Category Archives: Resume

September 30, 2021 · 9:43 am

Can I Bring my Dog?

So you sent in your resume and now you have an interview next Thursday.  Now what?  Don’t just pace and eat chocolate – get constructive.

  1. Get a haircut.  Don’t wait until the day before – those funny tan lines will give it away.
  2. Research, research, research.  Not just on the company website but newspapers, trade websites, LinkedIn – the whole nine yards.  Find out what’s been happening there lately – awards, new projects, new executives.
  3. Lay out your clothes to make sure you have everything you need including shoes and socks that are clean and neat (even on video, this is important).
  4. If you are meeting in person, think about what you will need to bring with you and what you want to put it in.  You can go with a briefcase, folio or satchel.  I would avoid a huge purse or backpack – too distracting.  It looks like you are sleeping over, not just there for a meeting.
  5. Print several copies of your resume on nice paper. Gather any reference letters, articles, awards and make copies of them, too.  When you offer a copy of your resume to the interviewer, you can also offer some of the other material.  It makes you look organized and accomplished. If it’s a video meeting, you can have them ready to share on your screen. You will really look like a star then.
  6. You might want to have a nice pen with you too.  It adds an extra bit of polish when you whip it out to make notes.

I hate to point out the obvious but don’t bring:

  • Your dog
  • Your Timmie’s medium double double (even if it’s still warm)
  • Anything that rings, beeps or buzzes

Remember that an interview is just a conversation about a potential shared future. Take a deep breath and enjoy it.

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Filed under Interview, Job Search, linkedin, Resume, Uncategorized

July 29, 2021 · 9:43 am

Not Everyone is on Vacation – The Summer Job Search

It is summer and the market is hopping!

It seems that the summer job market slowdown is a total myth. I have been talking with candidates who have multiple opportunities on the go.  And it’s not just in one vertical – engineering, product development, organizational development and the whole gambit.

If you have been putting off looking for something new because you believe everyone is on vacation, you can keep using that as an excuse, but be aware, it’s really just a way to procrastinate

If you really want to find a new position, do not start by looking at LinkedIn jobs.  That’s right.  Do not start there.

Start with your resume.  Get it up to date with your title, responsibilities, achievements, courses and volunteer stuff. Make it interesting and dynamic. Triple check for spelling, grammar and acronyms.

Then reach out to your references and tell them you might need them in the future.

(This gives you instant allies and a super positive network to draw on for support.

Once those things are done, then you can sit down with the LinkedIn Jobs app and see what’s going on.  Don’t use just LinkedIn.  Check out other job sites, your professional association website, local neighbourhood resources and social media. You’d might be surprised at the jobs posted on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Apply directly or network through a friend.  Many companies have referral programs that pay $1000 or more for a referred employee who “sticks”.

Find your resume and get the ball rolling.  You could still have a new job for Labour Day.

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Filed under career change, Interview, Job Search, linkedin, Networking, Resume, social media

March 25, 2021 · 9:43 am

Smooth Out Your Resume

I read resumes for a living.  I read other stuff too but resumes are the main focus during the day (and sometimes evenings, much to my husband’s consternation).

It never gets boring, Each resume, like each person, is interesting and unique. People take different paths to the same role, have different educational chapters and insert more or less of themselves in their resume.

BUT

  • Spelling mistakes
  • Fonts with curly cues
  • Indented boxes and sidebars that get mangled by my software
  • Leaving out dates or titles
  • Not describing the scope and scale of an employer
  • Squishing in too much information by using narrow margins and 8 pt letters
  • 20 bullets for one role and only three for the others
  • Acronyms that are not widely understood

These are all things that take away from the positive impression that your resume is supposed to provide. It’s as if you are strolling along and you suddenly trip on the rug.  Once you recover, it can be hard to remember what you thinking about before.

So before you send me your resume, have someone read it for you.  Ask them if it’s smooth.  They make look at you funny but it will give them a constructive perspective which should generate good, usable feedback.

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Filed under career change, Job Search, Resume

March 11, 2021 · 9:43 am

Spring Cleaning for your Resume

Pandemic or not, the warm breezes of spring will arrive over the next few weeks and if you are like me, you will spend some time working on projects around the house.  Maybe switching your clothes around.  Moving the golf shirts and flower printed yoga pants to the front and shoving all the black yoga pants into a box in the garage .  Maybe cleaning up the back yard.  Those are the kinds of things we like to do in spring.

It is not just your home that should be sorted and updated.  Your resume should be refreshed too.

