Experts say there is overwhelming congressional support to extend COBRA premium subsidies and that the COBRA provisions in the scrapped bill are likely to be attached to any one of several other bills that Congress will consider in the coming weeks.
CREDIT: Jerry Geisel
You Can Read the Full Article Here: Workforce.com, February 12, 2010
A few blogs ago we talked about using a Bio or Profile instead of a resume in some situations. However, we did not talk very much about the resume itself. I’m about to remedy that situation, but first, let me start out with a very simple, one question quiz. Awwww, come on, I know you’re out of school but you can handle one question, and it’s multiple choice so you can guess. Here it is:
Question: What is the purpose of a resume?
A) Document your entire work history
B) Get a job
C) Use up the ream of 20# buff colored bond paper you bought 20 years ago
D) Impress your mom with how many great sounding job titles you’ve had
E) All of the A through D
F) None of A through D
Those of you who recall my blog on Bio’s (Your RESUME may not be enough, think about a bio) may know the correct answer is “F”. But first, let’s look at some of the wrong answers.
Should your resume document your entire work history?
This is a very common misconception. A resume should not necessarily document every nuance of a long and fruitful career. Knowing what to leave out of a resume is as important as knowing what to put in it.
I remember in the mid 1970’s when I was looking for my first “real” job after I finished my formal education, how agonizing it was to find things to put in my resume work history section. Should I put in that summer job where I worked in a slot car racing hobby shop? How about the two summers I did lighting for the “Summer Music Theatre Workshop” at the high school that I didn’t even get paid for? And, then there were those 5 weeks I spent in the summer of 1969 working for a small rock & roll music festival in upstate New York that drew over 800,000 attendees (I actually did get paid for that one, but several years later after the movie came out).
If you are a mature worker, your work history, like mine, may go back many decades. It is not necessary to put such ancient history in your resume unless it is a vital part of your story. Keeping it to the most recent 15 to 20 years should do just fine. It’s also not necessary to list every company and every job in that time frame. If the job or company is not relevant to your current goal, leave it out. If this should leave an ominous gap of more than, say 4 to 6 months, put in a filler such as “personal enterprises” or “non relevant work” or “personal travel”.
Should your resume get you a job?
While the ultimate goal of a resume is to get a job, and it is certainly a component of getting a job, a resume by itself will not result in landing you a job any more than having 10 gallons of gasoline will get you 200 miles down the road. In my travel analogy, while having enough gas is important to your objective, you also need to have a car to put it in, you need a road to drive on, you need the skills and license to drive, and many other things. In other words gas is a necessary component of driving to your destination, but in and of itself it will not get you there.
A resume is the same. It is one component of a job search. Along with having a resume you also need to do research, find opportunities, apply for positions, participate in interviews, and perhaps negotiate with a potential employer.
Is the purpose of your resume to impress people?
A good, well crafted resume should impress people who read it. It should draw out the wonderful things you’ve done in your recent career. It should highlight your achievements and show the value you brought to the companies you worked for. It should articulate the money you saved them, the disasters you prevented, how you helped products succeed, and the problems you solved.
The text should be crafted in such a way as to highlight your contribution to these successes. Which brings up 2 other things I’d like to talk with you about in writing a resume.
Purchasing Administrator
- Set up Vendors
- Pay invoices
- Negotiate contracts
- Resolve payment disputes
- Etc.
Or
Project Manager
- Participated in the Zonex project that successfully brought to market a new Shaving cream and exceeded sales by 25%
- Managed the RiceCraft project which designed a revolutionary toy to make art work from rice
Boooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrring! No indication about what you did or your achievement.
So what, then, is the purpose of a resume?
The one and only purpose of a resume is to get an interview. It’s that simple. Nothing more. Nothing less. When writing a resume keep this in mind.
If there’s something that will help you get the interview put it in. For each job you apply for, make sure you adjust your resume to address points in the posted job description – those are the things they are looking for. Pay most attention to the first few points in the job description and job requirements sections as those are the real requirements. Once you get past the 3rd or 4th one in these lists they become “nice to have” items. However, if you have them flaunt them.
