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Fine-tune network skills for job hunts Connect without wrecking prospects

An e-mail that a veteran marketing executive recently blitzed to 12,000 contacts begins: “On Sept. 11, to my complete and utter surprise, I was terminated …”

She identified her ex-employer and why the small market-research firm fired her. Copies of her message inadvertently landed in her old boss's inbox, prompting the company to make her sign a separation agreement limiting how she spoke about her departure, her attorney said.
The otherwise effective technique could have been hassle-free. Broadcasting bad news about your job is a bad idea.

“I am a prolific networker,” the dismissed executive said in an interview.

But in hindsight, she concedes, the emotionally charged e-mail “wasn't the most professional or politic way to do it.”

Everyone knows you must network to find work following a job loss.

Too often, however, unemployed people make networking missteps, prolonging a job hunt.

A common flub involves name-dropping without knowing how a contact feels about the person.

A few weeks ago, an out-of-work executive phoned recruiter Jane Howze for permission “to stop by your office and have you look at my resume.” He cited an unimpressive candidate whom she met once in 2000 but never referred to an employer.

Howze, a managing director at Houston's Alexander Group, refused to see the job seeker. “He was a little presumptuous,” she states.

Exaggerating your relationship with mutual acquaintances can set you back, too.

Recruiter Fred Whelan conferred with a financial-services marketing vice president soon after his layoff because he had claimed to be a client's friend.

But when asked how he knew the client, “he awkwardly explained that they weren't really friends, he just knew of her,” remembers Whelan, a partner at Whelan Stone in San Francisco.

The recruiter cut short their session and ignored the prospect's subsequent e-mails.

Whelan also gets peeved when jobless applicants he fruitlessly wooed while employed suddenly crave his attention. That happened after a vice president for a video-game publisher lost his position last year.

“He never acknowledged that he had been unresponsive in the past and so I didn't meet with him,” Whelan says.

A smarter strategy: Apologize for spurning recruiters' past feelers.

You also may sabotage an informational interview by ending up asking for a job.

The question puts contacts in an awkward spot, especially because “the majority of the time, the answer is no,” notes Damian Birkel, founder of Professionals in Transition, a support group.

A jobless broadcast-industry executive alienated former colleagues and acquaintances with opening remarks such as, “I'm networking. Do you have anything I’ve the capability to look at in terms of a job?” He expressed zero interest in their careers.

“I don't really care about them. I just want a job,” he told John McKee, a career coach and author in Thousand Oaks, Calif. It took the executive 14 months to find work.

Networking “is supposed to be mutually beneficial,” McKee states. Even initial e-mails should include an offer of reciprocal help.

You might say, “If you need contact information in our industry, I'd be happy to pass along some names as well,” recommends Steve Swanson, a managing partner for recruiters Princeton One in Princeton, N.J.

“Giving back is very important,” agrees Kevin Gillespie, an unemployed sales and marketing manager from Old Westbury, N.Y.

Introductions that he arranged inside and outside the chemicals-and-plastics industry since his September layoff have begun to bear fruit.

Experts recommend that you reiterate offers of assistance — and alert individuals about any results from their suggested leads.

Bothering contacts excessively also can weaken networking efforts.

An unemployed former sales director at a software business e-mailed Whelan Stone each month for a year. Each message contained the same subject line, introduction and pitch.

The firm replied only once. “This was incredibly annoying,” Whelan complains.

A jobless ex-senior executive at a telecom concern wore out his welcome with many prior associates, sometimes phoning several times a day, according to McKee.

He reached out “again and again until they would no longer even return his calls,” the coach recalls.

McKee persuaded the executive instead to schedule his phone chats through e-mails that proposed dates and topics.

Acquaintances “appreciated his respect for their time,” the coach reports. The man landed a job in August.

It isn't absolutely clear, however, whether casting a wide net hurts job hunts. Diane Darling, founder of Effective Networking, a Boston consultancy, favors targeting close contacts.

The marketing manager who e-mailed 12,000 contacts disagrees. “I don't want to discourage people from doing this,” she says.

A youth marketing bureau expressed interest in hiring her immediately after receiving her Sept. 28 missive.

She joins the New York firm in January. When she sent out an e-mail blast trumpeting her new job, she got hundreds of hearty congratulations.

Are you interested in improving your appearance? If you are, you are not alone. In the United Says, a huge number of men and women wish that they were taken more seriously at work, at home, by their friends, and by their families. If this is a wish of yours, you might want to start making changes. One of the many ways that you can go about doing so is by dressing for success. Dressing for success will show those that you know and love that you’re a serious, professional person.

