blueskyresumesblog

To Thine Own Self Be True

We’ve all heard that phrase a thousand times and we know all that it’s good life advice, and yet, when it comes to marketing ourselves, it’s often a lesson that we forget.

I can’t tell you how many senior executive resumes sound exactly alike. Filled with words like ‘results-focused leader’ and “high-energy executive” - everyone is “dynamic” and ‘proven’ and ‘experienced.’  After reading the same thing 30 times, everyone starts to blur together.

Which is really crazy! Because you are totally unique. You have something that no other candidate has. You will add value in a different way. And yet I am willing to bet that your resume doesn’t express  that unique value.

I speak from experience, because for years, I didn’t know how to express my value either. When I first started my resume writing business, I wasn’t sure who my target audience was and why they should choose my company. As the business grew, I started to figure out my unique value (I have prior HR and recruiting experience, which means I know how to get the attention of HR and recruiters). As I figured this out, my marketing messages became clearer. But I still knew I wasn’t getting to the bottom of what made my business different. And very recently, I was hit over the head with the realization that we have a very obvious selling point – we’ve had it all along but I just took it for granted.

It happened this way. One day, I received a request for proposal from a person in the UK. We don’t write resumes for the UK because frankly I have no idea what works there, so I wrote back to the person and politely declined the project. The same day, I also declined a project from a teacher because no one on my staff has expertise in writing resumes for teachers. The next morning, I had emails from both potential clients thanking me for my honesty and for not just taking their money regardless of whether I could provide excellent results.

And it hit me that we do that all the time – we only take on clients I know we can help. On the rare occasions that we misjudge and don’t get results, we refund money.  Our whole business is built around trust – trust that our resumes get results, and trust that we will treat people fairly. And our resume writing process is also base on honesty – we don’t ‘sell’ what people are not – we help them communicate their authentic unique value.  And yet our branding has never reflected that – at least not as a conscious effort. It should!

If you’re like me, you see other people much more clearly than you see yourself. So when it comes to marketing yourself, you probably fall back on platitudes, or standard ideas of what a good executive does. And the resulting resume is probably flat and boring and not at all reflective of what makes you YOU.

Here are a couple of ways you can fix that right now.

1. Think back to compliments you’ve received from bosses, co-workers or clients. What do they say abut you? What words do they choose? Don’t get stuck on what YOU think ... in fact, forget that for now. Just focus on what other people say.

2. Looking back over your career, what themes keep re-emerging? Are you always the person brought in to tackle the most challenging problems? Or have you always found new ways to cut costs?

3. What is your management philosophy? Write it down – don’t worry about spelling or grammar or finding the perfect words – just write whatever comes into your head.

Reviewing all this information will help you determine the answer to the most important question of all: “what make you unique?”

Once you have that answer, you can rewrite your resume, you can prepare for interviews and you can create your ‘elevator pitch.’ All based not on what executives are ‘supposed to be like’ but on who you really are.

Half Right ... Half Wrong

Seth Godin is one of my favorite bloggers and but in this post about resumes, he's only 50% right.

Seth's looking for an intern and he doesn't like the resumes he's seeing. They're bland and boring and they don't tell him why these candidates are remarkable. Well, that means they're like 99.9% of all resumes out there (which is why people like me get paid to write the other 0.1%).

Seth goes on to say that he wants evidence of what makes a person remarkable.

If you don't have a resume, what do you have?

How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

Some say, "well, that's fine, but I don't have those."

Yeah, that's my point. If you don't have those, why do you think you are  remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don't have those, you've been brainwashed into acting like you're sort of ordinary.

I absolutely agree that those things are important - that's why I often include glowing LinkedIn testimonials when I write resumes. It's why I advocate for those clients who are good writers to start blogging. It's why I create only portfolios where people can show off their extraordinary work.

That's the 50% that's right.

But it's wrong to advocate for people to scrap the whole idea of a resume, just because the resumes they are writing are ineffective.  For better or worse, almost all hiring managers want to see a resume. Seth might not, but he's unusual and most people won't thank you for mailing in 3 reference letters and a blog URL when they asked for a resume. It'll just make you look like you're too stupid to follow instructions!

Instead, you should look for ways to communicate all those great things that make you special via your resume. You should include quotes from former managers (or peers or employees or clients). You should post the link to your blog and/or Squidoo page and/or web portfolio. You should focus the entire resume on showing how you have made an impact at former employers, how you've shaken things up, what you've contributed ... above all, how each company is different because you worked there.

It's not the resume that's the problem - it's what's on the resume that Seth doesn't like.

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Great Career Change Advice!

Marketing guru Seth Godin has great advice for anyone looking to make a career change. Instead of wondering how you can change from one career to another, Seth advises you just do it.

