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You’ve got 30 seconds

The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you’ve got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less.

It’s unfair, it’s imprecise, and there’s a good chance that I make horrible mistakes, but there’s a lot more of you than me, and while hiring phenomenal teams is the most important thing I do, I’m balancing that task with the fact that I need to build product and manage the endless stream of people walking into my office.

But here’s a glimpse. I’m going to walk through the exact mental process I use when I look at a resume. I don’t know if this is right or efficient, but after fifteen years and staring at thousands of resumes, this is the process.

The First Pass

Your Name. It’s simple. Do I know you? Whether I do or not, I’m going to immediately Google you to see if I should. Oh, you a have a weblog. Excellent.

Company Names. Do I recognize any companies that you worked at? If I do, I don’t look at what you actually do, I assume that if I recognize the company, I’m in the ballpark. If I don’t know the company, I scan for keywords in the description to get a rough idea. Hmmmmm… networking words. Ok, you’re a networking guy.

Job Description and History. Here I’m looking for history and trajectory. How many jobs have you had and for how long? How long have you been in your current role? Where’d you come from? QA? Or have you always been an engineer? This is when I start looking for inconsistencies and warning flags.

Other Interests and Extracurriculars. Yeah, this is part of the first pass. I’m eagerly looking to find something that makes you different from the last fifty resumes I looked at. More on this in a moment.

So, we’re done. It’s been ten to twenty seconds and I’ve already formed an opinion. There’s a good chance that I’ve already made a call whether to move forward on you. If there are other folks checking the resume out, I can certainly be convinced to take a second look, but a basic opinion has been formed.

Before we move to the second pass, let’s talk about the parts of your resume I didn’t look at and never will.

Professional objective. This is likely your lead paragraph and I skipped it. Career center counselors across the planet are slamming their fists on their desks as they read this because they’ve been telling students, “You need to write a crisp career objective. It defines your resume.”

Yes, it does, but I still don’t read it and it’s not because there isn’t good content there, it’s the time issue. See, if your resume is sitting in my inbox it means someone has already mapped you to an open job in my group. Reading your objective is going to tell me something I already know. Besides, my job title and description scrub will tell me whether we’re in the ballpark or not. If I’ve got a Jr. Engineering position open and you’ve got 10 years experience, I’ll figure out that mismatch when I look at your history.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include this objective in your resume. As you’ll see below, there’s more to the process than just me reading your resume, and different folks are looking for different content.

Skills. I skip the skills section not only because this is information I’ll derive from job history, but also because this section is full of misinformation. I’m not going to say that people lie in the skills section, but I know that if a candidate has heard the word Linux in the workplace, there’s a good chance they’re going to put Familiarity with Linux as a skill on their resume.

Besides, again, I know you’ve goofed around with Linux because you said so in the description of your last job, right?

Summary of Qualifications. Similar to Skills, this is another skip section for me. Here’s a good example from an imaginary resume: “Proven success in leading technical problem solving situations”. This line tells me nothing. Yes, I know you’re trying to tell me that you’re strategic, but there is no way you’re going to convince me that you’re strategic in a resume. I’m going to learn that from a phone screen and from an interview.

Unlike Skills, which I find to be a total waste of time, I will go back to Summary of Qualifications if we end up talking. When you write “Established track record for delivering measurable results under tight schedules”, I am going to ask you what the hell you mean on the phone and if your answer isn’t instant and insightful, I’ll know your qualifications are designed to be buzzword compliant and don’t actually define your qualifications.

The Second Pass

If I can’t decide whether to schedule a phone screen after the first pass, I go for another. The goal now is, “Ok, I saw something I liked in the first pass, is it real?” This is when I do the following:

In-depth Job History. I’m going to actually read the job history for the past couple of jobs. Not all of them, just the last two or three. What I’m doing is fleshing out my mental picture of you. I’m looking for more warning flags. Do your responsibilities match your title? How long were you at your most recent job? If it was a long time, can I get a sense of how you grew? If it was short, can I figure out why you left? Do your last two jobs build on each other? Can I get a sense of where you’re headed or are you all over the place?