It may not be as important as your changing the batteries in your smoke detector, but in terms of your career, it should be right up near the top of the list.

Here are the things to consider:

Has your title changed?shirt

Has the scope of your role  changed?

Did you take any courses or workshops over the winter?

How about any special projects?

Any new volunteer committees or fund raising initiatives?

Once your resume is refreshed make sure it is stored in a place that’s easily retrievable, like Dropbox.   Once that’s done, you might want to apply the same logic to your LinkedIn profile.  Make sure it is a really good reflection of where you are and what you are doing.

And if you have a few minutes at work, find all those emails that say “thank you” and “you’re a star”.  Email them to your personal account and then print them and take them home.  You just never know when you are going to need a little pick-me-up or evidence of your great work.

So put on your favourite spring shirt and get to it!

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Filed under career change, Job Search, linkedin, Resume, social media, Uncategorized

December 24, 2020 · 9:45 am

And for my next act….

Because December 25th falls on a Friday this year, most of us will have not much time off before Christmas and quite a bit of time around the new year.  That’s when people typically lie around thinking about what they will change.

For a lot of people, the number one thing they want to get or change is their job.  On second thought, perhaps this will be second to losing weight – that always seems to be a hot resolution. (I’ve heard.)

Go ahead and dream but try to be realistic.

Just because your uncle is a doctor, does not mean you can be a medical device account manager.

Plumbing your own laundry room sink, does not qualify you to be a piping designer.

Planning office parties is not a prequel to becoming a project manager.

Don’t assume your neighbour can get you a job just because he works in a big company.

I’m not even going to comment about people who like karaoke…..

I don’t want to be a downer before 2021 has even started, but try not to stray too far off the path.  Try this:  mention your next career goal to your dog.  If he looks at you funny, you have definitely gone too far.

Run it by a good friend.  If they seem kind of puzzled but supportive, then you may be on to something.

Finally, talk to someone in the field and see what they say.  If they seem to think that the transition is plausible, then sit down and make a plan.

Change is afoot!

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November 12, 2020 · 9:43 am

Resume Refresh Tips

We need good resumes now more than ever.  If you have not refreshed your resume for more than six months, you should find it this weekend and take a look.  Here are five tips to keep in mind.

Save it as a pdf.  This is one of the options when you choose where to print your document.  A pdf can’t be altered by anyone (unless they have very expensive software) and if there are any words that Microsoft does not recognize, no can tell.  Pdfs don’t have funny red squiggles under any words to distract the reader.

Use a plain font.  It can be more modern or spacious, but keep it clean.  Avoid those tiny tails on the letters– it’s just too hard to read on the screen. And remember, Comic Sans is only for comic artists, not for anything corporate.

A resume can be two OR three pages.  If you graduated less than 15 years ago, two pages is fine.  If you have more experience than that, go ahead and use three pages.  There is no law against that.  It’s the first half of the first page that determines if the reader turns to the second page let alone the third page.

The first page has to have a lot of impact.  It needs to include what you do, where you do it, where you are geographically and how to get in touch with you.  Make certain you have covered those items and then fill in the rest of the details. 

Don’t succumb to the narrow margin trick.  If you have that much to say, then take it to the next page.  Don’t make the reader suffer and squint.  But make sure every word is important and necessary.  Resumes are not for blathering.  They are meant to tease the reader so that they want to call you up for more details.

Finally, always make sure someone who is not a relative or married to you does the final proof read.  You need someone who is not invested in your career success to give it the hairy eyeball and make sure there are no mistakes.

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May 28, 2020 · 9:43 am

Career Portfolio – Interview Secret Sauce

I have a friend who is a self-employed consultant.  A few years ago, over coffee, she complained that she would not have a clue as to where to start if she wanted to get a “real job”.

I suggested that she create a portfolio.  She thought portfolios were only for artists or other creative types.  Not so.

A portfolio (fancy binder with plastic sleeves and dividers) is an excellent vehicle for organizing and presenting your experience.  It can have sections that show your work, education and other credentials, volunteer activities, hobbies, thank you notes, awards and really, anything else that is relevant to the way that you do what you do.

Just the act of gathering the information together and putting it all in one place can be a pretty powerful exercise.  It’s something that you can do over a couple of weekends and then add/change revise every year.

My friend took that suggestion to heart and created what she called a career scrapbook. She had it in her car for a while and then it took up its place on a shelf in her office.

