There are definitely things that can be done to energize one's career. Which brings me to introducing you to a dear friend, Anne Carbert, a wonderful career cousnellor and coach. Anne believes in engaged living and is a fine model of living from a place of enthusiasm and wholeheartedness! And she loves to coach others to inspire them with concrete ways to make the most of their careers.

Energize Your Career

The link above will take you to Anne's flyer, announcing her October workshop. If you live near Stratford, Ontario, give this some thought. In fact, don't think too much, just do it! The fee is reasonable, the facilitator delightful and experienced, and the info will serve you well throughout your career!

If you don't live near Stratford, but would like to engage a career coach to help you through career snafus or tough decisions, Anne works with clients from acrosss Canada and from a wide variety of backgrounds, especially unconventional ones. Grab a friend or come alone .. you're certain to take away valuable information, perhaps even career changing information!

What a wonderful way to support Canadians in career transition: sharing our collective expertise! I am grateful to be a part of this effort, and today completed the third recording session (and learned how nerve wracking it can be to participate in a formal recording!).

Watch my blog as November nears for information on accessing the recordings. My topics include: How to Showcase Transferable Skills, Dealing with Barriers in the Resume, and How New Grads Can Stand Out. And there are many more, presented by esteemed colleagues, for example:

How to Navigate the Hidden Job Market

How to Find Balance in Social Networking

The Impact of Labour Market Trends

Trends in Resume Writing

Handling Disclosure in the Job Search

Generations Working Together

There are 20 in all! So stay tuned!

What's with that?!

The latest one was from a person who signed off with the name "Noe," although that name was not in the email address. If this is you, know that I replied, but the reply was rejected and the reason given was "mailbox unavailable."

Which brings me to the general topic of customer service. I strive to reply quickly, certainly within 24 hours, so if I haven't, it's either because your email didn't make it, my reply wasn't accepted, or sometimes I have to admit that an email gets buried under too many emails and I lose track of it. It doesn't happen often, but I am only human after all - I don't claim to be perfect, just super committed to treating my clients and readers with attentive service.

The buried email happened last week, to an existing and long-time client, who needs a resume update. It feels yucky to have forgotten someone's work. Thankfully she is not in a hurry, but proactively getting ready for a job search. Somehow, knock on wood, I have not yet missed a critical deadline for any client! Thank goodness!

On another note, I will finish reviewing "The Infographic Resume" soon as I've received another new book to review, again from McGraw Hill Education. "Great Answers Great Questions for your Job Interview" looks like another worthwhile read!I'd best get cracking on the reading.

I'm also in the midst of Wally Lamb's "We are Water," which I so far find intriguing! This is typical - lots of books on the go, fiction and non-fiction.

And I have a mandala project waiting for me at my craft table. I sat down to create a healing mandala for a friend who is recovering from cancer, but that got put on hold as the mandalas (a series of two small ones) titled themselves "Accepting Imperfection"! No idea where this came from, but such is the wonder of contemplative mandelas. As I work through them, I am sure that I will understand the "why."

Cheers!

Chapter 2, Your Online Portfolio, makes a case for how you should harness some of that internet power in your favour! Creating your online portfolio will "get you on someone's radar." Celebrities prove this all the time: they stay on our radar with antics and theatrics typical of celebrities. A job hunter's goal is also to get noticed, if for different reasons!

The book has excellent ideas for creating "work examples that clearly call out and QUANTIFY your experience and accomplishments that relate to the job you're applying for." (page 14) And that's the key to attraction-generating info - quantifying - and I'll add "or qualifying" - the accomplishments and experience you have. The info must be relevant as well, a fact that many self-written resumes tend to either forget or not consider (perhaps most people don't know how to make it relevant?).

The list of possible portfolio content includes a bio or summary, text and infographic resumes, testimonials, awards, special recognition, and samples of work. The samples could be flowcharts, phtos, metrics, presentations, Gantt chart, spreadsheets, reports or training that you created - relevant examples of what you have done and will do. And there are more ideas suggested; do check these out!

(I would add a reading list of favourite books, and of those books that perhaps shaped the work you do today.)

The author, Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa.net, suggests that you create your own website, and provides links to a few of these online portfolio-style websites. They are eye-catching and ultra professional.

Herein lies the challenge of today's job search, according to Ms. Morgan: you must think like you are a business and wear PR, marketing, graphic designer, and copywriter hats. "Your challenge is to think like the marketing department at a big corporation like Coke, Ford, or the New York Times." (page 15)

Yikes! That's a major statement and audacious undertaking.

Having served job hunters for several years now, I'll say with confidence that no, you don't need to go to this degree to land a job today. Superb foundational documents - resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn presence - are doing the trick for my clients. But I'll keep reading and reviewing the contents of this book ... perhaps I'll be persuaded?

(Reprinted from my post on LinkedIn)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by McGraw Hill Education and offered a copy of their new publication, "The Infographic Resume." Written by Hannah Morgan, Founder of Career Sherpa.net, it walks the reader through creating a visual portfolio that showcases skills and lands the job.