My answer is easy to write, harder to implement. In my experience the single best way to become a marketer is to market. And since marketing isn't expensive any longer (it takes more guts than money), there's no need to work for Procter & Gamble. None. In the old days, you could argue that you needed to apprentice with an expert and that you needed access to millions (or billions) to spend. No longer.

So, start your own gig. Even if you're 12 years old, start a store on eBay. You'll learn just about everything you need to learn about digital marketing by building an electronic storefront, doing permission-based email campaigns, writing a blog, etc.

This is the advice I give my clients too - it's very hard to persuade someone that you can do something without evidence that you have done it.

I wrote more about making a successful career change using this method on Freeresumehelp.net. You can find the article here.

Choosing a Resume Writer

Two bad resumes came across my desk today. Neither did a good job of selling the person they represented. In fact at first glance, I couldn't even tell what type of positions either of these people wanted.

I see a lot of resumes like this, but what made these two stand out is that they were both 'professionally written.' Both job seekers had paid good money for their resumes and both had been ripped off.

It makes me so angry to see that. Many resume writers do truly excellent work and we hold ourselves to exceptionally high standards. We see ourselves as marketing consultants, not typists. We take great pride in our work and - while we may not be cheap - we work very hard to ensure that our clients get true value for money.

I go one step further than most writers and offer a full money-back guarantee if my resumes don't get results. I feel that's only fair. 

So it just makes my blood boil to see resumes like the ones I saw today. These people have no qualifications to call themselves professionals and no right to take money from people for shoddy work. And when they do, they hurt all of those writers who work hard at their craft, not to mention the poor job-seekers who hired them.

So how can you choose the right person to help with your resume?

1) Gain knowledge: The phrase 'knowledge is power' might be so over-used it's become a cliche, but it's also true. You can't choose the right resume writer unless you know what to look for. Do some research and reading to understand what makes a strong resume. Check out resume books in the library or the local bookstore. Read about resume writing on freeresumehelp.net. Familiarize yourself with what's important before you start looking for a writer.

2) Check resume samples: Any writer worth her salt will let you see samples - preferably 'before' and 'after' so that you can evaluate her work. Look for a clear marketing message - do you understand what makes this person valuable to employers? - and look for variations. If all the resumes have the exact same structure, that's a good indication that the writer doesn't vary her style, but uses the same template over and over again.

3) Check for professional qualifications or association memberships: Just being a member of a professional association or having letters after your name doesn't make you a great writer, but in combination with the other criteria, it can be a helpful factor to consider.

4) Understand the approach and make sure it's right for you: All writers have different styles and approaches. Some make the process very easy for the client, conducting a short phone interview and then creating the resume using the information gathered.

My style is not for everyone. I make my clients work hard for their resumes! I believe that a strong resume is only one element of a successful job search and I put my clients through a rigorous self-assessment process using my proprietary worksheets. I use this information to create the new resume, but my clients also use it for interview preparation and even to guide them in targeting their search. If you hate to write, or don't have time, you won't like my approach. That's why it's important to choose a writer whose approach suits your needs.

5) Don't choose the least expensive: If budget is a concern - and I can certainly understand that as I'm no Bill Gates! - don't hire a professional writer. You truly do get what you pay for when it comes to something as skilled as personal marketing, so if you can't afford to hire a quality writer, you'll get better results by learning as much as you can about writing a resume and doing it yourself.

A good resume is one of the wisest investments you will ever make - so be careful to choose someone who can deliver what they promise.   

Stop Applying and Start Marketing!

When you go shopping for a new car, do you send an email to all the dealers in your area, asking if they'll please let you buy their car? How about when you need a new pair of shoes? Would you walk around the mall looking for a store that would consider accepting you as a customer?

Of course not! You choose the car you want. You look at all the shoes on offer and select the ones you like. You are in control of those decisions, as you should be.

So why is it so different when it comes to job search? Why, instead of shopping around for a position that suits them, do so many people ask random companies to hire them?

And why do so many people jump at the first job that's offered, whether or not it's a good fit?

I really don't think it needs to be that way for most people. I think it's possible to completely change the way you think about your job search - to shift gears from asking someone to hire you, to shopping around for the opportunity that best suits you.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that financial concerns can sometimes force us to take less-than-perfect positions - but in those cases, you can take the emergency job and still apply the principle I'm going to talk about here to find the job that is right for you in the long-term.

The shift I want you to make is to first understand that you are uniquely valuable. You have a set of skills, experiences and accomplishments that no one else has. And somewhere there are organizations who need what you have to offer. This applies whether you are a new entrant into the job market or a seasoned executive.

