disorder.

There was no reason to continue a relationship and so I haven’t tried to reach out to make amends and try and move forward.

The truth is, I’ve had enough of my own issues since I started my own company.  I deal with a lot of things and think about a circus performer who has a lot of plates spinning in the air – I’m responsible for making sure those plates stay spinning, which is a lot of work!

I really can’t take the time it requires to work on bad relationships, especially if the other person has no intention of helping make it better.

As a job seeker you have a lot of plates spinning, too.  I know you’ll run into a lot of negative stuff.  You have to determine if it is constructive criticism that you should learn from, and shape your future actions, or if it just negative spew that you should ignore.  Not easy to differentiate, sometimes, especially when emotions are hot, but figure this out and then you have two options:

1. Change. If the criticism has hints of truth, or truck-loads of truth, figure out how it can make you a better person. I know it’s not fun to get criticism but separate the emotions and denial from the opportunity to become better.  It doesn’t mean you have to like the person, or be BFFs again, but you shouldn’t run away from the opportunity to improve.
2. Ignore. If it was just plain hurtful and not constructive or without reason, move on.  Move away.  Don’t email, call or communicate with the person anymore.  There are other people out there and you shouldn’t surround yourself with all the junk, especially in a time that is so trying and emotional for you (aka, the job search).

I remember another time I was in a situation with someone working on a project that was just not going well.  In the end, things had soured considerably. I remember being criticized for a number of things I thought were not justified and I sat there thinking how rotten it was to be on that end of the table.  It reminded me of being in a hostile work environment… there was a huge difference, though:

In the hostile work environment I was somewhat trapped.  I know you are never really trapped, but they had control over a lot of things I liked (salary, benefits, etc.).

In the other project I was not beholden to the other person at all.

I was pushed out of my job environment, but I voluntarily walked away from the other project (at the right time).

Both situations were liberating. The lesson I learned was this: when you are on your own you do not have to sit and take it like you may have it you were dealing with an employer.

Move on, don’t look back, and make forward progress!  You deserve it!

5. look up definitions.  I think I know the meaning of many words but sometimes I want to BE SURE I am not saying something wrong… it’s easy to make sure I’m using the right word.  I can do what this slide says, or if your browser is set to use Google as the default search engine (I think Firefox and Chrome are automatically set up to use Google), just put in “define _______” … I do this daily.

6. search a specific site. Did you know you can limit your search to just one website?  For example, this search is for all jobs at the American Express website.

7. Get directions. Another favorite, I use this to find out what my trip looks like and how much time to budget.  I usually get there by going to maps.google.com but this shows a different way.

8. find the time. MOST of my work (phone calls) are within the four major time zones in the United States.  But every once in a while I have a call with someone in Israel, Australia, the UK, etc.  This is a handy tool to help me do the math to figure out what 9am Mountain Time means for the person I’m calling.

9. search area codes. When I see a call come in I can quickly get an idea of where the caller is by looking up their area code… here’s how you do that in google (in my browser I type in “area code ###”

13. eliminate unwanted results. When you are doing research on a company or industry you might find one term or word that monopolizes the results.  If you want to clean up the results and get rid of that term it’s quite easy… just do something like this (as per the slide): “oil spill -bp” — this takes out all results that have BP, who is quite, um, popular these days with the term “oil spill.”

14. check stocks. If you are looking at bigger companies this might be important for you as you prepare for interviews or look for networking discuss fodder. It’s easy to find stock info using Google.

19. search related terms. Maybe you aren’t thinking out of the box enough… if you are only using one key word for doing research you might be overlooking other, more popular words.  Do this ~search to find related terms and their search results.

20. traffic forecast. Similar to #7 above but with the benefit of padding your travel plans based on traffic.  If you are going to a new part of town you should seriously check this out – that harmless back road might get a lot more congested than you ever imagined, and you don’t want to be late for your interview!

There you go – there’s more you can do with Google, but I picked the ones I thought would be useful to you in a job search!

Recently I read an awesome idea on how to ensure you are moving forward (not just doing *stuff* but really moving forward with your goals/objectives).

The idea is the simplest I’ve heard but it makes a lot of sense.  Here’s what you do:

Every day make a list of three urgent things and three important things (that should/could be done that day).  Then, make sure you do all of the important things.

It’s that simple.  And because you are always working on important things, you’ll always be moving forward.

I think the urgent things will have a way of getting done, don’t you think?

Brilliant.  Try it… I have and it has provided a piece of mind that I didn’t have before.

(If you know where this idea comes from, leave a note in the comments… I can’t remember where I read it)

Whether you like the phrase “personal brand” or not, the concept is real.  And YOU have a brand.

Check out this post from Thom Singer: Your Personal Brand is a Real Thing.

Thom says:

…you are being watched and judged by everyone. Do you care? You should. You have a personal brand and it is screaming out to others. Are you aware of what it is saying?

It is so true.  You might be branded as average (what a poor brand!), obnoxious, helpful, resourceful, annoying, rude, the guy who is always by the food table, the lady who never works, the procrastinator, the player, the ______.

Why let your brand happen to you?  Why not intentionally drive what it is?