When it comes to dressing for success, many men and women find it to be easier said than done. When dressing for success, there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as your gender, your reasons for wanting to improve your appearance, as well as your budget. These factors, combined with others, make it possible for a number of individuals to make dress for success mistakes. These mistakes might actually hinder your ability to create a “new and improved you.” To prevent yourself from making these common dress for success mistakes, you’ll want to continue reading on.

One of the biggest mistakes made by those looking to dress for success is assuming that the hottest items in the fashion world will make them successful. This is important to remember, as it won’t always. Fashion comes in a number of different formats. It also depends on your main purpose for looking to improve your appearance. For example, if you’re interested in appearing more professional at work, a low-cut sundress might not work out to your advantage, and so forth. That's why you can use fashion magazines and fashion shows as guides, but you're urged not to fully depend on them.

Another common mistake made by those who are looking to improve their appearance is believing that they’ve to have the ideal. This commonly includes the most costly clothes and clothing accessories, as well as those that are made by well-known designers. This simply isn't the case. Of course, you can spend more money to wear the clothing of a professional designer, but you don't have to. Whether you're looking to dress for success for work or for an important event, like a party you're hosting or a charity function that you will be attending, it is important to remember that you do have a number of options, some of which are much more affordable.

Buying items that coworkers have is another common mistake made by those who are looking to improve their appearance, namely their professionalism at work. Of course, it is okay to buy clothing pieces that are similar in nature to ones that your coworkers are sporting, but you’ll want to avoid buying the exact same items. This is best for both men and women, but it is more important for women. Copying the fashions of your coworkers, right down to the same colors, can create some unneeded workplace tension.

As it was previously stated, you do not have to have the most pricey clothing pieces or clothing from designers just to dress for success. With that in mind, if you’re looking to buy formal elegant or evening wear for an important upcoming event, such as a charity ball, a wedding, or another party, you might want to avoid making your purchases at department stores, namely locally owned and operated ones. This is most often a problem with women and dresses. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself one of two or more women who show up to the same event wearing the same dress. In these instances, it might be ideal to visit specialty dress shops, namely those that keep record of all buys and events.

The above mentioned mistakes are just a few of the many mistakes often made by those who are looking to improve their appearances, by dressing for success and Dressing For a Job Interview. To avoid these mistakes and others, you'll want to use your ideal judgment when it comes time to make your dress for success and Dressing For a Job Interview clothing buys.

Let's be clear: The blockbuster bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love — One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia” is not about career reinvention.

Still, the book — featured twice on “Oprah,” read by untold book clubs and the basis for a film to star Julia Roberts — is inspiring career coaches to suggest it to clients. Friends and family are giving duplicates to loved ones who have found themselves in professional or work-life turmoil — and who, in turn, tell their friends.

“Eat, Pray, Love” is the memoir of Elizabeth Gilbert, a writer who, in life-meltdown mode, launched a “year of self-inquiry.” At age 31, she recognized that her path — marriage, suburbs, possible baby — was making her feel “utterly consumed with dread.”

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After a messy divorce and an obsessive relationship, Gilbert, a self-described emotional wreck, headed off to Italy in the fall of 2003. Her goal was to “thoroughly explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well.”

In Italy it was to be the art of pleasure, with a special emphasis on food; in India it was to tap into the spiritual through big doses of chanting and meditation, and in Indonesia, Bali to be specific, it was to find a way to balance the two — pleasure and spirituality.

Kimberly Jones of Nesconset read Gilbert's story and found it affirmed her decision to change her career. After finishing 14 months of intense schoolwork, she had found herself slipping into something akin to postpartum depression. It was fertile ground, she says, for an “it's over — now what?” line of second-guess thinking.

Jones, a lawyer for 14 years, finished work in September on a master's degree in public administration — a field in which she hopes to make more of a social impact. “If I wanted to just work for the buck, I would continue practicing law,” she states.

In her view the book is “about looking at your life and being present and making choices and being responsible for the choices and not spreading blame.”

The copy she received for her birthday in October is now underlined and dog-eared, and she's suggested the book to friends. “It's that kind of book,” she says. “It bonds people together.”

And, yes, the many thousands of others who purchased the book or received it as a gift have responded to Gilbert's humorous writing style and tales of the wild and crazy characters she met along the way. They would include Luca Spaghetti — his real name — an accountant in Rome. And at the ashram in India, Richard from Texas, whose first comment to her is, “Man, they got mosquitoes 'round this place huge enough to rape a chicken.” (He, reportedly, has inspired a line of Richard from Texas T-shirts.)

Siobhan Murphy, an executive coach in Babylon, has suggested the book to clients. In one of her newsletters, she pointed to two key issues that often come up in her practice:

First, as Gilbert travels on her journey, she develops more faith in her natural instincts. She “shifted into believing she could and should have her prayer answered,” wrote Murphy, advancing beyond “a tentative vibration that said: 'I'm not sure I’ve the capability to have this.' She granted in a new possibility.”