You goal during job search should not be to randomly fire out thousands of copies of your resume - but to find and contact those companies who need what you have to offer. In other words, look for the people who are buying what you're selling.

There are 3 steps to shopping for the right job:

1) Know who you are.

You can't know who needs you, until you truly understand what you have to offer.

I call this 'defining your value proposition.' To do this, think about what others say about you. Consider when you're at your best. Think back over your work history. Identify exactly how you add value to your employers. As an example, my value proposition is:

I combine prior experience as a Human Resources executive, and my knowledge of marketing, to write resumes that help people get the job of their dreams.

What's yours?

2) Define your Target Market

Now that you know what your strengths are, you can start to select companies who value those strengths. For example, if you're a retail employee whose biggest strength is being able to connect with customers and make them feel good, look for retailers who truly value customer service - not just in their slogans but in their actions - and then write a resume that highlights your customer service talents.

If you're an executive whose strength is turning around struggling operations, research to find companies in need of those skills and approach them directly with a resume that highlights exactly what you have done in those areas.

If you're a web designer with a special talent for designing websites that sell, highlight that as your value proposition and create a resume centered on that to send to all the web design agencies in your area. Your resume will appeal to the agencies who value and need that skill set.

Will you eliminate a lot of possibilities this way? Absolutely! But they're the wrong opportunities anyway, so they'll eat up a lot of your time and should you be unlucky enough to get the job, they won't make you happy.

3) Communicate Your Value Proposition

Don't try to make your resume and cover letters a catalog of everything you've ever done well in your career - instead focus on communicating why you are uniquely qualified to meet the company's needs. If customer service is your message, make that the focus of your resume and cover letter. Quote from customer 'thank-you' letters or performance reviews to support your claims. Highlight accomplishments that relate to good customer service. Use every word to show why you are the PERFECT fit.

And carry this over into your interviews. Make customer service the focus of your answers to questions like 'why should we hire you?' and 'What's your greatest strength?'

This approach would be cold and manipulative if you didn't start from your own strengths. It would be wrong to just identify what a company wants and then target all your communications towards showing you have those skills if you don't. But when you're starting from your authentic self - your unique value proposition - this approach is not only the most likely to secure you a position quickly, it's the most likely to secure you the right position.

Al Gore, Being Authentic and the Oscars

Paul Copcutt has an interesting post today over on Career Hub, where he talks about Al Gore's transformation from wooden political candidate to inspiring advocate.

I don't want this post to be political, but I do find Al Gore a shining example of what happens when we stop acting in an authentic way. It's easy to understand why people do this when they run for President. The long election cycles, constant media scrutiny and "attack ad" mentality mean that candidates have to be careful of every word they say.

I think the most successful politicians are the ones who find a way to shape themselves for public consumption while still retaining some connection to who they are at their core. Ronald Reagan was know for his communication skills. Bill Clinton for his ability to connect with ordinary people. And our current President is widely seen as someone who sticks to his guns no matter what anybody else says.

These are core "brand" values that resonate with people, for good or for ill. We may like or dislike what we see, but we all basically see the same thing.

Somehow Al Gore lost that when he ran for office. Perhaps he wasn't skilled enough at politicking. Perhaps he's too honest to do it convincingly. But Paul's right - as a candidate, he never made the connection with ordinary people that he is making now. I think that's because he is now working on an issue that matters to him, and he is being his own authentic self.

So many of us try to squeeze ourselves into the box we find ourselves in. I did it for years when I worked in HR. I am an introvert and I love to write and analyze. I am happiest when I'm working on a challenging project on my own. Of course, that's the opposite of what HR is. My role as an HR exec was to coach and counsel and train and hire - basically to be with people every minute of every day.

I did well. I was successful. But every day I was tired and felt a little bit more defeated than the day before. And when I finally sought career guidance from the wonderful Rockport Institute, I found out why I felt that way. My work now allows me to spend much more time doing the kind of work I really enjoy, and I don't have to pretend to care about things that are not important to me. It's liberating!

I encourage anyone who feels like me (or Al Gore) to work with a coach and explore what you really want to do. Being authentically who you are is good for the soul, but as Al Gore is proving, it also makes you a thousand times more effective.

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.

Don't Stand in the Doorways Don't Block up the Halls

Morgan Stanley's contest to choose an Intern (part of the "Ultimate Internship Contest") brings home just how much Youtube and sites like it have the potential to change job search.

Let's face it, a resume is a highly imperfect way for a company to choose whether you are the right candidate. A resume tells the employer more about your writing skills and ability to sell yourself than it does about your ability to do the job. So it's not surprising that companies and job seekers would explore other means of making a match.

