12.11.2008

Actually, you really should dress like everyone else!

I was directed to the following article by my work buddy Client Development Manager, who could tell us some hair frizzing stories about the inappropriate and outlandish get-ups supposed professionals have worn to interviews.

This is not the business and economic climate in which you remain hell-bent on displaying your individuality -- that is, if you're serious about wanting a job so you can pay your bills. This is a time when you want to look (and smell!) your best, and present the most professional, conservative, conformative You as possible.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/396938.html

(special thanks to Charlotte Observer and Diane Stafford of the Kansas City Star)

12.07.2008

Just one more resume.....

While spending the weekend at our palatial country estate, my Trusty Sidekick and I happened upon a local TV broadcast where employment experts were offering advice on landing a job in today’s environment. A few points stuck in my mind, and I wanted to share them.

First, you must be extra aggressive and dogged in your current job search. If you’ve sent 50 resumes before landing an assignment in the past, you may have to send 150 resumes this cycle before receiving that offer. Call to ensure your resume was received. Do not assume that the only jobs available are the ones being advertised. And network, network, NETWORK!

Next, search your mind for how the skills you possess and the experiences you’ve accrued can be utilized differently from the way you’ve used them in the past. How can those business and technical skills you’ve used in the Financial Services industry translate into manufacturing or healthcare?

And (as has been stated before right here in these volumes) it’s important that your resume and application be truthful, no matter how tempting it is to overstate your proficiencies in order to impress a hiring manager. The penalties imposed if the embellishments are discovered could far outweigh any advancement the assignment would have brought.

Remember, keep plugging away, don't give up. As Louis Pasteur said: “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”

12.01.2008

Your Own Visual Style

I recently learned about Visual CV (www.visualcv.com), which is an online secure site where professionals build turbo-charged resumes for use in assignment hunting, career development and networking.

These online CVs start with the data from your Word version resume, and after that it’s amazing what you can do! Attach photos, videos, examples of your work (presentations, documents, scanned materials, code, screen prints of your websites), keyword popups, letters from references, publications, commendations from your mother, whatevah!, etc., to create one or more versions of your public- or private-access Mother-of-all-Resumes.

That's right -- you can create multiple versions of private resumes online, which you can send as a link to potential employers, while keeping all other versions private. You control presentation and access.

And best of all – it’s free!

Visual CV is not a resume database, a job posting site, or a networking site. What it is, is a website where you can keep your resume online and posted all the time with no timestamps telling readers how long it’s been there, where you can keep it up to the minute, and where you can provide potential employers a depth of career information not available in resume databases.

Each of your resumes is given a unique URL, which you can include in emails, on business cards, on your inside your LinkedIn or other social networking profile. I link to my Visual CB from inside this blog and from my LinkedIn profile. The URL can be included in your profile on resume databases.

And Visual CV also provides free lunchtime webinars to help you maximize your CVs potential. Which I'm attending tomorrow -- so you'll notice my VisualCV becoming much more visual in the near future.

Check it out!