A Great Resume Blog

Is Your Personal Website Sending The Right Message?

You have a personal website... that's great. Does your website communicate the right messages, especially if you are conducting a job search?

If you are searching for a new job, most recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals will conduct an Internet search - aka "google" you. If your website is found, your messages must be powerful and must reflect your career and professionalism.

Most people with personal websites never consider that a hiring manager, recruiter, or HR professional will visit their website to discover more information. The content of your website could possibly get your name crossed off the list of possible candidates.

Your website should be extremely professional. My recommendation to anyone conducting a job search is to delete any non-professional information. In other words, hiring decisions makers do not care if a person likes a particular rock band, needs to lose 25+ pounds, recently went on a vacation, or loves their pets! Moreover, they do not need to know your religious or political views. They do not want to know your goals, such as getting out of debt or hoping to find the right soul mate. This type of information is not conducive to selling you as a perfect candidate.

Your website should be incredibly professional. It can include a professional photograph, your resume, short articles that demonstrate your expertise, and other professional information.

If you have a website and are conducting a job search, perhaps you might want to review the content and see if it is time for changes. I'm sure you don't want your content to discourage hiring decision makers from discussing possible job opportunities with you.

If you need help writing content about your career, I'd be happy to discuss this with you.

JoAnn Nix, Certified Professional Resume Writer

E-mail: info@agreatresume.com

www.agreatresume.com

Are You CEO of YOU, Inc.?

To be successful in today's global job market, you need to be CEO of YOU, Inc. This means you need to drive a job search as if you are the leader of a corporation. You, alone, are responsible for your job search success - not recruiters, not professional resume writers, not career coaches. Let's examine a few similar traits between a company and your job search.

1. Define Your Product. The product is just not you or your name. The product is what you are offering, the value you bring to the table, the services you deliver, the ways you contribute to business. Craft your value statement, your mission statement, and define your product. Differentiate your product from the competition.

2. Target Audience. Companies always define their target audience, and so should you. Who are you selling to - what companies, which industries, what specific people are in your niche audience?

3. Teams. You should form a job search team. No matter how small or large a company is, they all operate on team-based models. Even a solo entrepreneur should have a Board of Advisors or Board of Consultants (aka teams). The same concept applies to your job search - form and leverage the wisdom of a team or a Board of Advisors. Job searching is complex and multi-faceted... why not use a team for assistance?

4. Project Management. Job searching is a large-scale project. Break your job search down into manageable components, with goals, budgets, deadlines, and more. Integrate best practices into your job search and expect much better results. Projects always begin by defining targeted results and work backwards - what resources are needed, what is the budget, and what human capital resources are required to execute the project and deliver mission-critical results? The same is true for your job search.

5. Business Plans. Successful companies craft and execute business plans. They don't "fly by the seat of their pants" and pray everything works out for the best. The same principle applies to your job search - a successful, well designed business/job search plan will position you for success.

6. Promotions, Branding, Advertising, Communication Strategies. These are integral components to successfully marketing a product in the corporate world. The same principles apply to your job search. How will you promote and advertise your product? Have you completed a branding program? What are your communication strategies?

These are six similarities between a corporation and your job search. I hope these are helpful in driving your job search success.

JoAnn Nix, Certified Professional Resume Writer and Career Coach

www.agreatresume.com

1-800-265-6901

info@agreatresume.com

8 Reasons to Job Search During the Holidays

The majority of job seekers believe companies stop hiring during the holiday season. Most job seekers will begin moving into a hibernation mode, and plan to wait until after the holidays have passed to relaunch their job search. This can be a serious mistake as this holiday season is actually one of the best times to search for a new career opportunity.

Here are eight reasons why you should continue to move forward in your job search during the latter days of November and December.

1. Since most job seekers put their job search on hold, that’s good news for you! This means your competition is drastically lowered and your chances of landing interviews skyrockets. There will never be another time of the year when competition is so low.

2. At this time of the year, people feel less stressed in their jobs and are in a festive spirit. Busy professionals and executives are more available for exploratory meetings with job candidates and more eager to find time in their schedules for business meetings, networking, and interviews. Moreover, executives are typically in the office more so than other times of the year.

3. This time of the year equals greater opportunities for socializing and networking. Take advantage of all event gatherings. Establish new relationships, get reacquainted with family members, touch base up with former colleagues, etc. Briefly discuss your career with people during these networking opportunities, and be sure to follow up with each person you meet. Remember briefly discuss your career and/or job search – do not spend more than two or three minutes on this subject. After all, no one attends a party or event to listen to the details of someone’s job search.

4. You may find opportunities to volunteer during this time of the year. Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people. In concert, this is an outstanding time of the year to donate your time and resources to worthy organizations and the people they help.

