1.      Creative
2.      Organizational
3.      Effective
4.      Extensive experience
5.      Track record
6.      Motivated
7.      Innovative
8.      Problem solving
9.      Communication skills
10.     Dynamic

Compare these to the 2010 most popular “overused buzzwords” in LinkedIn profiles in the U.S.:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

LinkedIn’s official take on buzzwords comes from Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s Connection Director and author of  Girl on Top: “Even though this year’s list of overused terms differs from last year’s, your objectives remain the same: Banish buzzwords from your profile. Use language that illustrates your unique professional accomplishments and experiences. Give concrete examples of results you’ve achieved whenever possible and reference attributes that are specific to you.”

While it is true that you need to make sure to highlight what is special or different about you, and most experts would agree — you don’t want an overly jargon-y, empty-sounding, buzzword filled resume or LinkedIn profile. But (as I also asked last year): is it time to do a search and destroy mission to eliminate all buzzwords from your resume and online profiles, as LinkedIn suggests?

I still don’t believe the answer is to eliminate all buzzwords. This is what I shared last year:

Let’s think about it — why are these terms so popular? Because many of them describe exactly the type of person many employers want! Take a step back and think about this before your revise your profile.

MSNBC’s career expert, Eve Tahmincioglu responded to LinkedIn’s post last year with a measured, and I believe appropriate, answer. She asked, Are buzzwords really a bad thing?:

Admit it, you probably have one or two of these on your resume or LinkedIn profile. But is that really a bad thing? Who cares if they’re buzz words if they convey what you want?

I couldn’t agree more. Of course, if you read your profile and you list every single “cliche” without providing information that supports your claims, it’s time for a makeover. You need to show, not tell — focus your efforts on telling a story that is both about you and targeted to your next employer.

It’s not a good idea to “outlaw” words on resumes, even if they may be a little overused. Do I write resumes full of cliches? No, but I do target my clients’ resumes to their desired employers!

The most important thing to keep in mind is that your materials need to be as much about your employer as they are about you. Focus on their needs and make a clear case for why you have the skills and experience to accomplish their goals – and to solve their problems. Might that mean including a few buzzwords? I think so — there is a reason that buzzwords are buzzing! But, be sure your materials don’t sound like the seemingly unthinking, cliche-spewing commentators.

Can you change my mind? Do you think we should totally eliminate these buzzwords?

photo by autan

How to best present your credentials (via a resume, online profile, or via your personal website) is a hot topic in the career world. Recently, several sites have come on the scene to help job seekers create infographic resumes. These completely visual (graph based) documents usually draw on information you either input into a form or they rely on existing information about you, for example your LinkedIn or Facebook profile. The resulting resume, conventional wisdom suggests, will help the job seeker stand out from a crowd of “boring,” conventional resumes.

I’ve written about this subject and taken the position that, while fun and visually stimulating, an infographic resume cannot be read via the Applicant Tracking Systems most companies are using, so would be completely useless to use to apply for most jobs. For networking purposes, it can certainly be eye-catching to have a graph-based version of your resume to share, and you may be able to get some millage from sharing a PDF of an infographic resume on your social resume, or personal website.

My opinion is, anything you can do by entering information into a form or connecting an application to your LinkedIn profile and pressing a button does not really illustrate any specific skills you have! For now, you may get some attention with an infographic resume as an accompanying document if a human being reviews it — for example, when mailed — which is very rare.

As I explain in my Job-Hunt.org article on the subject, as with anything related to your job search, consider your target audience and their needs. Unless your resume infographic will be unique and appeal to the employer, think twice before assuming your “outside of the box” approach (and how unique is it really once all of the career bloggers are blogging about it?) is going to be the thing that lands you a job.

These are the tools I mention and evaluate in my post on Job-Hunt.org:

• Vizualize.me
• Kinzaa
• Re.vu
• Brazen Careerist
• Slideshare 

Read the full post on Job-Hunt.org here.

sample infographic resume from Devign Elements

How much of the information you are including in your resume is relevant or interesting to your target audience — the employer you want to hire you now? How much jargon from your old job does your *next* employer understand? Are you speaking a language that seems foreign to the person who will be reviewing the resume?

Have you really evaluated the keywords you believe the employer will be seeking when the applicant tracking system (ATS) reviews the resume?

When it comes down to it, your resume needs to be forward facing — it must reflect what your next employer wants to see, which means you shouldn’t be looking in the mirror; you should be looking closely at the job description and at what the employer shares online, in-person and via social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website).

This week, I spoke to a group of job seekers and emphasized how the vast amount of information we can find online is a bit of a double-edged sword: one one hand — WOW — look at all the information you can find out without ever leaving your home or office!