Last week she applied for an actual job and found herself staring down the barrel of an interview.  Not just any interview but a panel interview in a formal, government type organization.  She dusted off her portfolio, added a couple of items, reviewed the rest of the material and then focused on her outfit.  She felt confident and ready.  (I should point out that she was eminently qualified for the job.)

At the end of the interview, she was asked if she had any questions.  All of hers had been covered in the discussion but she told the panel members that she had brought her portfolio and asked if there was anything they would like to see.  The senior person raised her eyebrows and came over to have a look.

She looked at the table of contents, saw the “Thank You” section and flipped right to that part.   She nodded and smiled as she read the cards, notes and emails.  It turns out that the adjudicator actually knew two of the people who had sent notes and that lead to a much less formal conversation where my friend got one more opportunity to show what she knows and why she has been so successful.

She left the interview, with her portfolio tucked under her arm, feeling very good about herself and her experience.  No offer yet……..but I’ll keep you posted.

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November 21, 2019 · 9:43 am

The Myth of the Forever Job

Let me just put this out there:  there is no such thing as a forever job.  Too many people, candidates and hiring managers alike keep talking about this idea.

Candidates tell me that they are looking for their last job until they retire.  They want to settle in and have stability.

Hiring managers are rejecting candidates because they might not stay in a role for five or more years.

Get your head out of the sand, people.

The world is changing and so is work.  The Canadian work landscape changed dramatically just last week and there is more change ahead. Can we predict it?  Not really.

In realistic terms, we should not be looking for a job or an employee for life. We are looking for a role where we can learn, grow, develop and contribute while we earn a living.  That’s about what it boils down to.

When you are examining your job prospects, these are the factors to consider:

  • Is there room for you to expand your skills?
  • Are there opportunities to move into other roles?
  • Will your contribution add value to the company?
  • Will that value be a point of pride for you?

Hiring a managers need to consider the same factors.

  • Can this person grow beyond the role they are hired for?
  • Will they add value on day one, day thirty and day ninety?
  • Will you be proud to take the credit for hiring them?

We need to stop looking at five to ten year employment windows. Think about what you were doing ten years ago. Could you have predicted that people would be earning tons of money developing ipad apps in their basements?  Or blogging about their dogs?

Keep your eyes on the horizon and your resume ready because you never know what’s around the corner.

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October 17, 2019 · 9:43 am

Your Personal Highlight Reel

How was your summer?  Seriously.  How was it?  What did you do?  What did you learn?

When asked this question at a cocktail party or an interview, many people go blank and it is a big missed opportunity.

Don’t even think about saying “same old, same old”.  Not only is it probably not true, it just shows that you are too lazy to think of something interesting.

If you did something big like change jobs, then it’s easy.  You can ride the “new job” train for about nine months and then it’s not new anymore.  For everyone else, you need to actually spend some time looking at back at your calendar from May, June and those other months you can’t remember.

All the memories will come flooding back: that awful conference, that great presentation, the month your boss was away and you got to take over.  Those are the things you need to be able to talk about.

You might even want to work them into your resume.  At the very least, practice telling the story about the things that you did.  I am not suggesting that you bore your neighbours to death by telling them the minute details of how you implemented a new quality assurance standard.  Just distill it into a couple of sound bites.

So flip through Outlook and make a list.  You might be surprised.  Maybe it was a pretty good summer after all.

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April 25, 2019 · 9:43 am

The Truth about Passion

As this year’s class starts looking towards graduation, I have seen a disturbing trend.  There seems to be this idea that university students should focus on finding their passion in their first job.

Find their passion?  Most teenagers cannot find their pants.  How can we think that they will find their passion somewhere between the pub, the classroom and the dorm?

I think expecting to find your passion before you can legally drink is pretty unrealistic.  As parents, we are setting up a pretty big failure platform if we set those expectations before they even leave high school.

There are exceptions: gifted athletes, artists and musicians have their talents identified early on so they are pretty advanced on the passion scale.  People following in the family footsteps of law or accounting, have a prescribed path too.  (Sometimes in spite of their passion)

University and first jobs are more about finding what you don’t like.   Learning about the kind of professors/bosses that you don’t get along with.  Working with group members who don’t pull their weight.  Figuring how to identify the room mate who parties too much; that sort of thing.

The world is really, really big.  You have to get out there and explore it beyond just university.  Don’t be surprised if your passion does not start to reveal itself until you are well into your 30s or even later.

In the end, it’s not about when you find it, it’s about recognizing when you are in the right place at the right time and really enjoying yourself.  That‘s what we are all shooting for.

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