Keep up to date on articles and news and subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Resumes that rock

If you are at midlife and it’s been a while since you revised your resume, you’re in for a surprise. A lot of the rules for resume writing no longer apply. Customization counts, as does the importance of key words.

Let’s start with customization: That means writing a resume that presents you in the best light.

If you’ve been out of the work force for an extended period, you’ll probably want to skip a chronological approach, listing jobs and the dates you’ve held those jobs. Instead of dates, put the number of years you were with each company or arrange your resume by skills rather than chronology. "It’s always a matter of choosing the lesser of evils," says Wendy Enelow, co-author of "Expert Resumes for People Returning to Work." "Sure, listing dates is usually the best, but if that works against you, don’t do it."

Also, "sell it, don’t tell it," she says. That means don’t just list a job title such as"vice president of sales," but detail your accomplishments during that time: how much you increased sales, which campaigns you designed from scratch, etc.

"Quantify your achievements," Enelow says.

Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing yourself

If you rely on the Internet to help you get the best bargain, you’d be right at home in the 21st century job market.

Tuesday, dozens of employers, including Johnson & Johnson, were directing applicants to fill out online applications at The Commercial Appeal’s May job fair, saving them the cost of printed materials and creating an immediate database of potential employees, complete with current addresses and names presumably spelled right.

"From this job fair, we’ll be scheduling June interviews," said Allison Rittenhouse-Rodgers, who was in Memphis for the day with a handful of other J & J human resource folks to marshal the crowd the company created with a help-wanted ad in Sunday’s paper.

"We told people we had jobs and to come to the job fair," she said.

By midmorning, 1,500 people had signed in at the job fair at Agricenter International. About a tenth of them were in a line snaking around corners at the J & J booth, including aunt-niece team Mary Luster and Tiffany Luster.

Read the rest of this entry »

What Happened to Your Parachute?

Thirty years ago, hardly anyone understood the question, "What color is your parachute?" Today, it’s the job hunter’s mantra. Richard Bolles reckons with what has changed in the world of careers — and, perhaps more important, what hasn’t.
In 1991, the Library of Congress surveyed more than 2,000 readers and crafted a list that it grandly called "25 books that have shaped readers’ lives." The list included many of the usual suspects: The Bible, of course. "Don Quixote." "The Catcher in the Rye." But there at the bottom, lodged alphabetically between "War and Peace" and "The Wizard of Oz," was a business book — the only such book on the list, and the only volume, fiction or nonfiction, whose title poses a question: "What Color Is Your Parachute?"

Richard Nelson Bolles, now 72, offered up that inscrutable question 30 years ago when he wrote the first edition of "What Color Is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers" (Ten Speed Press). It was one of the first job-hunting books on the market. It is still arguably the best. And it is indisputably the most popular, measured by its status as one of the best-selling books of all time: 288 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, 6 million copies in print, between 15,000 and 20,000 copies sold every month.

But as the Library of Congress list suggests, the book’s impact reverberates beyond bookstore cash registers. Like few other questions ("What’s your sign?" and "Where’s the beef?" come to mind) "What color is your parachute?" has become a comfortable part of the American vernacular.

What color is your parachute? Answer that riddle, and you’ve unlocked some fundamental secret about your work and your life.
Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t have to be well liked to succeed
Read the rest of this entry »

Job Search Strategies for Lawyers in Transition

In today’s environment of corporate consolidations and firm mergers, lawyers may face changes in their employment status without warning. Lawyers in transition should use a variety of methods to find a new position, as it is impossible to know which one will result in successfully landing another opportunity.

Got outplacement? A lawyer may receive outplacement services as part of a separation package, usually in a corporate downsizing. Take advantage of these services, which may include resume advice, networking workshops, personality/career testing and administrative support. Choose an outplacement provider with specific legal industry experience, if possible. Alternatively, negotiate for the cash equivalent of outplacement and then hire a legal career coach to help with resume drafting and interview preparation.

Mind the gap. If you can’t secure a new position before leaving you current job, you should focus on making a swift return to work in some capacity. Working as a contract or project attorney is one way to remain employed, and some employers treat contract employment as a stepping stone into a full-time position. Other ways to remain employed while in transition are to handle pro bono matters, work for a nonprofit organization or accept court-appointed representation. Not only will such work show current employment on one’s resume but it also keeps lawyers engaged, connected and visible, which is critical when seeking new employment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Changing Careers A Common Occurrence in Today’s Workplace

It’s a long journey from the 1960 newsroom of a small daily newspaper to the present chambers of Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith — six jobs, two careers and possibly soon a third; Judge Keith understands why people change careers.

"I started out as a young court reporter and ended up in California covering courts and politics when a judge encouraged me to get my college education. At 27, I came home and enrolled at the University of Arkansas majoring in English. I stayed in school and continued to work in journalism until I got my law degree in 1973," Keith said.

Now with more than 23 years service as a public defender and circuit court judge for Benton County, Keith is serving what could be his last term, due to age limits imposed in 2003.

"Unless something changes, I will be in the market for another career in the near term. I don’t think it’s ever too late to change careers or continue your education," Keith said.

Keith said he is proud of the 10 years he spent in journalism, and feels it helped prepare him for the last 20 years he has spent on the bench.

