Let’s all follow Phoebe’s example: Friends don’t let friends lie on their resumes!
(One more week of finals… and then I’m back, full-force! I know you can’t wait.)
Being not only a blogger, resume writer, and career commentator, I am also a full-time graduate student — and an eager, excited one at that. I study ethics — in particular, I study Christian ethics, and I choose to do it in a way that is relevant to the world that we live in. I (very righteously, it sounds like today) comment on women’s rights, I think about racism as it intersects with American religion, I care about the ethics of war, torture, end-of-life experiences, and I try to connect what this fellow named Jesus living and dying in the period of the Roman Empire might have to say about all of us who live and die in this period of the American Empire. I really care about this. I think it matters.
What I do not care about, however, is being bombarded with meaningless papers during finals week that prevent me from thinking, caring, and doing the important things that I love. Today, I’m writing two insignificant papers, and as I do it, I realize that I am just jumping through yet another hoop to get the degree I need to do what I want to do.
This, though is why I love resumes so much. Resumes, my friends, are certainly a hoop, but they are useful, empowering, strong documents that serve a real-world purpose. Resumes are the hoop that will get you somewhere, which teach you something about yourself, and enable you to say, Obama-like, “Yes, I can.” With a resume, you’re responding to something real, and putting yourself in a position of power: you decide who you are on your resume. You take your skills, your passions, your experiences, your work, your education, and arrange it in a way that optimizes YOU.
Ah, the passion and fear emerging from a graduate student at the end of the semester. Nevertheless — I am so thankful for the things in this world we can do out of integrity, self-representation, and excitement. I’m thankful for my education. And weirdly enough? I’m thankful for resumes.
Video resumes are preposterous. Why?
1) There’s a reason we don’t put our pictures on a resume — it makes people focus on your appearance rather than your qualifications. It also unfortunately opens the door for people to discriminate against you based on age, color, gender, attractiveness quotient… whatever. And, it’s just downright tacky. A video resume is all these things and more.
2) I’d venture a guess to say that few of us have the skills to develop an interesting, attractive, and short video resume that actually communicates the information about ourselves we want to get across. Heck — not many of us can write a good traditional resume.
3) Video resumes are BORING! It takes longer to watch a video resume than it does to skim a traditional one. I hardly made it through one of the many I’ve perused on YouTube–the employers are not going to hear the information you want them to know about you. All they’re going to know is that you made a crappy, self-indulgent video.
4) You look a fool. Plain and simple.
Don’t believe me? Then watch this video:
Did YOUR mind wander halfway through this boring video? Mine sure did. And this one was better than half of the others floating around on YouTube! So please, folks: if your voice makes you sound like a pre-teen who would rather be watching Hannah Montana, do yourself a favor and OPT OUT. (Sheesh!)
So, then. My suggestions surrounding a video resume:
Still stuck on it? Then for crying out loud — keep it short, look presentable, be confident, and include a link to your online resume!
It’s pretty great, huh? Many thanks to Zoe Pappenheimer for her hard work. And for her brilliance.
See more of Zoe’s stuff out at Zoe Design Works.
You’ve been unemployed for a while now, and are starting to feel the burn. Tired of revising the resume, of putting yourself on the line, and of checking f*ing careerbuilder.com one more time, you’re beginning to entertain thoughts of self-sustainable farming, or perhaps nannying other people’s children… anything to get a buck. And more specifically, anything to get out of this hellhole we call… the Job Search.
Luckily, you have me, your friendly blogging friend, to help you out with this latest bout of ennui. And know what I’ve got? Another list for you. Sweet!
This one’s called the “Keeping-Up-Your-Momentum-and-Having-Fun-When-the-Job-Search-Really-Blows” List:
1) Check your attitude. Nothing is more of a downer in an interview than an applicant who is sincerely self-deprecating. Revise the way you look at your situation from having “no” opportunities to having any opportunity you want! It might be hard to remember, but being unemployed is actually a chance to start fresh, to do whatever you want to do, to try something new.
2) Bond. Find a community of other unemployed folks in your area! There actually tend to be a variety of places where you can meet others who are looking for employment, from online at LinkedIn to your local Job Club to Resume or Interviewing Skills Seminars. From there, you can network, share resources, compare skills, or just hang out and blow off some steam.
3) Surf. Reading Job Mob, Laurie Ruettimann, One Louder, or Not Hired, job search/HR blogs that are funny, fresh, and creative, is a great way to improve your job search knowledge, gain some skills, and not feel like you’re working so hard. Hey, maybe you’ll even laugh a little!
4) Get help. The job search is a full-time career, requiring a vast array of skills and knowledge that you may or may not not have in vast quantities. Don’t assume you should be able to do everything! Get a professional to coach you on how best to interview, to advise you on which strategies will get you where you want to go, or to make a simple revision of your resume.
Onwards and upwards!
Yesterday I had an interview for a part time summer job to supplement my income as I try to launch resumakers! ( remember, I’m also a full time grad student, so I’ll take what I can get!). I was kind of nervous about it since I do tend to call myself… that’s right… a Career Consultant, and therefore should know how to interview. I am trying to build a career, after all, out of telling other people how to do it!
But today–rather, yesterday–was a Day of Celebration, because within 2 hours after my interview, I was offered the job! Well done, me.
Here were my tactics:
1) Treat the interviewer like a friend. Anyone who’s ever hired anyone knows this: we hire people we like. So do yourself a favor, and be likable. (And this is key: SMILE!)
2) Tell stories, not pitches. Sell yourself, not your personality traits. Forget about listing off all the wonderful qualities you have–instead of talking about how motivated you are, tell a story about what happened on your last job as a result of your self-motivation. It’s more interesting, and it’s more persuasive.