If you have insight into problems the department you’re applying to is having, or strategies they want you to help make happen, make sure your resume shows how you’ve solved such problems before, or how you’ve successfully implemented such strategies. In other words, fine tune your resume to the situation at hand
On the other side, if there is something that will not help (or even hinder) you getting the interview, leave it out. That’s why we nowadays leave out hobbies and non work related activities. While those things may be interesting, they don’t help get an interview. Similarly if you had some work history that is not relevant to the job you’re after don’t waste space on it. A prime example is dating yourself if you’re over 45. Leave out the year in which you attended or graduated schools. Don’t have your work history go back too far. Be vague about projects that could date you. It’s great that you designed the first jet engine for a commercial airliner but it dates you.
To steal an old show business saying, “Leave them wanting more”. By this I mean it’s better to whet their appetite about something, but not tell the whole story, than it is to spill all the beans. Just enough info to raise the curiosity so they will want to talk to you, but not so much that they feel they know everything they need to about you and thus don’t need to talk to you face to face.
Just like a good TV advertisement, the goal is to get the reader excited about what you bring to the party. The emotion should be: ’Wow, would you look at that. I could sure use some of that in my department. I need to find out more’. If you can achieve that, your resume will fulfill its purpose.
For excellent in depth training on how to craft a resume, see the OurExperienceCounts workshop “A Winning Resume Does Not Have to Cost a Fortune.”
Last time we talked about the “Dreaded Job Interview” in a blog called “Understanding the Job Hiring Interview”. To no ones great surprise, interviews are made up of questions and answers. But, if one is not used to participating in hiring related interviews you may not know what sort of questions to expect.
There are two important factors you should be aware of relating to questions you will be asked in a job interview. I’ve talked about these before so please forgive me if this sounds familiar. The first is that any company looking to hire someone is interested in three things - can you do the job, will you do the job and can they stand you while you’re doing it. The second factor is, many, perhaps most, people who will be interviewing you are not well trained in the art of conducting an interview.
So, how do these two factors affect the questions you’ll get at an interview? Let me start with the 3 things the company is looking for. Unless the interviewer is just killing time till the next person comes in to see you (or is totally inept), every question will be geared toward finding out if you can do the job (do you have the required skills and knowledge), will you do the job (are you motivated, will you stay around awhile, will you show up when needed), and can they stand you while you do it (personality, style, appearance, professionalism, attitude). Before you show up for the interview, you should have answers to the most likely questions in each of these areas. Here are some examples:
Can you do the job?
Will you do the job?
Can they stand you while you do the job?
When answering questions, my colleagues and I have found that short anecdotes or stories are best. We call them “STaR’s”, and I talked about them in my previous Blog. OEC has a course that can help you create them called “It’s the STaRs that get you Hired”. While the course focuses on using STaRs in resumes, they also work quite well as a way to answer interview questions.
Now let’s take a look at the inexperienced interviewer and what sort of questions you can expect from such a person. The short answer is to expect some unusual, unanticipated, inappropriate, rude, insensitive, and just plain illegal sorts of questions. Your dilemma is how to field such questions. There you are in your Sunday best, sitting across the table from a 25 year old interviewer who will decide if you will be hired or you will stay on food stamps, and you get hit with one of these nuclear bomb questions. What do you do? Unless you want to completely blow any chance at landing the job, DO NOT tell them the question is illegal or inappropriate. Implying to a prospective boss that they are an idiot is not high on the best practices list for job hunters. Remember, many times the purpose of the question may be valid, just the actual question is not.
For example the question “What makes you think a woman can do this job?” sounds, and is, pretty sexist and possibly contrary to EEO guidelines or laws. However, what the interviewer may really be getting at is, the job requires the lifting of 50 pound boxes all day and are you capable of doing that. So you have two choices. You can say, “I’m sorry, but that was a sexist question and I’m not going to answer it”. Or, you can say, “I have read the job description for this position. I understand the physical requirements of the job, and I am certain that I am capable of performing the duties described. In fact in my last job I routinely ………”.