5. Plant seeds for the future. The relationships you build during this time period may be critical to the job search success in 2007.

6. Professionals will continue to change jobs, earn promotions, retire, and more during November and December. Managers will still look for an ideal candidate to replace poorly performing professionals. Hiring needs never end, they may taper, but the need for professionals never stops, not matter the date on the calendar.

7. Hiring managers and recruiters have a sense of urgency related to staffing at this time of the year. They do not want to begin the new year with a staffing deficit. The want to be ramped up to meet new business opportunities January 2.

8. Be available and flexible during the holidays. Would you be willing to interview for a job in the last few days of December? I know several people who have been available for interviews at Christmas time and even flew across the country for interviews – and they received a job offer!

Are You Making the #1 Job Search Mistake?

The biggest mistake that job seekers make is not following up! Job seekers constantly complain that companies, networking leads, and others they reach out to, never contact them. The reason this occurs is due to non-existent follow up techniques.

You've heard the adage - the squeaky wheel gets the oil? If you're gently, but firmly, persistent enough and follow up consistently, you will be successful.

Have you ever sent your resume to a website and waited patiently for weeks and months, but never heard back? Did you send your resume to a Human Resources Director or Recruiter and finally gave up? Have you called a person in your network, or sent an e-mail a time or two, and just assumed they didn't want to talk to you?

If you can answer yes to any of those questions, the problem stems from poor follow-up.

See, everyone has a high degree of responsibilities - exhaustive work schedules and many personal committments... you name it, our plate is full. Couple that with family and other responsibilities, there seems to be little time left for other things. However, we always seem to find the time to do what really matters to us.

That's why I encourage you to be very, very relentless in contacting recruiters, HR professionals when necessary, reaching out to decision makers, networking professionals, etc. You must follow up. Here's an example of a follow up conversation:

"Hi Susan. My name is Bill Jones and I posted my resume at your company's website three weeks ago, and I also faxed it over to Jenny Smith in your HR Department. I am really excited about speaking with your Vice President of Sales about my qualifications and 15 years in sales management. I've sold the same products your company sells, and have generated over $250 million in sales.

I wanted to do two things. First, verify that you do, indeed, have my resume. Secondly, I want to see where you are in the process of interviewing. Do you think I could go ahead and schedule a time to visit with your VP of Sales?

Since you're in an insider in the HR Department, what advice would you give to me that would be helpful in reaching out to the decision makers? What should I do next?"

Now that you've got her name and have established rapport, follow up with her again and again. I'd do this every few days - perhaps every 4 to 6 days.

The message I want to convey is the power of following up. Never leave it up to the other person to contact you. Take every initiative you can to contact them.

This is not a great time to exercise your patience, it's a great time to be assertive and follow up your resume. Following up is one of the most important tools you have, use it wisely!

JoAnn Nix, Certified Professional Resume Writer / Career Coach

info@agreatresume.com, , 1-800-265-6901www.agreatresume.com

Cover Letters - Do I Need One?

"YES," you need a professional cover letter. In fact, if you don't send a cover letter to a company, the decision makers won't review the resume, 98% of the time. I have spoken to thousands of hiring managers and recruiters in the last 13.5 years and all but one said cover letters were critical and they would not read the resume unless there was a cover letter.

I spoke to a Hiring Manager yesterday employed by IBM, and she told me that resumes without a cover letter don't stand a chance! She said if a candidate is too lazy to write a cover letter, she doesn't even want to talk to them, let alone hire them.  Well, "lazy" may be a strong word, but I get her point! :) Perhaps the job candidate was not aware they needed a cover letter.

Not only do you need a cover letter to go with your professional resume, but you need all types of letters! Don't think you can simply write one letter, and you are done. :) Not in today's job market.

If you are searching for a job, you will be writing all types of letters --- follow up letters, networking letters, letters to recruiters, letters for job openings, hiring proposal letters, introduction letters, letters to venture capitalists, private equity firms, CEOs, Board of Directors, resurrection letters, etc. The list goes on and on!

The fact is cover letters are a primary document in your job search.  Don't be fooled in believing that one cover letter will be the only one you need. It doesn't work that way. Letters are used to respond to all types of and opportunities.situations

Most people find cover letters exceedingly PAINFUL and difficult to write. If you are confused about letters or struggle writing your cover letters, I can help. I've written thousands of successful cover letters as a Certified Professional Resume Writer. If you need help, contact me at 1-800-265-6901 or info@agreatresume.com and let's talk about the letters you need.

Have You Realized Your Career Potential?

Do you feel you have great career potential but it's not being realized? Do you feel you are not yet at the place you need to be in your career? Do you honestly feel you are incredibly smart, ambitious, and talented and just haven't found the right job, the right career, or the right employer yet?