Murphy wrote, too:

“The author is also introduced to the power of forgiveness and the use of ritual to release the hold resentment has on her. Frequently in coaching, I find that people need to forgive themselves, their employers, their colleagues or someone in order to unhook themselves from the past, reclaim the energy they're using in anger, and use that energy to move forward towards their goals.”

Indeed, in an interview with National Public Radio earlier this month, Gilbert spoke of how we often cling to comforts, “your comforting senses of your own limitations, you know, like this is who I am. I'm boxed into this . . .” But, let those beliefs go and “you'll be amazed at the things that occur.”

Yes, this sounds a lot like therapy, but Gilbert also did much personal excavation work on her own through writing and asking for divine guidance. She states she was able to contact her inner wisdom — or was it God or “the angel who was assigned to my case” — through written dialogues. And that wise voice, she writes, “is always available for a conversation on paper at any time of day or night.”

One person who was inspired by the book is , Jonathan Lien26, who read it at the recommendation of Murphy, his stepmother. (Gilbert, who expected her memoir to be read pretty much just by women, said she's “really touched when I hear that men are reading it.”)

Lien read the book in January, quit a real estate job in February and took off in March for five weeks of backpacking in Europe. He states he came back with a clarity — that he wanted to work in the family business, Cornucopia Health Foods in Sayville, in a role that would help bring it to the next level.

Such a thought had crossed his mind earlier, he says, but actually making the change took “stepping away and looking at the bigger picture instead of focusing on the little details of life.”

Certainly, such travel jaunts can be characterized as running away or goofing off. In reality, they have the capability to help allow your true desires to surface, states Lindsey Pollak, a career blogger and author in Manhattan.

Pollak is the person who in October told me about the book the day before I left for two weeks in Italy. I started reading it on the plane and completed it a week later in Amalfi — where I met a woman from San Francisco who had just quit her financial services job and was traveling for several weeks, “Eat, Pray, Love” in hand. As for me, the book reinvigorated my interest in journal writing and some day spending more than two weeks in Italy — make it more like two or three months.

Still, let me not give the impression that you have to uproot your life and reconfigure yourself. “We romanticize the idea of a spiritual journey,” Gilbert stated in the NPR interview. “And we think that we've to actually change our nature . . . in reality, it is the opposite.”

And, she said, often “we wait for our happiness to happen to us . . . or wait for somebody to come and bring it to us.” But “my whole book is about taking that into your own hands.” (In her own case, she was able to banish depression, right her course and marry a Brazilian businessman whom she met in Bali — and let's not even get started on her enhanced career success!)

That self-reliance is something that Jones, the lawyer-turning-nonprofit-executive who is also relocating to California, found compelling: the affirmation for “taking a risk and making unusual choices and aggressively pursuing your happiness.”

She characterized her take-away message from the book this way: “Don't settle. No matter how long you've to wait, be patient and faithful in yourself.”

Try Searching Instead of Planning for Career Success - Anne Zelenka

Instead of planning your career top down, you might find a bottom up search process more effective. Planning works for well-defined and well-understood situations — for example, following a well-trod career path such as medicine or law. Searching relies on trial and error and adjusting your actions based on what’s happening moment by moment. Searching can be more effective for new and uncertain contexts such as you find on the quickly changing web.

This week’s tip was inspired by an uncommon source: journalist Virginia Postrel writing on aid provided to developing countries. She points to an Atlantic article by Sarah Chayes about U.S. funding agencies’ lack of interest in providing help with a small-scale development effort in Afghanistan.

Postrel says, “Aid agencies reward ‘planners,’ who work from the top down, while effective aid requires ’searchers,’ who rely on trial and error and local knowledge.” In that case, the local knowledge includes understanding of current micro-level cultural and economic factors.

In the case of web work, you will also need to use local knowledge — knowledge of whatever field you want to succeed in as well as understanding of the financial constraints and opportunities you face. One great way to get that local knowledge is through action and experimentation.

To use a search strategy to move forward in your career, take small steps towards what you think you might like to do (and what might reward you financially), stopping and checking often to see if you’re getting the results you want. When you search, you’ll spend relatively more time acting and checking results and relatively less time setting goals and trying to predict an uncertain future.

Do you resonate with the idea of searching? Or are you more of a planner?

Lily is a lovely, talented graphic designer who works for a vibrant top design studio downtown. Only a few weeks after she has started, major clients begin requesting to work with her. They like Lily's fresh creative approach, her friendly appearance and willingness to go the extra mile to achieve outstanding results for them.