Inexperienced interviewers also tend to ask “close ended” questions – questions with yes/no or one word answers – rather than “open ended” questions. You can certainly provide such one word answers, but you’ll have a much better chance of landing the job if you go the extra mile, or, in this case, the extra words. Take the question as asked and expand it into an open ended version of the same question. For example if you get the question “Do you know how to weld?”, you can answer “Yes”, or you can answer “I sure do. In fact I’ve been a professional welder for 10 years during which time I have done structural welding on 3 of the city’s tallest high rise buildings and also did hull welding for the navy on nuclear submarines.” Do you see how the second answer puts you ahead of another candidate who just said “Yes”?
Now let’s get to the fun part, but let me explain “fun”. These questions are certainly not fun when they land on you in the interview: In fact, they can be quite stressful. However, they do make great conversational stories with your friends later.
Many times when you get such a question it’s difficult to figure out what the interviewer is trying to find out, or just what this has to do with the job. One interview practice some interviewers employ is to deliberately try and get the candidate off his or her plan or out of their comfort zone, to see how they handle the unexpected. Most of us do (or should) go over likely Q&A scenarios before each interview. As long as the questions stay in that general area, we can comfortably provide answers since we’ve just recently refreshed our thoughts on those subjects. However, when presented with something totally out in left field, we must improvise and “wing it” as they say. Sometimes this is what the interviewer is after – to see how well you can do that.
When you get such a question, I find it useful to stall for time by introducing a comment like “Wow, that’s an interesting question I didn’t expect” or “Hmmmm, let me think about that for a moment” or some other non committal response – perhaps even with a qualifying question back to the interviewer which will give you a bit more thought time while the interviewer answers your question. But, at some point, you will need to provide an answer. The best approach I find is to be honest but to stay away from extremes. For example, if asked “If you could be anyone in the world (living or dead), who would you be and why?”; Don’t pick Adolph Hitler, or Attila the Hun. Similarly, but on the other end of the spectrum, don’t pick Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi. Go with someone closer to the middle like JFK, or Martin Luther King, a well known scientist, perhaps a mainstream singer or celebrity (probably best to stay away from RAP or GANSTA artists).
Whatever the question is, you will almost certainly have to defend your answer with a follow up “why” question. I find it useful to think about the “why” part as I’m choosing what answer to give to the original question. For example, if asked about your most vivid childhood memory, I’m sure that many memories or incidents will race through your head as you search for the one to use in answer to the question. As you evaluate each potential incident, think first about what you will say to the “why” follow up and reject those that don’t have a good “why” answer. It’s also a good idea to stay away from the fringe areas on either end of the spectrum. You typically don’t know much about the interviewer so don’t know how he or she will react to things on the edges. In other words, I’d skip the draft card burning episode, the time you were arrested for smoking dope, the three weeks you spent in a nudist retreat, or the time you picketed either for or against some cause.
Here are some examples of strange questions that I have come across (each one is followed by “and why”):
Ok, now it’s your turn….. Leave a comment of what was the strangest interview question you have ever gotten. Mine is “If I were to ask your wife out on a date, what would you do?”
During the course of hunting for a job, one is apt to become involved in that institution of frustration better known as the dreaded JOB INTERVIEW. This may be conducted over the phone or in person, but I’m going to talk about the in person version. Either way it ranks right up there on the pleasantness scale with root canal work or a colonoscopy. All three are uncomfortable yet must be endured. In each case the more you know about the procedures and what to expect the less painful will be the experience (or so I’m told).
Depending on where you are, it is sometimes hard to know what to wear to an interview. Much of this depends on the job type and location. In today’s world, for office jobs in more formal areas such as New York City, the custom is to be more formal (suit – dress & heels). However for the same position in laid back Silicon Valley, business casual may be more appropriate (slacks, no tie, no jacket – skirt & blouse). The industry also plays a factor. Interviewing with a bank may have different expectations from interviewing for the same job, say, in a high tech start up.