Read the rest of this entry »

How to give a dull job new luster

I used to like my professional job, but it has gone flat. It has become monotonous and repetitious.

Now I know what an actor must feel like who repeats the same role in a play over and over. How have others dealt with the problem?

H.J.

Some people with tired-job syndrome find their way to new jobs and don’t look back. If you suspect you have genuine burnout, you may need to see a career counselor to find ways to move into another occupation.

For now, let’s assume that you’re really in need of pepping up what has become a dull job.

One good idea is to rethink and reform pieces of your work life. At home, take time to write down the content of your position into components.

After each component, reflect on whether some change is possible. Continue to dwell for a week or so on how you could transform selected components to make them zippier.

If you are creative, you may be surprised at how much latitude you really have.

A classic example is the supermarket bagger who chose to stop bagging on automatic pilot, and to wager with himself whether each order would come out odd or even in the number of items, as well as to smile and make pleasant conversation with customers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Job Hunting Wars in Old Age

Aside from personal or family trauma, the loss of a professional job is the most challenging life-hazard facing men and women who are older than 40-years of age. Job loss itself quickly turns into a ‘personal’ trauma. You are powerless over the employer’s decision. For the years you toiled a standard 60-hour week (in the United States,) your effort was in vain. Your only hope is to find a new professional job…quickly.

But there is far more to the unemployment picture, so do not look to media to quote what recruiters have known for years: No matter what your corporate experience, your age counts against you. What they do not answer however is "why?"

Of course your CV (resume) can reveal more about your age than you think. If your college graduation date is prior to 1989, you are sunk. If you don’t list your college graduation year, you are usually dropped from the pool of candidates. (Most career counselors however do suggest ‘older’ employees should only list the past 10-years employment history and not list college dates if it reveals your experienced age.)

The paper trail is only the beginning. Submitting to any one of some 2 million jobs available at present across Monster and Careerbuilder and other independent job boards would seem to equate to an instant interview. Don’t be fooled. Recent college grads are the only hot commodity of the day.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 60 percent of employers in the United States plan to hire more college graduates in 2006 than one year ago, with the services sector growing their college-aged hiring by 16 percent. By all accounts, using the federal hiring ‘estimates’ for corporate in 2006, college hires account for 83 percent of prospective new hires. That means 17 out of every 100 professional jobs are (possibly) open to professional men and women.

Read the rest of this entry »

High times for the headhunters

Go out and mingle with top headhunters — those gregarious talent scouts who are constantly scouring the world in search of managers to fill the top executive jobs — and these days you’ll find some most happy people.

In the rising U.S. economy, jobs are plentiful, demand for take-charge executives has become intense. Middle managers and beginners in the job market are also doing well. This is quite a change from three or four years ago, when hiring ran as slow as a dry creek. But a pickup has been clear for some time. Says Leslie Stern, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, one of the biggest corporate recruiters: "I’ve been in this business for 38 years, and I’ve concentrated on financial services. And 2005 was the best year I ever had in all sectors of financial services."

It was particularly strong for recruiters with such financial specialties as insurance, private banking and asset management, plus business consulting and outsourcing.
It was also a banner year for recruiting in many other lines of business, says Stern. "There has been a wonderful resurgence in the industrial sector — good old Rust Belt America."
With some exceptions, of course. Says Brian Sullivan, chairman & CEO of the recruiting firm of Christian & Timbers: "The airline and the auto industries are not hot. They are so dead that they are starting to rot."

"We are seeing a bi-modal market," says Jay Gaines, CEO of Jay Gaines & Co. "A huge mass of people have been laid off, and they are still looking for jobs. They seem to have come to a dead end."
" On the other hand," he adds, "certain markets are so hot and candidates are so scarce that you need a gun."

Read the rest of this entry »

Do mothers make better leaders than women without children?

Most employees think so. Most employers don’t.

A survey last Mother’s Day by the professional women’s networking organization WorldWit found that 69% would rather work for a mother than a non-mother, and only 2% prefer a non-mother. They say mothers have patience and listening skills, and understand when others encounter family demands.

E-Trade CEO Mitch Caplan, whose children are 16, 18 and 21, says mothers are "absolutely" superior at managing time and prioritizing. He says children are good at training business leaders to motivate others who don’t walk through the door with the same priorities and goals.

From management’s perspective, Caplan is an exception. Cornell associate professor of sociology Shelley Correll found a "motherhood penalty" when she submitted nearly identical résumés for fictitious women applying for a job as marketing director at a communications company. Some résumés said the applicant was active in the Parent-Teacher Association, an obvious hint at motherhood. That cut the chances of getting a job by 44%. Follow-up research found that salary offers decrease with each additional child, Correll says.

Still, mothers are reaching the highest ranks in business. The women at the top of the two largest companies with a female CEO — Archer Daniels Midland’s Patricia Woertz and Sara Lee’s Brenda Barnes — are both mothers of three. And there is no mileage in voicing anything that smacks of anti-motherhood. Few employers will openly say they are partial to women without children, and a survey of 5,165 adults just released by Adecco Staffing North America found that 68% feel bosses recognize that working mothers are great at balancing their roles of mother and employee. Just 4% say bosses think mothers are not as committed to their jobs.

Read the rest of this entry »