• You can learn where the hiring manager went to school and maybe even read about what he or she thinks is important to do when applying for a job (via LinkedIn and his or her blog).
• It’s easy to find out something about the organization’s culture (via reading their websites, Facebook page or even viewing their YouTube channel).
• You can connect and engage with people who work at organizations where you want to work without boundaries or barriers (via Twitter or Google+).

All of this information allows you to figure out what to include in your application materials. The more you learn, the more targeted your materials can be and the better chance you have to structure an appealing resume.

On the other hand, having this information available puts the onus on you (the job seeker) to track down the useful information and to put it to good use! I’m not going to sugar-coat it — it’s not easy, but it isn’t rocket science.

When you write your resume, put yourself in the reader’s shoes and consider what he or she wants to know. What skills and accomplishments does the perfect candidate possess? If you are that candidate, be sure to showcase your best information.

Omit details that aren’t relevant or won’t make sense to the employer. (Including them is like ordering your pizza in Chinese and your Chinese food in French. You’ll probably not have the meal you’re expecting. (Or land the interview you were wanting.)

There’s a plant sale in a neighborhood near where I live. I’ve been seeing signs for it. They say, “At the Kingsly Club House.” That’s the only direction or address the signs provide. I guess we’re supposed to know where that is…Or, at least, the organizers assume we all know how to look it up online.

It occurred to me — a lot of job seekers present their information (on their resumes and via their online profiles) with a mindset similar to the one of the person who wrote that vague sign. These job seekers assume either everyone will know “what they mean,” will take the time to figure it out, or look it up.

Are you writing a resume requiring people to think too much — or to figure out what you mean to say? Are you leaving your skills and accomplishments to the reader’s imagination or asking him or her to read between the lines? If you aren’t clear and concise on your resume, it’s unlikely to attract the type of response you need.

photo by UofSLibrary

This topic has been on my mind for the past several days, especially, as I have been reviewing Visualize.me, the same infographic tool Penelope highlights in her post. What I’ve been grappling with is the disconnect between what is “cool” and “new” — even cutting edge — and what is actually useful for job seekers.

Remember VisualCV? (Maybe not?) It was an early tool to help job seekers demonstrate their skills and experience online.  It was useful for job seekers to be able to pretty easily have online versions of their resumes. However, it turns out VisualCV wasn’t as useful as everyone thought, as it was not helpful for being found online; it was more a mechanism for sharing an online link with people who’d be impressed you had a photo and resume they could see by clicking through. (Update: they are actually closing up shop and won’t exist after December, 2011.)

Today, it’s not very hard to put up information online. There are lots of services making it really easy. Just a few (from my book, Social Networking for Career Success):

http://www.weebly.com/features.html

http://www.wix.com/

http://www.doyoubuzz.com/us/

http://www.zooloo.com/

http://brand-yourself.com/

http://www.webs.com/

http://carbonmade.com/

http://chi.mp/

http://flavors.me/

I believe job seekers should have a social resume — an online place to showcase and highlight their skills, but it’s not always the best idea to jump on the easiest or least expensive service to do it. For one thing, you never know when ads may show up alongside your personal information, or if a service will go under and leave you in the lurch. It’s not always totally intuitive what to include and how to showcase the best you have to offer online — it’s not always a case of “more is better.”

The same goes for infographics, which is why I’ve been reserving judgement and not writing about them. If you’re a graphic artist and create your OWN infographic resume, highlighting and showcasing not only your resume, but the visual skills you will use on the job, there’s no question in my mind a very customized resume along the lines of what Visualize.Me provides is a value add to your job hunt. It’s important to keep an eye on hiring managers in your field and what they need and want, though. It’s possible (likely) their systems still require the more traditional text resume, which you should always have handy. No doubt, there’s a disconnect between what we can create and what hiring managers and systems can use. When even a PDF may not be a good choice, think twice when you apply with a totally visual document.

Knowing how to tell your story — and how to tell it well — is not going out of style, even as the places and ways we showcase what we offer do change. As Penelope reminded us in her post,

“Short is good, and concise is fun, and in a world where we have too many facts, we appreciate a quick picture that synthesizes facts into something meaningful rather than a summary of disjointed facts.”

However, I don’t know that a literal picture is always the best answer to the question of how to demonstrate our value. A story — using words, and a hook to compel the reader to want to know more — can be equally appealing, interesting and attractive.

Infographics are sexy now. A chart is novel, a flow of your work life, especially if it is actually interesting and makes a case to hire you, is a potential positive. However, as with anything job search related, the most important thing to do is consider your target audience and their needs. Unless your chart will be unique and special and appeal to them, I’d think twice before assuming your “outside of the box” approach (and how unique is it really once all of the career bloggers are blogging about it?) is going to be the thing that lands you a job.