So, how do you know what to wear? The guiding principle is to dress at least one notch above what you would typically wear to work if you got the job. If one has time, it’s possible to go over to the facility and see what people are wearing as they arrive or leave from work. What I usually do is when talking to the Admin or HR person who is setting up the interview, I just plain ask them what is appropriate attire for the interview – then use that as the starting point and depending on who I’m seeing sometimes notch it up a level.
In general, except for specific reasons relating to the company and position, it’s best to be more conservative than flashy and trendy. Go with the tried and true and leave the “latest fashion sweeping the nation” wardrobe home. Never wear anything remotely political such as a party pin, or NORML button (I actually had a candidate come to an interview wearing a NORML lapel button). The hiring company doesn’t care how hip and trendy you are. They care about you doing the job.
For those of you who don’t know, the “Green Room” is a theatrical term referring to the room where actors wait until they go on stage. In the Interview situation, the “green room” is the lobby of the building, a lounge area near the reception desk, or even a conference room while you wait for the interviewer to arrive. Even before the interviewer arrives you are on stage so to speak. From the moment you pull into the company parking lot till you get back on the highway to go home you may be watched. How you behave at these times is many times observed and noted. For example, while waiting are you texting your friends, talking on your cell phone, or browsing the company magazine conveniently left on the table in front of you? Which do you think leaves a better impression?
It’s sad to say, but some companies even check out your car while you’re visiting. Even if you are in a suit and tie, if your car looks like it just came in from the Baja race and is window sill high in fast food debris and empty beer cans, which impression do you think they will believe is the real you?
My last comment on the green room is your interaction with the low wage admin who met you in the lobby and escorted you to the conference room. Like it or not, this person has influence. Ask him or her how their day has been. You can also ask them for advice about how best to interact with the people you will be talking to. If they don’t know no one does, and they will be flattered that you asked them their opinion. If you make a good impression with them, later they can help you navigate to people instead of getting stone walled by the front desk. They can be your best friend in the company and get normally closed doors opened for you.
In an interview your personal energy is contagious. Companies want energetic, “Go Get ‘Em” dynamic people. The belief is that this sort of person will put in longer hours, work harder, and energize the whole department resulting in more work getting done faster. Saying you’re that sort of a person just doesn’t cut it. You need to show that you’re that kind of a person. So, how do you do that? Well, stand straight when being introduced to people. Use a firm (but not forceful) hand shake rather than the deadly “limp fish” style – yes, even for the ladies. Sit straight with a bit of a forward lean toward the interviewer. Do not rock back in the chair and in fact if you have a few moments alone in the room before the interview you may want to see if you can find the lever that keeps the chair back from reclining.
And, PLEASE speak up. As an interviewer there’s nothing worse than having to strain to hear a meek voice. Wait a minute. Yes there is something worse – one word answers, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Smile, and don’t be afraid to show some personality. Many people go through an interview like the stereotype of a “stuffed shirt banker”, never cracking a smile and never giving a hint of the person that they are. More like a computer spitting out answers in a monotone robotic manner. Those are the people who don’t get the job. It’s OK to be a bit informal. You can say things like “Do you mind if I tell you a short story about when I……” rather than just launching into your answer.
Good interviewers ask open ended questions. One’s that start with phrases like “Tell me about a time when……”, or “explain how you would ……” However, many interviewers are not well trained and ask closed ended questions like “Do you know Java?”, or “Have you ever worked for a bank before?” Avoid the urge to give a yes/no answer. Instead, give an answer to the implied open ended question. For example: Q: Do you know Java?” A: “I first learned Java in 1999 when I ………, I later used it for………”
Don’t be surprised if some of the questions you get seem insensitive, personal, intrusive, or even illegal. Many times the interviewer is not well trained in what they can and can’t ask. They may not know what is considered off limits or illegal and it doesn’t really matter. They get to vote on you as a candidate so you need to take these sorts of questions in stride without missing a beat. Assuming you want the job, don’t tell them that their question is illegal or offensive. Rather, answer it in a way that is comfortable for you – even if you don’t answer the specific question. For example if asked if you have kids, the implied question is if you’re going to show up regularly or call in sick every time little Johnny sneezes. You can answer that your work attendance has been, and is expected to remain, stellar.