3) Answer the question. Yeah. Answer it. Don’t be a politician, be a person. You understood the question, so treat the interviewer like a human being and acknowledge the question the asked by actually answering it–even the tough ones.
4) Take notes. Do it both before and during the interview. Know what you want to say, and have it written in front of you in case you have a mind freeze. Take notes during the interview, too–it helps later when you write your thank you note. (Just make sure you’re maintaining eye contact!)
5) Research. If you don’t know about the organization before the interview, you don’t deserve the job. Period.
A new book by Susan Jacoby, called The Age of American Unreason, talks about the growing trend of ignorance among Americans. Nicholas Kristof, writing for the New York Times, said of the book on March 30,
“’America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism,’… [but Jacoby's] broader point is that we as a nation will have difficulty making crucial decisions if we don’t have an intellectual climate that fosters an informed and reasoned debate.”
Kristof’s article, “With a Few More Brains…”, goes on to lament the effect that such ignorance may have had on American policies, politics, and international relations. Whether or not his claim on the political repercussions of Americans’ purported ignorance is true, Jacoby’s book does make a striking argument on the state of our brains and our intelligence. Sure, one could argue about the intellectual progress of Americans either way: “Look how far we’ve come!” or “Oh my gosh, we’ve regressed so far…”, but what may be even more important are the lessons we can take away from Jacoby’s position: 1) we must always learn from our history, and 2) revise, revise, revise!
I’ve been paying attention lately to the thoughts that float around in my head. You know those thoughts — the ones characterized by dreamy, fantastic ideas about how successful we’d be in this career, or how happy we’ll be after that life decision. We think they’re exceptional ideas at 3:00 a.m., but the next day over lunch, we shake our heads in amusement, saying, “That would never work.” Somewhere in between those two moments, the magic of that lightbulb fades, and doubt penetrates its luster.
Why do people talk themselves out of their creativity? Do you talk yourself out of yours?
Earlier this week I had a conversation with a friend about her husband, who I’ve come to think of as an “Ideas Man.” Travis, my friend says with an obvious affection, can’t quite seem to settle on a passion: he’s always having one grand idea after another, but doesn’t always complete his current dream before rushing off towards the next. At first, I chuckled fondly thinking of Travis, as sweet, affable, and as passionate as he is. But then, I caught myself.
Was I writing off Travis’ passion? Shouldn’t I admire it? Certainly life to an extent requires pragmatism, but at the same time, shouldn’t we all live in pursuit of our ideas?
Ultimately, the search for a career can be characterized as a search for one’s self. Americans identify ourselves by what we do: it’s almost always one of the first questions you ask when you meet someone. Taking time to listen to those ideas keeps your career path open to innovation, excitement, and creativity!
So next time you feel your mind wander towards those crazy dreams, don’t be so quick to shoot yourself down. Even if you never change your career, at least you’ll know that you did it with your eyes open.
…from now on, I’m sleeping with a pen and paper on my nightstand.
CareerBuilder.com, in a recent article entitled “Resume Blunders that will keep You from Getting Hired,” wrote that the objective these days, is out. And, they’re not alone–resume writers and folks in the job search world have all been proclaiming the death of the objective in the resume (not unlike the theologians in the 60’s who proclaimed the death of God).
In its place, Anthony Balderrama of CareerBuilder.com suggests that job seekers offer a brief career summary in its place, giving the employer “an idea of who you are, except it allows you to focus more on your experience than on your goals. You can briefly mention your career highlights, including past roles and your strongest skills.”
Well, call me old-fashioned, but I think an objective can be very useful on a resume! Of course there should be a career summary on everyone’s resume, but I don’t think that the objective should be sacrificed in it’s place. I do, however, think that the role of the objective is changing.
Put yourself for a minute in the employer’s shoes. You probably work in HR. Whether or not you do, you might have a lot of papers on your desk, and you definitely deal with tens, even hundreds of applications and resumes coming in and out of your office every day. So, let’s be honest: you like resumes that are clear, informative, and strong. And you’re probably going to skim the cover letter.
Let’s not make the employer work to figure out which job we want. When applying for a job, write the job title and company specifically into the objective on the resume: “Seeking the position of Financial Analyst with XYZ Corporation International.” This helps the employer out by being as clear as possible, and it helps you out by showing that you’ve tailored the resume to their position. It’s short, it’s sweet, and hey! — you’ll even have space for that career summary, too.
Welcome to the new, online home of my baby, “Resumakers!”. Having run a small resume-writing business “on the side” (of graduate studies, of work, of life…) for over a year, and after having additionally worked in the job skills training industry for just as long, I’ve finally decided to invest myself and my energy into putting myself out there.
This blog is the fruit of my labor. What do you think so far?
I’m just beginning to get initiated into the whole world of career blogs, job search blogs, resumes blogs, and all the rest, but I’ve already developed a few favorites: check out my blogroll to the right of this post, but especially take a look at Blue Sky Resumes, Brazen Careerist, or Microsoft’s JobsBlog. These three are creative, friendly, informative, and exciting. I can’t wait to join the conversation!
The purpose of this blog, I hope, will be to offer quality and interesting information to job-seekers, with a spin on fresh and innovative techniques. I believe that the job search is a time for (at the risk of sounding corny) soul-searching: you have to decide who you are in this moment, how you want to portray yourself to the outside world, who you want to be, and what you want to do with your life. It takes skill for a person to navigate this period of intense flux and life transition. I want this blog to be a resource for folks who are continuing to learn how, and to be a space for conversation and ideas around important topics in the job search.
Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!