Now Morgan Stanley, along with other major companies such as The Gap, Yahoo! and NBC, is running a contest to select an intern based on videos they submit. You can watch the videos here.

Now, I hate being filmed. I hate the way I look. I hate the way my voice sounds. I avoid cameras like the plague, sometimes trampling women and children to avoid having my picture taken, so my initial reaction to the idea of using videos for job applications goes something like this:

"It'll never work because video resumes will favor people who look and sound good on video, not necessarily people who are best for the job."

Sound familiar?

The Internet is changing everything (my mantra these days!) and video resumes are just an example of that. And there's never any point of standing in the way of change - it's inevitable that people will start to use video to communicate with potential employers.

That said, I think the question for you as a job seeker is whether video will work for you. Are you comfortable on camera? Can you be engaging or funny or thought-provoking? Can you impress other people with your presence? If so, why not incorporate video into your job search now? Sites like Youtube and Gofish make it possible for anyone to create a video message for potential employers.

If you're like me, and you're pretty sure that a video would be hurtful to your job search, don't go there! But take the video idea and run with it. How else can you leverage the new web 2.0 sites to improve your job search? Perhaps you could do something with Squidoo? Or MySpace? Perhaps you could use a photo site like Fickr to create an impressive slideshow that tells a story of your career.

The times they are definitely a' changin' and you can win if you figure out a way to capitalize on that change.

What's Your Story?

I am re-reading Seth godin's excellent book, "All Marketers are Liars" which is all about the way good  marketers tell 'stories' to compel us to spend money.

Seth's title is misleading (which is the point). He isn't saying good marketers are untruthful - he's saying that they clarify the key value of their product into a compelling story that makes us want to buy.

I think this is as true of people as it is of products. Recruiters and HR people are busy. They don't have time to wade through your resume trying to figure out who you are - you have to make it crystal clear. You have to tell your story.

Do you know what your story is? If you get the call for that big interview tomorrow, can you tell the interviewer who you are and what you have to offer ... clearly, quickly, concisely and in a way that makes sense to him/her?

And if you're employed, have you established your story in the minds of people you work with. Does your boss know who you are and how much you have to offer? Do your co-workers? Do your employees?

Telling your story effectively is the way to convince people to pick up the phone and call you for interviews. And once you've got the job, building a consistent, easily understood and impressive story is the way to get promoted or 'head-hunted' away. (If the story's good enough, you won't need another resume.)

So, what's your story?

Are You Authentic?

I bought a loaf of bread yesterday. I wanted something healthy. Something without high-fructose corn syrup or preservatives and something with real whole grains. I finally settled on a loaf wrapped in brown paper. The packaging was designed to say 'earthy' and 'healthy' and 'organic.' That brown paper made me feel good about my choice because it looked as though it would be better for the environment than the plastic wrappers on the other loaves.

But when I opened the brown paper wrapping this morning, I found more wrapping inside and this inner wrap was made of the same clear plastic as all the other loaves on the shelf. That plastic wrapper showed the brown paper up for the fake that it is. The bread company isn't trying to protect the enviornment - they're just trying to make me think they are.

What does this have to do with looking for a job? Authenticity matters! If you make a claim on your resume or in your cover letter, you have to be able to back it up in interviews. Make sure your packaging matches the product. If it doesn't, interviewers will feel the same way I did about that loaf of bread - deceived and irritated.

Do You Stand Out?

I just received an email from a potential client asking me to evaluate her resume. She worries that no one is responding to her resume because "I'm a woman trying to enter a man's field."

While this software engineer may indeed be experiencing some bias because of her gender, one look at her resume told me that's not the only reason no one is calling her back. There is absolutely nothing about her resume that stands out. The wording is generic, the layout is poor (too much stuff crammed into too small a space) and there is no information on how she has added value to her prior employers.

We've all heard the cliche that women have to work twice as hard as men just to get noticed. I don't know if that's true anymore, but it's certainly true that you can't overcome biases by just resenting them.

Instead, you have to make it impossible for managers or recruiters to overlook you. You have to show them why you are absolutely the best candidate for the position. You have to do that in your resume, you have to do it in your job search strategy and you have to do it when you go on interviews.

It won't work every time, but being proactive about your personal marketing will definitely get better results than just doing what everyone else is doing.

Be Honest!

The resignation of David Edmondson, CEO of RadioShack, has revived the age-old conversation about whether it's OK to lie on your resume.

According to News.com the practice is much more common than we might think. Unfortunately, this site links to the awful Fake Resume Guide, a website I refuse to link to again, which actually recommends lying on your resume.

See Louise Kursmark's excellent post on Career Hub for alternative strategies for polishing up your resume while remaining truthful. Honesty is always the best policy. Just ask David Edmondson.