I'm finding it a great read, and am taking my time, making notes and highlighting interesting tidbits. Here's one:

"About 18 percent of new hires come from job boards, according to the CareerXroads 2013 Sources of Hire study."(page 3)

Just 18% of new hires, around one in five, originate from job boards, and yet I'd say that most job hunters spend far more than 20% of their job search efforts on this one job search tactic.

Here's another:

"This process [recruitment using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)] is incredibly flawed. Good applicants who have poorly documented their skills get overlooked." (page 4)

I could not agree more - I've been saying that recruitment is "broken" for some time and my reasoning also revolves around the use of ATS. I'd suggest that applicants must get serious about learning to document their skills properly in an ATS-friendly manner.

And just one more quote to share, and from my point of view, it's a doozy:

"It shouldn't be so hard to find the right candidate for the job with the tools and talent available. But when the resume is the primary and initial form of communicating such a complex message, it is no wonder the results are dismal."

I agree with the author that it shouldn't be hard to find great help; talent abounds, great candidates are applying, and the internet makes it easy to reach the talent and software makes it easy to assess the talent. Some resumes work; after all, some candidates do land interviews. The disconnect is not in the resume, in my opinion, it's not the resume that is at fault for "dismal results"! The disconnect lies elsewhere.

In my opinion it's a lack of communication between companies using ATS and their audience, the job searchers, about how to navigate ATSystems. I also take issue with the unspoken rules about what kinds of applicants are worthy of an interview. Apparently those who are out of work aren't as "good" as those who are working. That's nonsense! Who amongst us hasn't been either laid off or terminated, without cause, or knows of someone who has endured this confidence-sapping exercise. I've worked with many such job searchers and their work history is chock-full of wonderful examples of real workplace value; they were not let go for lack of productivity.

As I stated, the recruitment process is broken. I'll let you know what else I learn from The Infographic Resume. Perhaps it holds the secret to overcoming the obstacles in today's recruitment process?

"I read about words that recruiters don't like, like 'results-oriented' that were in a list of words that you should avoid. I wouldn't want to use one of these by mistake in the interview. What do you think?" she asked me.

(My initial response is not fit for quoting in the title of this post - I have strong feelings about some of the fear-mongering messages on the internet today, especially as they concern job hunting. Looking for work is stressful enough without worrying about silly stuff like this.)

It's nonsense. My suggestion was that she be truthful and authentic to her strengths, talents, skills, knowledge and passions. "If you are results oriented," I said, "own it, speak out and say so, but be ready to prove it."

I don't believe that an arbitrary list of words must be avoided simply because the words are over-used. However, I do believe that if you don't or can't back up the claim with examples from your career, you need to avoid the terms in favour of ones that you can back up.

However, here are two words that you could strive to avoid on the resume and interview.

all - as in responsible for all reception duties (as a receptionist) It is an unnecessary word that uses valuable resume real estate without adding any substance.

just - as in "I am just doing my job." This word infers that it's nothing at all and belittles your contributions, which is not in sync with the idea of "selling yourself" in a job search.

The cow? Well, I felt rather "in your face" with this post, hence the bovine close-up!

You thought it was straightforward: you work there, they know you, you'll get an interview. But it didn't work out that way and you did not get a call to an interview. How can that be?

Some years ago, while still working in the corporate environment before I launched my own business, I learned of a new position that was being considered. Genuinely interested in it, I went to my boss for advice, asking what kind of training I might need to position myself as a viable candidate. Unfortunately he told me that this new position was unlikely to become a reality and that I shouldn't worry about it.

A year later another internal applicant landed the newly created, well-paying, create your own job description position. Mmhmm. Which brings us to reason number one.

1. An internal candidate is already pegged for the job. Sometimes it's obvious and other times, not at all obvious. I had no idea and quite honestly, to this day, I do not see a good fit between the successful candidate's personality and history, and the needs of the position. These things happen, though, as recruitment isn't always fair, equitable, or predictable.

2. Corporate policy dictates you have to have been in your position a certain length of time before you can begin applying to internal postings. Such was the case recently in a career chat. A fairly new employee, already showing promise in accomplishments, was not invited to an interview after applying to an internal posting. Often written in formal policy, perhaps sometimes in unwritten guidelines, it makes sense to keep a new hire in his/her position for a specified length of time, given the cost of onboarding/training and workload.

3. You may be working under someone who is threatened by your skill, doesn't like you, or has ego issues that don't support staff advancement. It happens. To circumvent this situation, join committees, be vocal in meetings, speak to HR about your ambitions in the company, and get to know those in other departments and your boss's boss, so that one person's lack of support cannot hijack your career.

4. It could be that your resume is so poor that you knocked yourself out of the race! I had a co-worker who confided in me this exact scenario. He'd been told that he didn't get the job because his resume was "mickey-mousish." Ouch. Even though his work was well regarded, a lot more goes into the recruitment process, especially where transparency is a requirement. The resume must be justifiable in case it is contested. There are lots of qualified applicants for most jobs, so why take the chance on a hire that might cause work later, in trying to defend the hire of Applicant A over Applicant B, equally talented and accomplished, whose resume positively sings out amazing value?