Even though a question may seem odd in some way, the interviewer is usually trying to find out one of 3 things about you – can you do the job, will you do the job, and can they stand you while you’re doing the job. Try to focus your answer with these three purposes in mind.
In answering questions, try to stay under 90 seconds per question and if at all possible use a story or anecdote style of answer consisting of a Situation, Tactic and Result (STaR). For more information on how to create STaR style responses see the OEC “It’s the STaRs That Get You Hired!” workshop.
At some point, the interview will start to wind to a conclusion. Many times the interviewer will give you a chance to ask a question or two. When this happens, you darn well better have a good question or two ready to go. Sometimes you can take one of the questions you were asked and turn it around. For example: “Earlier you asked me if I had any experience with the FDA. Has your department had difficulties in that area?” You can also fall back on old standards like “What are the 3 most critical things you’re looking for in a candidate?”, or “At the end of the first year, what do you expect the person who fills this job to have accomplished?”
If you think you’re in the running, try to establish a follow up to the interview. You can ask what happens next. Be prepared for them to be non committal or say they have several other candidates to see, etc. ending in a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” sort of answer. Try to pry open permission to contact them in a week to see how things are progressing. Make sure you get their business card and if they don’t have one (yeah right), ask them for their email address.
The interview is your infomercial. It’s your time to sell the product. You certainly have to have substance but you need sell the entire package. They are not just hiring a set of skills; they are hiring an entire person. Make sure you have provided them the 3 things they are looking for: Can you do it, will you do it, and will you fit in. Now, go forth and have fun in your interviews. If you have fun, they will have fun and you will make a good impression.
As we grow older and our steel trap memory begins to show rust spots, it becomes more and more difficult to recall things that used to be quite easy to remember. I like to think that I’m focusing my brain power on more important issues than day to day trivia. I’m delusional. For most of us this “rust” only affects recent events. For example, I can recall clearly my first day of work many years ago but not the name of the person I talked to last week about a job at some company. This is not unusual for people in my demographic and should not be a cause for alarm unless I don’t adapt my behavior to accommodate these changes.
The important thing is to adopt a set of habits that take the place of a photographic memory. There are many different ways to capture such information. This can be paper based such a as a hard bound note book or loose leaf binder, index cards or manila folders. Other methods use computer based tools such as spread sheets, text files or even purchased software for this purpose.
Our Experience Counts offers a set of forms that can be used for tracking your job search. It is included in the FREE Job Search Action Planning Kit and is a great resource that will meet the needs of most job seekers. In using these forms, feel free to adjust them to meet your specific needs. Later in this blog I will show how I took the concepts and forms provided and made them specific to my needs.
Click here for a list of things you may want to keep track of during a job search
There’s a lot of stuff to keep track of, but it is useful and having easy access to it may spell the difference between success and failure. For example, my friend Deborah (not real name) who was not very good at record keeping got a call from Henry (not real name) who she had talked to about an opening in his company 3 months earlier. She did not remember him and did not have a way to look him up quickly at the beginning of the call. It became obvious to Henry that she had no clue who he was until he reminded her. It turns out Deborah was one of two equally qualified finalists who were called in for interviews, and the call from Henry was to set up the interview with the hiring manager. I found out later that one of the topics of conversation in the company after the interviews was the other candidate remembered Henry, the name of the company, the job title, and even indicated to Henry that he had done some research on the company and was very excited about the new factory they had just opened in Atlanta. This was in stark contrast to Deborah who didn’t remember who Henry was. I can’t say that this was a deciding factor, but it was part of the discussion. Deborah is now taking much better care of her record keeping.
One person’s record keeping example
Here is an example of the files I use for my job search record keeping:
As mentioned before, I use an Excel file to hold most all of my record keeping. This Excel file is designed to be used on a computer rather than printed. It has several worksheets (tabs), many of which have many columns, so if you choose to print it you may want to change to “landscape” mode, select legal pager size and check your “print preview” beforehand.
Click here for example of a Word file related to a specific “Bite”