Your job history, — your professional experience — is the heart of your resume. This is where I spent my time vetting you and this is where you should spend your time making sure I’m going to get the most complete picture of who you are and what you’re going to bring to my team.

School. Yeah, this is the first time I’ll notice whether you went to college or not. I purposely do this because I’ve found over years of hiring that a name brand university biases my opinion too early. There’s a lot to be said for a candidate who gets accepted to and graduates from Stanford or MIT, but I’ve made just as many bad hires from these colleges as great ones.
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Top 10 Reasons for failing interviews.

How well do you think you do in an interview?

You can read book after book on how to interview well but the truth is in the telling, and on the day it’s about how the interviewer sees YOU. Not your skills, not your knowledge, not your education or qualification, not even your experience - YOU. All these others might get you an interview in the first place, but they don’t win you the job.

I find that knowing how to do something is often less useful than knowing how NOT to do something, so here are my top 10 ‘Reasons for failing interviews’.

1 - Not The Right Job.

There are BILLIONS of jobs out there. Go for the ones which are right for you. For an interviewer, it’s easy to spot when people are over or underqualified for a role, or just plain couldn’t do it. Pick the right interviews and don’t go wasting your own time or the interviewers. NB. This is NOT to say you shouldn’t stretch yourself, just make sure that stretch is still realistic and not a waste of time.

2 - Poor Communication Skills

Who would you employ? The person with all the right information on their CV but an inability to communicate effectively, or someone with one or two gaps who is willing to learn and can express themselves easily and fluently. A lot of this is down to you as an individual - practice the bits you think you need and make sure they’re there when you need them.

3 - Low Enthusiasm

I know it’s an interview, I know you’re nervous, I know it’s hard to see exactly what the job entails, but pleeaase add some energy into your interview! Be a little excited to even have got to the interview, and the prospect of getting the job should be great! If it isn’t re read no. 1

4 - Negative statements

I’m not putting negative attitude, as for all but the most basic roles this should largely have been addressed prior to this stage. Negative statements about people, previous jobs, companies or challenges should be avoided where possible. Try and think if the good that came out of each situation and focus on that. Give each one a positive twist.

5 - Lack of Preparation

‘So, what do you know about us?’ answered by ‘Well - it’s a sales job and the agency said I should try.’ Rarely goes down well. A little preparation beforehand to find out about company history, markets, products and finances ALWAYS goes down well.

6 - Gaps in your knowledge of your own CV! (Resume)

If it’s on your CV you should know it! It’s pretty common for recruiters to ask questions to validate theinformation they’ve been given. It doesn’t matter if its pure forgetfulness or outright deceit. If they think the information you’ve given them is not 100% correct it raises questions you could do without.

7 - Mistreating Anyone

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the only person you’re there to see is sitting in front of you asking questions. Apart from being basic courtesy, it’s not uncommon for people to ask their assistant or secretary’s opinion of job candidates. This can even go right to the receptionist on the front desk. Treat people like people and with the respect that you would expect if you were in their position and you can’t go far wrong.

8 - Personal Appearance

I know there’s often different dress codes for different roles and different circumstances, but the key as far as interviewing goes is to dress up. I used to say that it’s always best to wear a suit, but times are changing and sometimes it’s best not to over dress nowadays as well. If there’s any doubt at all in your mind on what might be the best option, go for the smarter one. When you get invited back afterwards you can always rejig your ideas and appearance for next time.

9 - Not asking questions

An interview is an opportunity for you to get to know about them as much as it is for them to find out about you. Neither of these things can happen without communication, and this is two way. If you don’t ask questions it is easy to think there is a lack of interest in the opportunity.

10 - Punctuality

Arriving early is understandable, possibly even desirable. Arriving late is extremely poor form. Arriving late without giving notice of this is unforgiveable! Give yourself the best chance to arrive unflustered, on time and well prepared as possible. Leave a little early if you have to. ALWAYS take contact details of the person you are meeting so you can advise them if the worst occurs.

