« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »
February 25, 2006
Do You Stand Out?
I just received an email from a potential client asking me to evaluate her resume. She worries that no one is responding to her resume because "I'm a woman trying to enter a man's field." While this software engineer may indeed be experiencing some bias because of her gender, one look at her resume told me that's not the only reason no one is calling her back.
There is absolutely nothing about her resume that stands out. The wording is generic, the layout is poor (too much stuff crammed into too small a space) and there is no information on how she has added value to her prior employers.
We've all heard the cliche that women have to work twice as hard as men just to get noticed. I don't know if that's true anymore, but it's certainly true that you can't overcome biases by just resenting them. Instead, you have to make it impossible for managers or recruiters to overlook you. You have to show them why you are absolutely the best candidate for the position. You have to do that in your resume, you have to do it in your job search strategy and you have to do it when you go on interviews.
It won't work every time, but being proactive about your personal marketing will definitely get better results than just doing what everyone else is doing.
Posted by Louise at 12:01 PM | Permalink
February 21, 2006
Honesty's the Best Policy
The resignation of David Edmondson, CEO of RadioShack, has revived the age-old conversation about whether it's OK to lie on your resume. According to News.com the practice is much more common than we might think. Unfortunately, this site links to the awful Fake Resume Guide, a website I refuse to link to again, which actually recommends lying on your resume.
See Louise Kursmark's excellent post on Career Hub for alternative strategies for polishing up your resume while remaining truthful.
Honesty is always the best policy. Just ask David Edmondson.
Posted by Louise at 07:01 PM | Permalink
February 13, 2006
New Careers Blog
I'm really excited about a new venture I launched this week. I love blogging and feel like I have some good insights to share, but I'm also pretty certain that I don't have all the answers, and some days I find I don't know how to be helpful, even though I know job seekers have a million questions and concerns.
That's why I'm thrilled to announce the launch of Career Hub, a new group blog featuring excellent advice, insights and news from leading career industry experts. We're only just getting started, but already we've signed up some of the US's smartest career marketers.
So bookmark the site or sign up for our feed. And - because Typepad rocks and allows me to moderate comments - we are inviting the open discussion that spammers blocked on this blog. I can't wait to hear from you.
Posted by Louise at 09:33 PM | Permalink
February 11, 2006
The Employees Revolt!
It's a cold Saturday and we're bracing for a huge storm, so I started surfing the blogosphere and came across this wonderful example of karma.
I wonder if this manager will rethink his approach when he finds a new batch of employees.
Oh, and if you recognized your boss, what are you waiting for? I'm not recommending walking out and putting up a sign, but it's definitely time to polish up that resume.
Posted by Louise at 04:12 PM | Permalink
February 10, 2006
Hub Pages for Job Seekers?
I've written before about the value of blogging for executive job seekers. I think that a blog gives you an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise and build your brand online. But blogs are limited in so many ways, so I'm interested to learn more about Hubpages, a new tool about to enter Beta. According to the founders:
Here at Hubpages we want everyone to share their passion to benefit others. Whether it be traveling right, tweaking your engine, or finding the ultimate deal, we let you share your genius with the world and enjoy the expert advice of others.Just pick a topic and use our simple publishing tools to create a great looking website with rich functionality. Hubpages takes it from there. The site is designed to continually sort out the most useful pages, helping to build traffic and revenue for our highest quality authors.
Yes revenue! Although knowledge is its own reward, we thought you might also like cold hard cash. So, if your readers generate revenue by clicking on an ad, buying a product or generating a lead, you will earn a share of the profits.
Revenue is nice of course, but I think it's much less important than the opportunities a tools like this one and Squidoo give individuals to build their own personal brand online.
Posted by Louise at 10:48 AM | Permalink
Ed Helms' Job Search
Johanna at Hiring Technical People, points to a great job search segment on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. I'm a little late with this as the clip aired two weeks ago, but I didn't know the Daily Show put videos online until I saw Johanna's piece. This is definitely worth a look.
Posted by Louise at 09:56 AM | Permalink
February 03, 2006
Overcoming Age Discrimination
One of the most common concerns among executive job seekers is age discrimination and, while it certainly exists, there are ways to overcome the biases of potential employers. Career Journal points to a new AARP survey showing that hiring older workers is actually cost-effective. The survey points out that many of the objections to hiring older people are not related to actual age as much as to misconceptions of what age means:
Another common belief is that older workers are less likely to be innovators. This, too, may be a misperception."There's a very funny preconception in our society...that innovation is the domain of youth," says David Galenson, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and author of "Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity." But "some great innovators are young, some are old," he says.
Mr. Galenson says there are two main types of creativity, one based on breaking the rules and the other based on building on what's already been learned.
Individuals of the first type are "very iconoclastic," Mr. Galenson says. "They learn the rules of a new discipline and they say 'I don't like that rule.'" Think Picasso and James Joyce.
The other type will "get better as they get older...They're collecting information. They're learning more about the world and getting better about using that information," he says.
Some companies may be "looking for these young conceptual guys to make these big leaps forward," Mr. Galenson says. But if they need a business plan, they might need people "who've been around the block. Companies, by and large, need both kinds of people."
This highlights the need for older workers to understand the views and prejudices that cause age discrimination, so that they can take active steps to overcome objections. Strategies might include emphasizing innovation in resumes and cover letters, including physical activities as hobbies on your resume, and developing an interview strategy that ensures you get a chance to talk about your marathon running/windsurfing/skiing/daily workouts.
The old maxim is true - knowledge IS power. If age is a concern for you, read this article to understand the causes of age-related discrimination, then develop an action plan to overcome them.
Posted by Louise at 08:48 AM | Permalink