Lily has each reason to be proud and happy. However, she's getting more and more tired, depressed and frustrated, loosing enthusiasm for her job. Why? Lily has noticed that while her colleagues are working at two, maximum three projects at a time with at least one assistant by their side, Lily often has to manage up to five projects with no assistant at all.

“I don't know what to do”, she sighs. “Sometimes I begin work at 6 am and stay until way after midnight. But no one seems to notice, let alone care.” To her it doesn't seem fair after all the good work she does and she’s eager to find out how she could bring the topic up in a conversation with her boss without sounding too desperate or angry.

By the way, Lily's boss appreciates her and often commends her youngest and most successful designer in front of clients. When asked how Lily reacts to those compliments, her answer doesn't come as a surprise to an experienced career or communication coach: “Mostly I say: 'It was nothing' or 'It really wasn't a massive deal'. I don't feel comfortable if she makes such fuss about it.”

Tell me, if you were Lily's boss would you ask Lily whether she needs any help when apparently she achieves great success single handedly even when working on multiple projects with tight deadlines? My guess: you would not and that is exactly the clue to solving the problem. If you work hard and deliver good results you need to learn to speak about them or they’ll go unnoticed.

It's a very common phenomena observed when people complain about not getting appropriate rewards for their hard and obviously successful work: Lily - like many other professionals , in particular women - trips over her own modesty. When we were children we were all told not to show off our accomplishments. We were taught to be modest. Fair enough! No one likes people who boast with their achievements.

However, if you take this childhood lesson as seriously as Lily, you might not get where you want to - especially in your career. If you want to get a superior job or your well deserved promotion, try this:

# If you work hard for your success, simply state so calmly and friendly and no one will take it as showing-off.

# If someone congratulates you, look him or her straight in the eye, smile and say: “Thank you. Yes, it took me many hours and weekends to complete the project. I'm really proud of the outcome and I'm very happy that you appreciate it.”

# Delete sentences like “It was nothing” forever. Never ever downplay your success. If you downplay it everyone else will.

Workplace has become a fast paced and competitive place. If you want that your success is being noticed you need to promote yourself. The good news is that you can learn how to do that even if you're the kind of person who likes not to stand in the spotlight. How? Get a communication coach who will show you simple and easy-to-use techniques how to talk about your successes while feeling good about it. Enroll in a course that's specialised in the art of effective but subtle self-promotion where you'll find great ideas and also like minded people.

Good work resulting in excellent outcomes is worth to be talked about. And so are you! Take action! Get your credits, get your promotion! You deserve it!

Claudia Raab is an internationally experienced journalist, communications professional and as director of Raab & Raab Performance Consulting.

DO trim your resume back to the most current 10, 15, or 20 years. Your resume is a marketing document. It is NOT an autobiography. Readers want to know what you've done recently to add value in the companies you have been associated with. Skills, experiences, and achievements from 25 or 30 years ago or more are almost certainly irrelevant at this point. But, if those early experiences are still relevant, you do have options…

DON'T be afraid to mention early experience that’s still relevant. Just don't mention the dates associated with it. You might select to highlight the undated achievements or qualifications in the summary profile section of your resume. Or, another effective strategy is to summarize that experience at the end of your resume. Your description should be concise. Just one or two sentences that begin with the words “Additional experience includes…” will usually suffice.

DO be creative and strategic in how you list employment dates on your resume. Don't feel locked in by the traditional way of including dates. For example, I recently worked with an executive candidate who had three years with his current employer but more than 35 years of progression with his last employer. Traditionally, on a resume, you would show the total span of years with each company and then the dates in each position (illustrating progression). But this method clearly wouldn't work for this client because he began working for that last employer sometime in the mid 1960s - a date that we didn’t want to include on the resume. So instead, we left off the total dates with each company and just listed dates in each position, going back approximately 15-20 years. Like this:

Employer 1, location

Current position (20xx - Present)

Employer 2, location

Position a (20xx - 20xx)

Position b (19xx - 20xx)

Position c (19xx - 19xx)

Position d (19xx - 19xx)

** Additional experience includes…

DON'T leave dates of education off of your resume unless you've a good strategic reason to do so. One of the most common errors that I see are dates of education left off the resume when they should not be left off. For example, if you earned your degree 15 years ago and began working in your current career track the same year, you’ll actually raise questions about your age by not including your degree dates. The dates on your degree tend to shut the “loop” and eliminate age-related questions in the mind of the resume recipient. But if you leave the dates off, the recipient will assume you're hiding your age and are older than your work experience indicates. On the other hand, if you have shortened your resume to the most current 10, 15, or 20 years, and your most current degree was earned earlier than a year or two before that cut off point, it is probably in your best interest to leave the dates off the resume.