These are not necessarily in order, and interviews are always individual, however - now you know the top reasons for doing badly, ask yourself a question. What will I do differently in my next interview? Set yourself a target to change at least one thing. After all knowledge by itself is NOT power. Knowledge plus action - That’s power!

Networking, Personal Contacts Best Way to Find a Job

ICraiglist, Monster and CareerBuilder are fine but if you’re really serious about finding a job, personal contacts and off-line networking are still the best methods.

A new Hudson survey finds that networking was the most common way workers (28 percent) and managers (33 percent) alike secured their current job. Plus, managers overwhelmingly consider familiar resources, such as employees and personal contacts, to be the optimal source of job candidates.

Specifically, 40 percent of managers state internal promotions are the best way to fill an opening, followed by employee referrals and personal recommendations (24 percent and 20 percent, respectively). In fact, three-quarters (73 percent) of managers say their company typically looks at the current employee base first when conducting a job search before considering any other candidates.

“Email and the Internet make replying to an online job posting easier than ever, but in this situation, easy does not necessarily mean effective,” said Steve Wolfe, senior vice president, Hudson North America. “Consequently, developing and maintaining a strong network of professional as well as personal contacts can mean the difference between landing an interview and getting lost in the crowd.”

Looking ahead, more than four in ten (41 percent) workers expect to stay with their current employer for more than six years. However, there are still a significant number of employees (28 percent) who anticipate switching companies in the short-term.

Plus, more than half (54 percent) of the work force can be categorized as an active or passive job seeker, meaning they are either actively looking for another job or would seriously considering leaving if the right opportunity presented itself.

“Hiring and retaining top talent in today�s job market is a challenge, which is only going to intensify as the pool of highly skilled professionals continues shrinking,” added Wolfe. “This is why it is imperative for employers to not just react as jobs open up, but develop a formal recruitment strategy that provides a healthy pipeline of talent.”

Additional survey findings include:

• One-quarter (25 percent) of workers have previously worked with a recruiter or headhunter.

• Just 14 percent of workers� resumes are available online. Among those employees, 42 believe their company isn�t aware their resume is posted and 41 percent say their employer knows.

• Among workers who earn $75,000-$100,000 per year, two-fifths (39 percent) found their current job through networking.

15 Things You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Career

Most career advice you receive focuses on the big picture: how to get ahead, how to “win,” and such things that are on a much larger scale than the daily grind that most of us face. In fact, it is that day to day grind that pulls down many of us - we go to work, come home exhausted, and often feel as though we’re just spinning our wheels.

If you want to get ahead in your career and in your life, you need to start small and look at the immediate things you can do to help out your situation. If you’re sitting out there at your desk, tiredly wondering if there’s something better that you can be doing with your life, start with these fifteen tips that you can start executing immediately that will lead you down a path towards a better career.

Make a list of all of the things you did today/this week/this month to help your organization, and file them away.
Whenever you have a few spare moments, make a list of all of the things you are actually doing at work. Date them and provide specific examples. When you’ve made this list, drop it in a folder and let it sit there until your next performance review - or the next time you ask for a raise or a promotion. I do this regularly, which has allowed me to build up extensive positive documentation about my career.

Send a thank-you note
If you’ve recently been assisted in your career or personal development by someone, spend a few moments and send that person a handwritten thank you note. The respect, kindness, and personal touch of a handwritten thank you creates an indelible positive mark in your favor in the recipient’s mind, which can do nothing but help you out in the long run.

Work on your writing skills
For me, The Simple Dollar is actually an active part of improving my own writing. Starting a blog related to a work-related topic that interests you is a good way to practice your skills. Don’t be lazy with it, though; focus on writing strong material that will engage others, because without it, you’re not really improving your skills at all, merely regurgitating facts.

Design some classy business cards for you
I have a small pile of business cards that are just for me (actually, they’re for The Simple Dollar), not for any firm I represent or work for or anything else. I drop these regularly, as envelope enclosures and in face-to-face opportunities. These cards are a reflection of me and what I wish to represent to people, and by getting quality ones, I create a positive impression on the recipients. Don’t go for the office store perforated ones, either; get them professionally done and in a high quality.