Today, as I opened the Brain Pickings newsletter, I read this passage from a letter written by a writer who worked for "the man" until he was 50 (which coincidentally is the age at which I finally left a job that wasn't "me" and launched my career as a resume writer, which is so "me"!). The writer's words are bleak, real and raw. Here's a snippet, the critical piece:

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don’t want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.

As a young man I could not believe that people could give their lives over to those conditions. As an old man, I still can’t believe it. What do they do it for? Sex? TV? An automobile on monthly payments? Or children? Children who are just going to do the same things that they did?

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: “Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don’t you realize that?”

They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn’t want to enter their minds.

These words brought back memories of empty, long, intolerable days. (Sorry, I can't seem to remove the italicization feature.)

This week I had two clients who prove, beyond a doubt, that the formula to success is changeable, flexible, unpredictable! One fellow was a manufacturing plant manager by his early 20s. Before you start claiming privilege, hear this: his dad did not work at or own the company, and he had no related or even unrelated formal education. Perhaps his advantage was to have parents that made him work for what he wanted, encouraged his exploring his talents from a young age, and fostered a fierce "go get it" mentality, facts that came to light during his resume fact-finding interview.

Another client, who trained in Print Journalism, rose to the level of VP with a well-known international company.  Her role has nothing to do with journalism and all to do with operations.

The similarity is this: both honoured their talents. They recognized their skills, nurtured these, and success came on the heels of wearing the right shoes!

Here's a link to a talent test that has been compiled by Gallup. With access to an astounding amount of data, the results are accurate, insightful, and useful. I get most of my clients to take this test. At under $10 and taking about 20 minutes, it's such a wonderful investment!

https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/Purchase/en-US/Product?Path=Clifton StrengthsFinder

When you are ready to make a change, I'd love to help you with a career changer resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile - although the most challenging type of resume to compose, because I am in my career sweet-spot, I am really good at what I do! I love this kind of challenge and am rewarded by helping people achieve their career dreams.

Somehow I discovered The Great Courses. What a phenomenal resource! I immediately ordered two writing courses (Building Great Sentences and Writing Creative NonFiction) - those were for me of course! And I ordered one on photography for a daughter with a creative photographer's spirit, and one on South America for a daughter with wanderlust! I have plans for ordering more - one for my husband and I to share, on how to age well, for example! :-)

Smart career management might include titles like "Games People Play," "Argumentation - The Study of Effective Reasoning," and "Art of Critical Decision Making." Listed in your resume's "Education and Professional Development" section, these would only add credibility and likely spark a conversation.

If you have a few courses and a few books that you've read, which have influenced your working style, and workplace contributions and productivity, you could devote an entire page to explaining - briefly - what the courses/books were about and specifically how these impacted your work. What a great leave-behind or networking document that would be. I know it works as I have created just such a page for a client, with great job hunting success!

No, these questions are different. I found them in this article: These 8 Questions Reveal the Most About if You'll Get a Job. These questions require you to know yourself.

What's Your Brand?

In my opinion, this question restates the traditional "Why should we hire you" or "What do you bring to the table" kinds of questions. The word "brand" demands that you communicate what makes you different from your competitors. Are you able to do this?

"If you found $5,000, no strings attached, how would you spend it?"

The article's example points at the value of spontaneous creativity that the answer may elicit. Obviously creativity is not part of every job, nor does every recruiter value creativity; some may value process, responsibility, and reliability more. Perhaps that recruiter would rather hear that you would pay off debts!

"If your best friend was sitting here what would s/he say is the best part about being your friend?"

Wow, that's a toughie! At least I think it is. One recruiter suggested it stirs an honest and candid reply and thus provides insight into whether you fit the corporate culture.

These questions may or may not work as suggested and the reason is that recruiters are human, possessing human idiosyncracies, bringing personal experiences, dragging personal baggage that influences their perception and interpretation, making it impossible to know what is the "perfect" reply.

But that's not the point! These questions, as the article suggests, are about evaluating "fit," a critical component of the interview process. I recommend replying in an authentic, truthful manner. Just be you!

(If, however, you have specific obstacles to your employment - lack the credentials you think are required but have tons of experience; lack the experience but have state-of-the-art credentials, worry about the few years off work while you studied, travelled, took care of a sick relative or got through your own illness - there are strategic ways to reply to questions that touch upon these potential interview landmines!)

Maybe your issue is that you really don't know yourself well enough to reply to such questions? You're not alone! I have many clients who are light on their ability to define themselves. They can list their hard and soft skills, but really fall short of being able to share their talents and personality in a meaningful way. And knowing these would really help in replying to unusual questions.

So what's the most unusual question you've ever been asked? Send me an email and I'll share a 9-page interview strategy report as a Thank You!