DO be proud of your age and the associated experience and perspective that you bring to your employers. Although - in most cases - you should not emphasize and draw attention to your age, do recognize that you bring to the workplace a value offering unmatched by your younger competitors in the job market. Your self-assurance and confidence will encounter in your resume and during interviews.

DON'T forget to fill your resume with accomplishments and results that illustrate your personal brand and the unique promise of value that you bring to the workplace. Position yourself for the position. Demonstrate through past accomplishments and value add that you are the perfect candidate for the job. When your resume is filled with accomplishments that illustrate you will deliver a strong return on an employer's investment in hiring you, your age will NOT even be an issue.

DO create a resume that showcases achievements that illustrate the traits most valued in older workers - your credibility, your depth and breadth of experience, your judgment and decision-making abilities, your range of professional contacts, your work ethic and reliability, your emotional stability, and your commitment to company goals. Subtly, in your resume and cover letter, touch on achievements that illustrate a high energy level, strong technical skills, and adaptability to change.

Nationally certified resume writer and career marketing expert, Michelle Dumas is the director of Distinctive Career Services LLC.

Appearing for an interview is like selling a product- the product being you. Resumes get you invited for an interview, where you get to market yourself. But references are what closes a deal. When a company is hiring you, it is making a massive investment. It is obvious that anybody making such a large investment will make sure that they're making the right choice. This choice will largely be influenced by the references that you provide.

It's true that most employers don't do a complete background check. They’re not even meant for that. However, most employers will at least go through one or two of them that you provide. Underestimating the power of them is a massive mistake. If an employer has interviewed two equally good individuals for a particular position, the next obvious step for them to be taken is to contact at least a couple of references. This will be when your “dream job” will be in hands of other people. It's a frightening scenario, but with tiny care and planning, you can turn this into an opportunity that'll work in your favor.

Who Can Be A Reference?

These should ideally be people you've reported to in your previous jobs. Alternatively, if you’ve been in your current job for a long time, someone who used to work with you and has left, or someone who used to report to you, could also be a good reference. In certain industries, providing ones from outside the company is also accepted. These could be vendors or business associates.

Who Can’t Be A Reference?

Family and relatives are not suited to be references. A long letter from Uncle Harry describing how energetic you were in your youth and how skillful you’re is of tiny to no importance. Old letters written in the past by previous employers to “whomsoever it might concern” will hardly interest your prospective employer, and the chances of such a letter being read is low.

Keys To Using Job References

• Never put references on your resume. It should be on a separate sheet titled “References”. However, they should be carried to the interview and should be provided on request.

• You should think strategically about the references that you wish to mention. You want to list people who will make strong recommendations for you. Putting down names of supervisors is not mandatory, especially if they're not aware of your achievements or if there's a fear that they may not speak strongly for you. The focus should be on people, either former co-workers, or supervisors, who know what you've done and what you’re capable of.

• You should always get the permission of the person you wish to use as a reference. Most people will have no problem with that, or might even be flattered with the proposal; however, some people might decline your request for whatever reason. Be prepared for that.

• You should mention all the details for them, which would ideally consist of full name, current designation, company name, business address and contact information.

• Keep them informed about the job you are seeking. Provide them with your updated resume, and make sure they are aware of your skills and your accomplishments.

Good references can help you secure that perfect job; therefore, some extra effort should be put into making sure that nothing is left to chance.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions - Six Sigma On the web - http://www.sixsigmaonline.org, offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

In today's job market, the resume - a document that provides an overview of your experience, education and skill set - is the number one request of potential employers.

Research has shown that job seekers without a top-quality resume face long and difficult job searches, while those with polished, professionally written resumes multiply their chances of obtaining their desired positions. In the highly competitive job market, human resources managers and recruiting professionals are inundated with hundreds of resumes for a single position. Resume Solutions research has determined that on average, an employer spends 10-30 seconds reviewing a resume before determining whether it warrants further consideration. In such a competitive landscape it is critical that job seekers make a good first impression as a viable candidate by submitting a high impact resume that cuts through the noise and shows your value to each employer.

As a job seeker, your resume and cover letter must convince a recruiter that you're the perfect candidate for the vacancy without overloading the document with irrelevant data. In order to attract attention in the job marketplace and distinguish yourself from the competition, your resume needs to creatively highlight your work history, accomplishments, education and capabilities. Many new job applicants capture their career history in the Curriculum Vitae (CV) format.. Unfortunately, the CV is only accepted for academic or research related positions and is too cumbersome for private sector jobs. Further, various components of the CV such as marital status, a photograph and other personal data isn't relevant in the labour market and in fact might eliminate you as a potential candidate.