Send a quick contact email
Got any professional contacts that you haven’t touched base with recently? Send them an email letting them know what you’re up to - and ask them what they’re up to. By this, I don’t mean clients - I mean professional acquaintances in the same field as you (contacting clients should be a regular part of your workflow). A quick email to the people you met at conferences last year can be a very good thing, as you never know if they might have a great opportunity available that could really help you out.

Suggest a solution to a persistent workplace problem
This is especially true for smaller things, not necessarily big enterprise-wide issues. Are people always complaining about the printers? Spec out an additional printer and ship a proposal for a new printer by your boss. Workplace tensions between two people? Figure out how to most discreetly move them far apart from each other, write it up, and ship it off. The key is to make the solution as complete as possible, so that the boss can tell you saw a problem, looked into how to solve it, and came up with a solution on your own.

Pick up the phone and make a call
Keep in touch with what’s going on in the organization as a whole so you can be more informed when meetings occur. Pick up the phone and give someone else a call to see what you can learn, or take a stroll through different parts of the workplace to find out what others are up to. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself, but be aware of what is going on, how it can affect you, and how you might be able to leverage that to get ahead.

Work on your language skills
Are you a non-native speaker of the language in your workplace? Spend your spare time working on the finer points. I find that listening to audiobooks and podcasts is an incredible way to pick up on the nuances of a language given that you already know the basics. If you don’t know the basics, seek out some audio courses on that language and get started. For myself, I’ve found that a great way to pick up a foreign language is to read a translation of a work I’m already very familiar with, such as Harry Potter.

Make yourself more presentable
It always helps to have a clean, fresh impression. I keep a few hygiene products in my traveling bag at all times: underarm deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, some mouthwash, some facial cleanser, a comb, and some cologne. I make sure to clean myself up at least once a day, and often twice a day, when I have a few free moments. That way, I look freshly scrubbed at the 3:30 PM meeting - and having just washed my face vigorously, I feel more awake.

Polish your resume
There’s never a bad time to give your resume a bit of a touch up. Make sure it has plenty of action words and documents specific results that you’ve produced. In fact, your personal work documentation is a great way to look for ideas to spiff up your resume.

Read something on topics you plan to be facing in the future in your career
Don’t waste your time reading PerezHilton (unless you work for People magazine or something); instead, find resources that are related to your job and focus on those. If you spend your spare time at work browsing the web, at least spend that time browsing items that can potentially further your career.

Prepare some comments in advance for your next meeting
Got a meeting later? Instead of dreading it, look at it as an opportunity to shine. Look at what the meeting agenda is and prepare some notes and thoughts that you can present during them. If you’re going to sit through someone’s presentation, find out what it’s going to be about and do some preparatory legwork in advance so you can ask a few astute questions.

Work on your public speaking skills
This seems like it would be difficult to do right now, but it’s not. Merely listen to the work of great public speakers on the internet, burn yourself a CD or two of speeches that really inspire you, then play them in your car on the way home and practice speaking along with them. You’ll learn a great deal about how to enunciate words to get your points across and influence others.

Clean your work area
Not only will this create a better impression of you in the eyes of others, you may also come across important materials that you thought were missing or lost. It’s also good to start (or enhance) a document filing system when you do this, so you can quickly find materials.

Figure out where you want to be in five years - and create a plan for getting there
Spend some time visualizing where you want to be, then think about what it’s going to take to get there. From there, keep breaking down each piece in the process until the pieces are things you can do quickly - and start doing them. Every mountain climb is just a series of steps, after all.

Smart way to say: I quit

IT IS a fantasy every employee has had at least once in their working life. Walking into the boss’s office and telling him what to do with your job. But there is a right way and a wrong way to resign.

