blueskyresumesblog

Katie Couric, Clint Eastwood and the Peter Principle

Katie Couric was supposed to set the world on fire in her new role as CBS News anchor. After all, as co-host of the Today show, she had been hugely popular for many years. Why wouldn't that translate to massive success as a newscaster? So CBS paid Katie a fortune to move, and the ratings for her first show were amazing.

But they've dropped off dramatically since then. Katie says they'll come back. She says it's just a matter of time because success doesn't happen overnight.

But I think she's wrong. I don't think she will never succeed in that slot because she's not playing to her strengths. I think CBS misunderstood her appeal and they're paying the price now.

On the Today show, Katie's breezy, engaging personality allowed the TV viewers to feel a connection with her. She bantered easily with guests and with her co-hosts. Even those, like me, who don't often watch morning TV felt like as if they knew her.

But reading the evening news stripped Katie of all the things she excels at. She can't be breezy and engaging when she's the lone presenter of serious news. She can't draw her audience in with a quip or a giggle. She can't tell a funny, self-deprecating story or two to lighten the mood. Instead, her new job plays to her weaknesses and has no use for her strengths, which leaves a talented lady looking very average.

It's a new take on the old Peter Principle, which says "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." And with the new year on the horizon, as many of us take stock of our  careers and make decisions about our future, it's a valuable reminder that self-knowledge is key to good decision-making.

Or as Clint Eastwood once said: "A man's got to know his limitations."

You're the Person of the Year?

It's a bit of a transparent move really.

Time Magazine tried to make themselves seem trendy and cutting-edge by naming 'you' the person of the year. Their theory is that we have all taken over the media because of self-publishing tools like blogs, video and photo sharing sites, and social networking tools.

But self-serving desperation aside, they do have a point and I've been going on about it all year. There has been a revolution, and that revolution allows me to write this blog and communicate directly with job seekers rather than attempting to place an occasional article with established media sites. I can build my own audience and don't have to rely on others to allow me access to theirs.

We all have a chance to share what we know. We all have an opportunity to build communities around what we are about. We all have a voice.

That's the exciting part. And also the scary part.

Everything we say and do online is recorded forever. Every action we take. Every site we visit. Every screen name we adopt. Every book we pan on Amazon. Every opinion we espouse. Every blog we start and then abandon. Every MySpace or Xanga profile we create.

For those who are conscious of what this means for career management, there is a huge opportunity. You can carefully and knowingly construct a personal brand online through the right blog, and well-placed comments on forums, and a well-constructed MySpace profile.

Or can you?

Because the person of the year isn't just you.

It's also me.

And her.

And him.

What are we saying about you? Because whatever it is will count for just as much as what you are saying about yourself - maybe even more.   

Careers have ended this year because of Youtube. Neither Michael Richards or George Allen could control their online brand. Or rather, they couldn't control their online brands by being careful about what they did online - the damage was done because of what they did in the real world.

And it seems to me that we have not even begun to understand the ramifications of this for job search and career management. Now that social networking and blogging (and whatever is next) have entered the mainstream, it will be harder and harder for any of us to "spin" our online personas. Information about us will be widely available. Manager and recruiters will glance at the name on your well-constructed resume, and then type it into Google to get the real story.

This is not to say that you should not carefully manage your online persona - you must and you should.  But   Michael Richards and George Allen determined their own futures when they made racist comments in public because so little of our behavior is truly private anymore. If you live your life and manage your career in the way you would like to be perceived, then your online presence will, by and large, reflect that.

Something to reflect on as we approach a new year.

How do you get keywords into your resume?

You've heard of keywords right? You've heard that you might miss out on interviews if your resume doesn't contain the right keywords, because it might not be found when someone searches the resume database. And therefore, you may have wondered whether you should include a keyword summary in your resume.

My answer is no. And I see that HR Guy agrees with me. He writes:

I don’t know about other recruiters but I think keywords are awful. Whenever I see them, they seem… oh how to put it… tacky? And while Jimmy’s idea is pretty slick, if your recruiter doesn’t have an application tracking system (ATS) that parses the resume with the included summary, you are out of luck. I would guess that would be a good guess if the company has less than a 1,000 people and would almost be a sure thing with less than 500 people. So that can help you get a job at the big companies but there are better ways to do keywords that will help you get a job period.

I know it is a radical idea but how about including some of those keywords in the actual content of your resume. If it isn’t important enough to be even be mentioned, it is unlikely adding the keyword is going to help that. If you have sales experience but you don’t mention sales in your resume, what makes you think that adding “sales” to your keywords is going to help you land the job.

I could not agree more!

Yesterday, I gave an interview to the Washington Post for an upcoming feature about graduate resumes, and as I was talking, I realized that I kept hitting on the same theme (sounded like a broken record actually!) That theme is this: Be honest.

If you include all your skills and accomplishments in your resume, you will be discovered for relevant positions during a keyword search because you have the skills. You don't need to create a fake summary or worry about keywords at all actually. You just need to focus on putting your best foot forward by telling employers what you have accomplished in a compelling manner.

(If you need help, sign up for our free resume writing e-course. There's no spam and no content-free emails designed to get you to spend money! This is good solid content because I know how much most people struggle with their resumes.)

The bottom line, as I told the Washington Post is that recruiters like HR Guy are far from stupid, They have seen every trick in the book a thousand times, and not surprisingly, they resent attempts to pull the wool over their eyes. So honesty is always the best policy when it comes to keywords, or any other aspect of your resume.

Resume Writing Mistakes - #1

Don't assume everyone is like you.

This might not actually be the #1 mistake, but it's the one that's on my mind today because I just had a conversation that reminded me of it.

I wrote a resume for a client who has been in the same industry his whole life, and with the same company for 20 years. He has never looked for a job before. His new resume was pretty great, even if I do say so myself. But, to my surprise he hated it. When I talked to him I found out that he hated it because it's not the kind of resume he likes to read. In accordance with our policies, I gave him a full refund, but asked that he please try out the resume anyway because I KNOW it will work. I've been doing this a long time and I am very good at it.

His answer was "absolutely not. I don't like to read resumes like this so I'm going to write my own."

Can you see the problem here? The person is putting his own preferences over and above the advice of an expert, and over and above the facts - which are that this type of resume works. Even when it has cost him nothing, he's still not willing to try something new and different.

I can picture the resume he's going to write and I would bet large sums of money that it won't market his skills as effectively as the one I created. But he will be happy with it because it's the kind of resume he personally likes to read.

Please don't make this mistake with your resume. Professional resume writers can only maintain a successful business over a long period of time if their resumes actually work. Without a record of success, they wouldn't receive referrals and they'd have so many customer complaints that they'd close up shop. By all means shop around if you're going to hire a professional writer:

• Look at references on Linked In.
• Examine their resume samples.
• Read their blog to see if you like their approach.
• Ask what makes them a good choice.
• Choose someone who's been doing this a while.

But once you've chosen, trust that the expert knows more than you do about this particular subject and put yourself into their hands. Because it's a simple fact that not everyone reads resumes the way you do and your personal bias could cost you a great job.