You resume should answer the following questions:

ue What expertise do you offer a potential employer? ue What added value you brought to your prior employers through measurable accomplishments? ue What education qualifications and certifications do you bring? ue What are you like to work with?

How do you write a high impact resume?

Be relevant. Be concise. Be results specific. Be honest.

A resume that generates results should be relevant to an employer's needs, and accentuate the qualifications that are job, field or industry specific. To illustrate, if you're seeking a role as an Accountant but also possess experience in sales, it is advisable to focus primarily on your bookkeeping knowledge rather than highlighting your sales talents. Another important consideration is to conduct comprehensive industry research prior to applying to jobs so that you're aware of the key job-specific stipulations that employers are seeking.

To be effective, a resume should be concise and to the point. It is critical that you don’t prepare a resume that consists of a laundry list of responsibilities for each job you’ve ever held or one which includes company jargon. In a document that is no longer than three pages (two is preferable), you need to convey to a prospective employer the contributions you made in each of your past roles. Do not use long-winded sentences or dated terminology. An example of what not to do: “Dear sirs, with your permission, herein is included my resume and cover letter, in accordance with your request for someone of my esteemed talents which are in line with your organization's long-term goals” Employers don't want to read long, cumbersome or jargon-laden sentences. Be specific and to the point.

To generate interest from a potential employer, you need demonstrate strategically your defining career moments and business and leadership successes, while outlining measurable results. Depending on your previous positions, this can be shown through examples of ways in which you've reduced costs, improved efficiency, solved problems or any other illustrations of how the organization benefited from your past performance. It is recommended that you include goals you overachieved such as delivering a project ahead of schedule and below budget, improving your staff performance or helping to retain key client accounts.

A high impact, effective resume will:

ue Demonstrate how you’ll meet an employer's needs ue Convey the qualifications and abilities you offer for the job you want ue Show results and your qualifications in action ue Identify your career path ue Be attractive to the reader through a professional format ue Is concise and easy to read ue Let the reader see your skills, knowledge and abilities ue Be grammatically correct and spelling error free

As a Certified Professional Resume Writer working with clients from diverse backgrounds and capability levels, my primary objective is to increase my client's marketability by presenting their one-of-a-kind core competencies, personal talents, strengths and accomplishments in a way that engages the reader and compels them to invite my clients for an interview. However, it is critical that we are honest in the way we present our clients' skills and as such, we never exaggerate their capabilitities and successes. You should ensure you do the same when writing your new resume. At all times be honest and relevant with no exaggerations of any details. This might include job titles, education levels, accomplishments and abilities.

What’s included in a professional resume?

To be effective, it is critical that your resume effectively links your qualifications to a specific job target. It should outline your career progression, education & training, technical and personal skills, languages spoken, professional affiliations, awards & recognition, and any community involvement.

A basic resume layout should open with a profile or qualification summary. For examples of high impact professional summaries, you can review sample resumes at http://www.resumesolutions.ca. This profile while summarize who you’re and what you've to offer to a potential employer. It should be tailored to the specific industry and job category you are seeking.

Many massive and medium-size companies employ technology to gather, store and filter resumes, using keyword searches to identify qualified applicants. You can include industry keywords within the text of the summary, as a stand alone section, or incorporated throughout your resume.

Typically, your next section should list your employment history in reverse chronological order - listing the most current job first, followed by second most recent and so on. For each job, you should summarize your varying responsibilities and provide details on measurable results.

Your education follows the details of your employment history. When listing your education, ensure that the institution is clearly stated, the degree qualification is detailed and the year of graduation is included. Only degrees and diplomas from accredited institutes should be included. Your education section can also include any additional courses, certificates and professional development you’ve obtained.

Additional sections for your resume could include technical skills, affiliations and other job relevant data. Please note, you should not include religious or political affiliations and personal details such as date of birth, marital status, SIN numbers or a personal photograph.

Your success in securing high quality interviews and job offers is critically dependent on your effectiveness in conveying your qualifications and core expertise to potential employers. Before you start to craft your resume, I suggest that you take the time to develop an in-depth inventory of your hard and soft skills. Many job seekers find this process challenging, and for those of you having difficulty communicating your skills on paper, turning to a professional resume writer may be the answer. Companies such as Resume Solutions, whose Certified Professional Resume Writers are members of Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches and the Career Management Alliance, are pledged to uphold the highest standards of professionalism, writing quality and ethical behaviour when providing guidance to job seekers. As such, they have the ability to be an important partner in your job search strategy.