The wrong way can lead to bad feelings between you and the boss. And this can hurt your future job aspirations. A bad reference from your last place of work will damage your chances at your next interview. But correct resignation etiquette will contribute to continued success in your personal and career development. “Some people have a difficult time resigning from their present job, either because they love the job and their co-workers or because they can’t stand the job or company and can’t wait to leave,” Solutions recruitment general manager Linley Hines says.
“The most important rule to remember when resigning from any job is that you never want to leave on bad terms.

Courtesy, etiquette and professionalism go a long way.” Correct resignation etiquette involves resigning to the right person, the right way, at the right time, Hines says.
“Some people decide to resign as soon as they have a verbal offer of another job, but that can be fraught with danger. “Once you’ve been advised of your new job offer in writing, and have accepted, you’re ready to tell your employer you intend to resign.”

Most people will be clear about the notice period of their present employment because they would have needed to know this to negotiate the start date in their new job.
In many cases, the notice period corresponds with your pay periods: if you are paid monthly, your notice period will be one month. For fortnightly pay, the notice period is two weeks.

Hines recommends checking this in your employee handbook or with your HR department before making any commitments to a new employer about your availability.
“Once you are clear on the notice protocols, you should advise your resignation as soon as possible,” Hines says. “Your employer will often appreciate being given extra notice.”
Depending on the circumstances of your contract, you may be able to negotiate a shorter notice period, but you should always assume you will be asked to work your full notice period.

QUIT TIPS

* ALWAYS advise a supervisor before telling other staff members.
* IF YOU are nervous, speak to your HR department, friends or family, not colleagues.
* ASK your manager how they would like you to communicate your resignation. They may like to be the one who lets the rest of the staff know.
* DO NOT resign on the spot. Have a think about it and prepare for your resignation.
* SUBMITTING formal written notice of your resignation takes place once the meeting with your supervisor has occurred.
* YOUR written notice should be short, polite and to the point.
* CONFIRM your intentions to leave, referring to the date and time of your discussion with your manager and the day you intend to finish work.

Thinking about a career makeover?

As he climbed the corporate ladder through a series of advertising and marketing jobs, Brian Sprinkle could never let go of the idea that what he really wanted to do was coach youth sports.

A former college soccer goaltender at Longwood College, now Longwood University, in Farmville, Va., Sprinkle coached youth soccer teams for 20 years.

But weeknight practices and games were becoming increasingly hard to mesh with a demanding job at MBNA Corp., where overseeing a team that put together credit card marketing materials meant long hours at the office.

“There were an awful lot of days when I was out the door at the last minute, hoping I wouldn’t be stuck in traffic on the way to the game,” says Sprinkle, 44.

Last year, married with two sons, ages 1 and 3, Sprinkle left MBNA to become the boys’ soccer coach and athletic director at Pencader Charter High School in New Castle, which opened last year.

The move meant an 80 percent cut in pay. Savings — along with the willingness of Sprinkle’s wife, a human resources manager for a petrochemical company, to be the primary breadwinner — made his dream job possible.

Well, not exactly a dream job.

Sprinkle’s team lost all 13 games in its inaugural season, but he has no thoughts of returning to the corporate world.

“I love the kids,” he says. “I love being around sports all day.”

The typical U.S. worker will change careers several times in a lifetime, a prospect the 2,100 workers at DaimlerChrsyler AG’s Newark automobile assembly plant will likely face as the automaker eliminates one shift this year and closes the facility in 2009.

Some workers may try to hook on at General Motors Corp.’s Boxwood Road assembly plant, and others may try for jobs at auto plants around the country. But with Chrysler, GM and Ford all shedding workers, many of these workers may find themselves pursuing an entirely different career.

Career changers are motivated by a variety of factors, says John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement consulting firm.

Some lose their jobs. Others, like Sprinkle, make the switch for greater personal satisfaction.

“They become passionate about something and decide to chase that dream,” Challenger says.

Dr. Janice Tildon-Burton, a Glasgow obstetrician and gynecologist, knew from the time she was 7 that she wanted to be a doctor. She was a pre-med major at the University of Delaware, but when it was time to apply to medical school, she decided against it.

“I just didn’t think I was ready to do it, says Tildon-Burton, 61, who is now president of the Medical Society of Delaware.