If that sounds like you, you are not alone. Most of the workforce is not living up to their full potential. Every day I work with job seekers who have not reached the top of the ladder, realize they are so much smarter and better suited for other jobs, and yearn for more. In short, they lack career satisfaction.

I work with a lot of clients every day, and many times I wonder why they are not working for a Fortune 1,000 company. They have so much potential, so many talents, so many business gifts, and such ambition!

There are many reasons for a person to be in this situation. Perhaps they have never had any career coaching, no one would help them see their future, perhaps they've never had a mentor, perhaps they lack confidence, think no one would hire them, let lack of education hold them back from **true** success, maybe they simply don't know how to climb the career ladder.

I believe if a person has to work to earn a living, then they should be doing the type of work that really satisfies them, meets their intellectual status, gives them passion, joy, and confidence. Why be under-employed? Why not be overjoyed to walk into your job each day, be happy about your future and your career?

If you feel that you really haven't reached your potential, perhaps you want to take the first step towards career success and letting companies know you exist and how you can help them. If you're really ready to move up the ladder, maybe today is the day to make decisions that will affect your future.

One way to do this is to team with a career coach. The Internet is a great place to find a career coach. As a Career Coach, I am also qualified, trained, and experienced to work with you. If this is something you would like to discuss with me, send me an e-mail at info@agreatresume.com or call me at 1-800-265-6901. If you like what you hear and are interested, we can chat. If not, that's ok too!

7 Things To NOT Include In Your Resume

As a Certified Professional Resume Writer with 13.5 years of experience, I review countless resumes every day, and the majority of the resumes contain information that should never be included. I thought you might be interested in knowing some of this information.

Personal Information

1.   Employers should never know you are married, single, or have children. The majority of professionals have children, particularly young children. Young children are prone to getting sick, which means the employee will have to make trips to the doctor, take off work to go to school and talk with the teacher, attend school events, and so on. The bottom-line is that it is never a wise strategy to tell prospective employers in the resume you have children.

2.   Moreover, employers do not need to know you are single: ("Great, we'll get him/her to work l-o-n-g hours!). They don't need to know you are married either: "(Great, his/her spouse won't be happy with him traveling or working late!")

3.   Your height/weight. It is certainly not a selling point to announce your height or weight. Who really cares? :) Adding this screams "1960s!"

4.   Moreover, no one cares that you like to bowl, go dancing, read books, use the Internet, chat with your family and friends, sleep late on Saturdays, or play golf. Again, this dates back to the 1960s. Your interests and hobbies are not selling points, and this should not be part of your resume.

5.   Religious affiliations. It is never, ever a good idea to include any religious information in your resume! Never. Ever. People are prejudice and can use this against you, no matter how great you are in the business world.

6.   Political affiliations. The same principles apply here - don't announce your political beliefs; it will most likely work against you and it has no connection to your career.

7.   Personal photographs. It's never, ever a good idea to include your photograph in your resume. It's simply not done. Here's the reason - if you were to place your photograph on your resume, it is prejudicial. I want to be delicate on this issue, but the fact is there are many prejudices in the world, and you don't want that to stop you from getting interviews.

These are seven things you should avoid including in a resume. This type of information adds no value to your professional resume, and doesn't make your resume comply with 2006 guidelines.

If you need help writing a professional resume, contact me at info@agreatresume.com. I'd be happy to help you. JoAnn Nix, www.agreatresume.com, 1-800-265-6901

"To Whom It May Concern"

When sending your resume to a company, have you ever written a cover letter that begins with this salutation? If so, you're not alone - this is a universal phrase.

However, this is not a good strategy for your letter. People love to see their name in print, even in cover letters. If you want to advance in your job search, do everything in your power to make sure you address your letter to a particular person!

Most people have no idea how to find out the person's name who will  receive the cover letter. But it's really very simple. You need to put on your detective hat and conduct research. You will truly impress your audience if you address the cover letter to the right person. Here are some ways you can do this:

1. Call the company and ask the receptionist, "Who's the Director of XXX Department?"

2. Call the company and speak to someone in the Human Resources Department and ask, "Who's the Director of XXX Department?"

3. If you receive automated messages when you call the company, do what you can to connect to ANY department and then ask that person who's the Director. If they don't know, ask them to transfer you to the Marketing or Public Relations Department. Call the company back as many times as you need to.

4. Visit the company's website, many companies have a roster of employees. Use that as a bridge to identify your reader.

5. Use Google, Vault.com, Hoovers.com - if you find the person's name, you need to make sure that person is still employed and still holds the job title.