Surranna Sandy, a Certified Professional Resume Writer and Certified Employment Interview Coach and former Human Resources Management Professional, is the Founder and President of Resume Solutions. The company offers advanced resume writing, career and interview coaching services for entry level, mid-career through to executive clientele in the global marketplace, and her team of client focused resume writers and career coaches have helped thousands of job seekers meet their career goals.

5 Steps for Surviving the Job Search Doldrums

It's a slow time of the year for job seekers. Security recruiters offer advice on using the down time to put your job search in shape for next year.

The period of time between Thanksgiving and the New Year is notoriously slow for job seekers. While some things speed up–perhaps your heart rate when trying to find a parking space at the mall–others, like lining up that interview for your dream security job, come to a screeching halt. During this month, companies are advertising fewer jobs, and employers aren't conducting as many interviews to fill positions. It's not just your imagination.

Many employers don't post jobs at the end of the year because they don't have the budget for a new hire, says Jeff Combs, practice lead of IT risk recruiting for executive recruitment firm Alta Associates. “If they're posting,” he states, “it's because they want to get a pipeline going into the new year, when they've a new budget”–but they still might be slow to respond to candidates who answer their job ads. Combs states that out of each 20 clients with job orders for a recruiter to fill, typically only four or five of them are serious about actually hiring someone between now and the end of the year.

Even companies that are serious about the hiring process might find it next to impossible to get the ball rolling on the interview process. “With the stress, [holiday] celebrations, and people not wanting to lose vacation time, it's difficult to get everyone mentally lined up for the interview process,” Combs says. Nevertheless, security job seekers can still take advantage of the hiring lull by using the time to regroup. Here are some tips on how to do that, between bites of pumpkin pie.

1. Reevaluate yourself. Take the time to plan your search and be analytical about it, Combs states. “You're marketing yourself when you're looking for a new job, so take the time to brand yourself.” To do that, you need to understand what makes you better than the other candidates applying for the same job. “Think about what your differentiators are, and how you're going to define and articulate them,” he states.

You should also give some serious thought as to what you really want to do. Want to work for a larger company? Move from the technical realm into security management? “Ask yourself what your motivations are for wanting to make the move,” Combs says. “Do you want to do the same thing for another company, or do you want more responsibility?” If you consider these things prior to the application process, then you're starting from solid ground.

2. Do your homework. Research different companies in your region and identify ones that you think may be able to use your skills, says Evan Scott, president of executive search firm Evan Scott Group International. “Search company websites and see what kinds of jobs they are advertising for,” he says. If they seem to be a fit, get some contacts and send out some initial e-mails introducing yourself. Or, if possible, take some time to visit certain companies.

“It's a good opportunity to canvas all the companies that might support your professional interests within a commuting distance,” Combs states.

3. Party, er, network. With all the celebrations going on, networking is often easier to do this time of year, Scott states. “It's a great opportunity to meet new recruiters and begin to plant some seeds for meetings in January.” If you’re looking for positions at the CSO/CISO level, Scott suggests reaching out to retainer-based search firms, which tend to handle high-level job postings. (A recruiter who works on retainer has an exclusive contract to fill a job. For the inside skinny, read “The Moving Game,” written by a CSO who's been there, done that.) “Recognize they might not have a fit for you now, but set up a meeting anyway; it's a good time for them to know who you're.”

Combs says it's also a good time to reach out to existing contacts. “Let headhunters you know and trust know you're ready to start looking,” he states. “Touch base with friends, past colleagues, current colleagues or organizations you might be a member of, like the Information Systems Security Association or (ISC)2, and see if there are any networking meetings you can take advantage of.”

Once you do make the connection, whether new or old, make sure you set a timeline for following up, Combs states. It's especially important to do this time of year, when people are increasingly busy outside of work. “You don't want to pester people, but set a date to speak again and be disciplined about it.”

Combs and Scott both predict that social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace will continue to grow in popularity, and effectively change the job search process. Scott states he hasn't seen such techniques used very much at the senior levels, but that they might be more effective for middle management and junior-level positions. Regardless of your experience level, it's not a bad idea to put yourself on a network like LinkedIn.

However, it's still good to exercise caution when using those tools, states Combs. “Steer toward ones that are more professionally focused,” he says. “Use them in a way that's constructive toward your professional goals and maintain a high level of professionalism through them.”

4. Sharpen your resume. These quiet weeks are also a good time to hunker down with your resume. You could start by spending some time visiting job list aggregators like SimplyHired and Monster. Although the listings might be sparse, it's helpful to know what’s out there before you work on your resume. “That way, they're writing it with the goal of solving the problems the job descriptions are asking to be solved,” Combs says, and listing their accomplishments and skills in a way that satisfies what the market wants. Writing it with that context in mind can improve your chances of scoring an interview. “It all goes back to figuring out what your differentiators are and branding yourself,” Combs states. “Then make sure your resume reflects that.”