Instead, she became a schoolteacher. But even after six years in the classroom, the dream of becoming a physician just wouldn’t let go.

She remembers thinking: Let’s take stock here. What do I really want to do with my life?

She talked things over with her husband, who supported her decision to go back to school.

“I don’t want you to be 50 years old and wish you had,” he told her.

In her early 30s, Tildon-Burton applied to several Philadelphia medical schools and was rejected at each one. She remembers an admissions officer at one school telling her that as a woman, she was too old and “should look into doing something less rigorous.”

The rejection only toughened Tildon-Burton’s resolve.

“It was like throwing down the gauntlet,” she says.

Tildon-Burton applied again the following year, this time to Temple University’s medical school, where she was accepted.

When she started at Temple, she was 32 and the mother of a 10-year-old daughter. Juggling motherhood, marriage and medical school wasn’t easy, Tildon-Burton says. “But we managed to pull through.”

She says becoming a doctor later in life has helped make her more understanding of her patients and given her the patience to take the time to explain things.

Liz Hadley took the opposite career path.

When she worked as an administrative assistant for a Wilmington investment company, Hadley wondered why she didn’t feel the same sense of enthusiasm for the job as her co-workers. She liked them and the company she worked for, but the work left Hadley unfulfilled.

“I wasn’t getting the same sense of satisfaction, and I knew I needed to do something else,” says Hadley, 31.
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You’re Older? So Sell Your Wisdom

Ageism is real, but you can beat it by emphasizing your skills and building relationships

Age discrimination is against the law, but highly qualified people in their 50s and 60s still get passed over for jobs they might have landed easily if they were 20 years younger. Jeannette Woodward, 65, a former university library director who wrote Finding A Job After 50 (Career Press), says you must get interviewers to look past the crow’s-feet and appreciate why your experience and maturity make you the best person to hire. From her home in Lander, Wyo., Woodward spoke to Associate Editor Amy Dunkin about strategies for doing just that.

How is finding a job different when you’re not far from retirement age?
This isn’t a time to do it the same way you always have. You don’t want to end up in the same rut. Make sure it’s a job you want. You need to start over and think about what’s really important to you.

How do you do that?
Think about how much money you need. Are you burned out? Do you want a major change in occupation or where you live? Many people would be happier if they changed direction. Someone in my book did a total turnaround when he was 57. He went back to school and got a PhD in English. He wanted to do that in his 20s but people told him that he wouldn’t be able to make a living. He wound up working for many years in city government in a very responsible job, and when some newcomers came in, he was pushed into a corner and realized that he was terribly unhappy. He’s now teaching English at a university and he really enjoys being in the classroom again.

Is there an unspoken bias against over-50 workers?
Oh, yes. I’m not sure that when managers are hiring they intend to discriminate. But when an older person comes along, that’s not the person who comes to mind. They may think about older people like their parents, and many managers would rather not supervise their parents.

How do you overcome that bias?
The attitude an applicant takes into a job interview is important. You don’t want to treat a manager as “sonny boy” or talk about the last 26 jobs you’ve had. You need to focus on your skills, to make it clear you have just the right ones for this particular job.

Does how old you look matter?
Yes. As you hit your 50s, one day you can look 40, the next day you can look 70. During your interview you want that to be the day you’re looking as close to 40 as possible. Get a good night’s sleep. Make sure your outfit and hair are up to date. Try not to lumber around when you walk or look arthritic when you sit in a chair. You need a quick, energetic step.

How else can you deemphasize age?
Make your résumé as neutral as possible. Don’t put down dates for your education or go back more than 15 years on jobs. You don’t want to call attention to the fact that you were in the work world in 1966. Once you establish a relationship with the interviewer, you’ll have less difficulty with age prejudice.

Is there an upside to job hunting when you’re over 50?
What’s happening in most industries is, as baby boomers retire, they’re leaving a hole in the workforce. If managers can’t fill the jobs because they can’t find the type of people they’re looking for, they might be open to older people. Even if salaries aren’t great, you may be able to negotiate things that are more important to you: flextime, more vacation time. If you’re looking for the job of your dreams, sometimes you can help structure it.