6. Network with other people. Ask everyone you know, "Who's the Director of XXX Department over at ABC Company?"

This is a very important strategy for you to use. Don't send your resume "To Whom It May Concern" - send it to the right person. They will be very impressed that you took the time to do your research! It could take you 5 minutes or several hours, but the payoff is handsome...especially when no other job seeker is willing to go the extra mile!

JoAnn Nix, CPRW, JCTC, CEIP, CCMC, CPBS

info@agreatresume.com

Revitalizing Your Reference Letters

Your Reference Letters are ready to go, and you think they are fairly decent letters. Right? Well, if your reference letters sound anything like the following example, you might want to revitalize your reference letters. Here's what most reference letters say:

"Ms. Tina Allen worked for Baker Industries from 1998 to 2005. During that time, she was punctual, hardworking, courteous to everyone, and was loyal to the company. Everyone loved working with Tina.  I would highly recommend her as an employee to any company. She will work hard for you."

Does that sound familiar? Have you seen letters like these?

The problem with these letters is they add absolutely no value to the job seeker. People who have worked side-by-side the job seeker have no clue how to sell someone else. These type of letters never impress anyone.

When you ask someone to write a reference letter for you, give them specific instructions, ideas, guidelines. Let them know what you are trying to accomplish in your job search, what you are trying to sell. They can never write a powerful and impressive letter if you don't provide guidelines, help them understand what type of qualifications you are trying to sell to your audience. Here's a powerful letter:

"Dear Mr. Allen:

I understand you recently interviewed Tina Allen for a Director of New Business Development position with your company.  As CEO of Baker Industries, I worked very closely with Tina for six years on new business development initiatives that included organic growth and Merger & Acquisitions. She brought over 25 target acquisitions to my attention and we aggressively pursued ten of them, and closed four deals. These deals generated over $245 million - money we would not have realized without Tina.

Tina understands business, pure and simple. She knows how to pursue business opportunities that add value and dollars to a company. She has a huge industry network that she leverages daily to understand what is going on in the business world and in the industry, and capitalizes on the opportunities. She is the best business development leader I've ever worked with.

Unfortunately for us, Tina's husband has accepted an international assignment and will be relocating to Asia...."

This letter IS guaranteed to make people take strong interest in hiring Tina. With this endorsement, why would they NOT want to hire her?

This is a great example of a reference letter that speaks to Tina's talents. Before the  CEO wrote this letter, Tina explained to him what she was trying to sell to a particular employer.

If your reference letters don't sound as powerful as this example, it might be time to ask your colleagues to rewrite your reference letters. Even if you aren't in a job search, now would be a good time to collect several reference letters. People are very busy, and it might be better to have them in your portfolio now, instead of "crunch time" when people are too busy to help you.

JoAnn Nix, CPRW, CEIP, JCTC, CCMC, CPBS, info@agreatresume.com

"One" Is a Lonely Number!

If you are feeling alone and isolated in your job search, it doesn't have to be that way. If you feel you're the only one looking for a job, you have plenty of company. Feeling isolated usually means the job seeker has confined themselves to their home and spends all day looking for jobs on the Internet. They may be home alone all day long, and the feeling of isolation and disconnection from the world becomes stronger with each passing day.

The good news is, you have the power to change this. Being isolated from the world IS one of the worst things you can do and will only bring you down, can cause varying degrees of depression, and certainly doesn't make you attractive to employers, or doesn't do much to accelerate your job search.

So what can you do when you are feeling totally isolated?

1. First, get out of your home because the jobs are not in your computer... it will be a sheer miracle if you do get an interview this way. But if you want things to happen, then go where the business people are... they are in their offices, at professional meetings, at conferences, having lunch, etc. Mingle with them, get out and about, be SEEN, be visible. Besides being the ABSOLUTE best way to find a job, your feeling of isolation will diminish.

2. Second, do some volunteer work. Select organizations you believe in and invest a couple of hours each week volunteering. It will make you feel great about yourself, you will be helping others, and your isolation will become a thing of the past.

3. Attend professional meetings. This is where people gather that have similar backgrounds and interests. They know what is going on at other companies and in their industries. They have connections that you need. Become an active member in the organization, volunteer for projects, get involved in committees, talk with other people, follow up with other people you were interested in, etc. Be SEEN, BE VISIBLE, BE ACTIVE.

4. Form a career team of 2-3 people who can help you with research and administrative tasks, and enable you to market yourself and network. Meet with these people regularly.

The whole idea is to get out of your home because the jobs just aren't going to arrive in your e-mail account. There are very simple cures for overcoming isolation. Isolation is a choice a person makes, but it's not the only choice.

I guarantee if you get out of your home and start doing some of the action items I mentioned above, you will feel better and great things will start to happen for you! There are people all around you, just waiting to talk with you! :)