Recruiters can also help, Scott states. “If you can develop a relationship with a recruiter, ask them for their advice,” he states. “It's a good idea to ask them for samples of resumes they like.”

5. Be patient. During this time of year, don't take it personally if things aren't happening quickly, Combs states. Recognize that it's natural for things to slow down during this season; that's not a reflection of your worth as an employee or job skills. Instead, he states, “take advantage of the fact that it's slower, and do the 'housecleaning' that most people don't get to do when things are moving quickly. And try to enjoy the holiday season.”

8 Signs It's Time to Look for a New Job

Short of being handed your walking papers, there are often telltale signs that it's time to look for a new job. You haven't been promoted since the Clinton administration. The most exciting assignments are routinely handed to your peers or underlings. Your desk keeps moving farther and farther from where the action is.

But some indicators are less obvious, such as subtle shifts in an IT organization's structure that can result in career stagnation. A variety of career experts, headhunters, recruiters, CIOs and IT staffers shared their takes on when it's time to move on.

1. Your role has become marginalized.

If you're being bypassed for promotions or interesting assignments, or they're consistently being offered instead to IT workers in subordinate positions, “that would be an obvious sign,” says Robert Rosen, CIO at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and a past president of Share, an IBM user group in Chicago.

Often, the handwriting is on the wall. You just need to cease, step back and read it. “If you feel like you're no longer contributing, there's a good chance you might not be,” states Frank Hood, CIO at The Quiznos Master LLC in Denver.

2. You've stopped growing.

“If you're not learning each day, if you're not doing new things, and if you're not improving” it's time to move on, states Sara Garrison, senior vice president of product and solutions development at Sabre Holdings Corp. in Southlake, Texas.

Red lights should be flashing if you've effectively been in the same role for two or three years and haven't taken on any significant new challenges during that time, states Umesh Ramakrishnan, vice chairman of CTPartners, an executive recruiting firm in New York.

3. You're missing from the large picture.

Most CIOs assemble a road map of where they intend to take their organizations over the next 12 to 60 months, including the top IT/business projects they plan to work on, notes Joe Trentacosta, CIO at the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative Inc. in Hughesville, Md. So, if there are a lot of upcoming projects that don't include your area of expertise or in which you figure to play a minor role at best, “that's a warning sign,” he states.

Further, if you've been relegated to a commodity-type IT function that offers little value to the organization or can easily be outsourced, “it's time to move on to a new opportunity,” states Hans Keller, chief technology officer at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

4. You're being excluded.

If you're a CIO or other senior IT manager, the warning signs can include not being asked to participate in new business decisions or being excluded from formal or informal executive committee meetings, says Craig Urrizola, CIO at Saladino's Inc., a Fresno, Calif.-based food distributor.

The view is equally bleak if you're an IT staffer whose input on new projects is no longer requested or is sought out on just a limited basis.

5. Your level of influence is waning.

A CIO certainly has more clout within an organization than a network engineer. But all IT professionals possess some level of influence within their work teams or at least among their own peer groups. If you see your powers of persuasion shrinking, it's time to move on, Keller advocates.

6. You no longer enjoy the work.

“Someone once told me that we're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time,” states Michael Nieset, managing partner for the technology practice at the Cleveland office of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. “Sometimes people stay in suboptimal situations because it's comfortable for them. You've to take control.

“If you're not excited about the projects you're working on, fix it,” he states. “If you're wholly engaged, passionate about what you're doing and doing what you're good at, you'll be fulfilled and rewarded accordingly. “

7. Continuous improvement isn't part of the mantra.

Sometimes there are organizational changes — or lack thereof — that you should regard as career alerts. These include stagnation within a corporation or an IT department. If your IT organization has been using the same application-development techniques for 15 years and has made no effort to update its approach, “then something's wrong,” states David Van De Voort, principal consultant at Mercer LLC in Chicago. If your company is unwilling to invest in continuous improvement processes such as CMMI, ITIL or Six Sigma, it may be time to seek a company that's, he adds.

8. Greener pastures truly are greener.

If you've reached a crossroads where you've become disenchanted with your employer for one reason or another (long hours, infrequent promotions, career malaise, etc.), and you've received a job offer from another company, it might be the right time to jump ship. “In situations where things don't fix themselves — if you hate what you're doing, or you're not proud of what you're doing, or there's an issue you need to speak to your boss about but you don't because you know it won't do any good — that's when it's time to look for a new job,” states Joel Reiter, an application analyst at U.S. Bancorp in St. Paul, Minn.

In this situation, however, be certain that you're not jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Make sure you're moving toward a good opportunity and not just moving away from one that has gone bad.