Finding your way to a new job

If you don’t enjoy your career, life is too short not to look elsewhere. The trick is figuring out where to look.

The decision to leave a job isn’t easy. How do you know when dreading the upcoming workday becomes more than just fatigue? If you quit, will people think you’re a job-hopper? And is complete job satisfaction ever a reality?

A recent survey by the University of Phoenix indicated that 58 percent of U.S. workers have changed their careers, and more than half of those have done so more than once.

Cyndi Finnegan knows all about that.

As founder and owner of New Career Personnel Services in Parsippany, Finnegan handles executive searches in the pharmaceutical communications industry.

The satisfaction of owning her own business and the flexibility that comes with being her own boss were well worth the career change she made in the 1980s.

“I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of owning my own company and working with family members and a small staff of associates,” she said.

After an eight-year run as a secretary and account executive with the same company, she hit a bureaucratic brick wall.

“When my employer lost a major client, I asked if I could be laid off,” she said.

During the word processor boon in the ’80s, she transferred her business know-how into a teaching opportunity, “a stepping stone to a temporary employment agency.”

“I eventually phased out of the temporary employment agency business when larger corporations chose to use bigger vendors for their needs rather than independent agencies,” she said.

Finnegan’s multiple career paths are in sync with today’s culture, said Debra Davenport, a licensed career counselor and employment agent.

“It’s very normal to have six or eight jobs or careers in a lifetime,” said Davenport, 49.

Job satisfaction is possible, and we’re all entitled to it, she said.

“Job satisfaction is a unique blend of tranquility and excitement at the same time,” said Davenport, whose company, Davenport Folio, has offices in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Los Angeles.

“You know you are in the right livelihood when it is a natural extension of who you are as a human being,” she said.

Getting to the point where employment is both gainful and satisfactory often requires research.

The Morris County Library for example, offers free monthly career resources seminar programs.

The five-session program deals with company research, Internet strategies and America’s Job Bank resume workshop and a target job search — a proactive approach to identifying potential employers.

“Just the other day a man stopped in to thank me,” said Lynne Olver supervising librarian of reference services at the library in Whippany. “He was on his way to a second interview and said the company was impressed that he knew so much about them.”
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Market yourself: Build a better profile

It’s tempting to think that all you need to do to find work is upload your resume and wait for recruiters to knock down your door…but don’t.

I’ve worked with a lot of new consultants over the years and without a doubt, the thing they have the most trouble with is learning to sell themselves. It’s pretty easy in the employee world—send in a resume and a cover letter, do well in the interviews, and you’re set—but when you become a consultant you also become your own business. If you want to stay working, you’ll need to learn how to market yourself. It’s not tough, but it can be a bit daunting if you haven’t done it before.

Take your cue from marketing 101 classes (which, by the way, I recommend that all new consultants take) and build yourself a marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it should answer these five questions:

What is my product and why should anyone buy it? What skills are you offering to customers? How do you represent your value to a customer? Why should they pick you over hundreds of other candidates?

Make it easy for prospective clients to classify your skills and capabilities. It often helps to craft a one- or two-sentence paragraph summing up your key values. We call this the “elevator pitch,” the short, to-the-point explanation that sells you to a prospective employer in just a few seconds. You should also list the top five to ten capabilities or skills that you think are most attractive to employers.

What are my goals? Clearly understanding your goals makes it easier to build a plan that can reach them. It also helps you craft a resume that’s focused on reaching those goals. One great way to do this is by building a shopping list (literally) of what contracting success means to you:

* How much money do you want to make?
* How many hours do you want to work?
* Where do you want to work?
* What types of jobs most interest you?
* Do you want to continue as an independent contractor for the foreseeable future?
* Do you want to expand and possibly own a company with employees some day?
* Do you see contracting as a way to “test-drive” potential employers and eventually sign on as an employee when you find the right place?

Who are my customers? You need to understand your total available market, i.e., the companies out there that realistically would need your talents. What companies would you like to work for most? Are you restricting your market to companies in your city/state, or looking nationally and internationally?
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Did You Lie On Your Resume?

Say you spent two years “finding yourself,” living at home, watching a lot of daytime television and letting your mother do your laundry. Now it’s time to get a job. But how do you explain those two missing years?

Fake it, says former headhunter Derek Johnson. On his free site, Fakeresume.com, Johnson suggests that former freeloaders can explain those off years by saying they worked for a small, now-shuttered company. Read the obits in trade magazines to find a “former” boss. Reference issues? Rent a P.O. box that accepts mail addressed to massive companies. For Johnson, keeping it real just doesn’t make sense. Employers assume there will be some “puffery” on the resume, so they discount some of your experience, he says. “Those of us who play by the system, we’re getting screwed.”

Even if you don’t buy his logic, Johnson has a point: Almost everyone lies on their resume. That includes everyone from CEOs to security guards. Over half of human resources managers say they’ve flagged a lie on an applicant’s résumé, according to an October Careerbuilder.com survey. (Interestingly, another study by the company showed that only 5% of applicants confess to lying.) Eighteen percent of applicants lied about their past employment, according to the Careerbuilder.com study. “People just make up jobs,” says Mike Paul, a public relations and reputation management expert. “Often they never worked there at all.”
In Pictures: Resume, Lies And Careers

Also popular: fudging academic credentials. A 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office found that 463 government employees in eight federal agencies listed bogus academic credentials on their résumés. Twenty-eight of the fibbers held senior-level positions, a number the GAO called “an understatement.” The most senior fakers included three managers with top security clearance at the National Nuclear Security Administration and executives at the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation.

High-level executives also bluff their way through the Ivory Tower. Last February, former RadioShack (nyse: RSH - news - people ) Chief Executive Dave Edmondson was busted for faking his college degree. Edmondson claimed to hold diplomas in psychology and theology from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California. There was no evidence he ever graduated from the school. Bausch & Lomb (nyse: BOL - news - people ) CEO Ronald Zarrella pulled the same stunt, claiming an M.B.A. from New York University’s business school in his bios for 10 years. He’d started the program, but he never graduated.

For C-level executives, a little lying isn’t so bad, as long as they’re prepared for a little public humiliation. Bausch & Lomb canceled Zarrella’s $1.1 million bonus but kept him on as CEO. He still received his $1.1 million base salary and $1 million in long-term incentives, as well as stock options. Edmondson walked away with $1.03 million plus his unpaid accrued salary. “If the CEO of RadioShack had been doing a better job,” says Johnson, “guaranteed, he’d still be there right now. Generally speaking, these things don’t come out until your performance goes to crap.”

But for those in less vaulted positions, a lie can be riskier. Of the hiring managers surveyed by Careerbuilder.com, 93% of those who caught a lie did not hire the candidate.

The problem, says Paul, is that hiring managers aren’t catching enough of the liars, which leads to the type of vigilante action encouraged by Fakeresume.com. Most hiring decisions are made in the first four seconds of an interview, says Paul Endress, president of hiring consulting firm Maximum Advantage. “We have a tendency not to do the due diligence that we should be doing,” he says.

Not all businesses conduct full background checks on their employees, leaving them and their customers open to all kinds of dangers. In January, the Columbus School District of Columbus, Ohio, had to cancel classes, after the Cincinnati-based First Student busing company discovered it hadn’t properly processed criminal background checks on school bus drivers. Ohio police arrested a First Student driver on a charge of cocaine possession. Eight other drivers were later removed from their routes after investigations found they had previous DUI convictions. These kinds of slip-ups are unacceptable, says Endress. “The organization itself has to be accountable and ethical and make these key practices,” he says, and “talk about a best practice approach to employment.”

If hiring managers don’t do their jobs, Johnson will keep doing his. “These guys are clueless,” he says. “Corporate America really needs to step back and interview people based on who they are as human beings.” That might not be the best suggestion. If being honest is a factor, it seems a lot of us won’t quite make the cut.