I’ve been personally thinking about this as it relates to my website. I’m planning a bit of an overhaul in an effort to bring my site in line with my business objectives. However, I’m still convinced it’s the content on the site and information people find that drives them (you!) here. Hopefully, the visual experience right now is pleasant, but I’m guessing I could have the most beautiful, cutting-edge visual site, but if I couldn’t support it with content, I’d have a lot less visitors.

Focus on being able to tell your story – IN WORDS – in a way that is as appealing and attractive as a pretty chart, and I’m betting you will be far ahead of the crowd.

photo by roger4336

I’ve written about how job seekers can help turn volunteer efforts into a job. I’ve linked to the Encore.org site, which has a very useful (and free) ebook on the subject. They suggest:

• Find volunteer work in an organization whose mission you share.
• Offer your expertise.
• Show your range.
• Make yourself indispensable.
• Identify an organizational need.
• Incorporate your volunteer work into your resume.

The ebook (available to download HERE) offers practical tips and resources and reminds careerists to focus on the experience and its usefulness rather than expect that it will lead to a job.

Volunteering has many good potential outcomes. Some people volunteer to do work to gain experience (via internships, for example), or offer their services free of charge in order to keep their skills up when they are not engaged in paid opportunities. Others recognize the value of working with and meeting people who share a passion or interest. They may volunteer first because that is what they enjoy doing, but may also reap some secondary benefits — meeting new friends and contacts.

All of this is important to remember, but what is the best way to highlight volunteer experience if you’re job hunting? Even though LinkedIn now provides a whole, separate place to focus on your volunteer work, I usually advise clients to consider showcasing in-depth, significant volunteer work as “experience,” without specifically highlighting it as “volunteer work.”

There is no reason to designate your experience on your resume or job search materials as “for pay” and “unpaid.” Your experience is your experience, and if you have been engaged in working for or with an organization, and have skills to describe and accomplishments to showcase, it’s appropriate to do so within the “Experience” section. If interviewers ask if the work was a volunteer efforts, feel free to share why you chose that organization and highlight your altruism after you explain your accomplishments and the skills you used.

I think it’s great LinkedIn is giving everyone a place to showcase their favorite causes, but don’t include your work-focused volunteer efforts in the new section INSTEAD of in the regular experience section. Feel free to continue to highlight your experience as just that — EXPERIENCE!

OLD RESUME

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 

Managing Web Editor, XYZ Company
New York, NY  March 2008 – Present

-Manage high-traffic Web site for 1.5-million member organization.

-Edit and write content for Web magazine, marketing materials and internal memos and reports.

-Project manager for Web site overhaul. This includes planning and testing design, navigation and developing streamlined functionality to stimulate e-commerce activities.

How could this description be improved?

• Underlines look dated. Usually, you’ll only include months in the date section if the experience was one year or less.
• Bullet points shouldn’t just list WHAT you did, but focus on HOW you did it so it relates to the employer. Decide what they need you to do and show that on your resume. Ask yourself, “SO WHAT?” for every bullet point and provide an answer in your resume. Incorporate skills and accomplishments when giving the answer.
• Be sure all bullets are consistent – parallel tense. Begin each with a verb: manage, edit and “project manager” don’t match.
• Don’t make your resume a laundry list of “stuff” you’ve done.

NEW RESUME

CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS

Managing Web Editor, XYZ Company  New York, NY   2008 – Present

• Analyzed site traffic using Google Analytics, Lyris HQ Agency Edition and SiteCatalyst. Identified strategic patterns, trends and popular content and recommended changes to site, resulting in 17% increase in page views in only three months.
• Supervised site’s overhaul in compliance with company’s goals. Conducted needs assessment, identified market opportunities and planned and tested design, which stimulated e-commerce and increased profitability from $15M to $20M in 2010.
• Authored content for Web and email newsletters and created and recorded podcasts highlighting organization’s mission. Management attributed increased membership rates to high-quality online and audio content.

What is better about this description?

• Decide if your title or the organization name is more important. In this case, the resume focuses the reader on job titles. Be consistent across the entire resume.
• Incorporate details important to the employer. Use key words (for example, the names of the programs to analyze site traffic).
• Show your impact – use $ amounts, %ages and other numbers when possible. (These answer the question, “So what?”)

photo by y-a-n

Stay tuned for another post with resume tips!

Review these suggestions to see if there are any changes you may want to incorporate in your resume.

OLD HEADER

Jill Jack
123 Main Street – New York, NY – 212-555-0000 – Jill.Jack@hotmail.com

Objective

Innovative, highly motivated, dynamic team player with extensive experience, stellar writing skills and the ability to effectively manage concurrent projects seeks opportunity to contribute in Fortune 500 Company.

What’s wrong with this header?

Jill Jack
123 Main St. – New York, NY –  212.555.0000 – JillJack@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/JillJack – @JillJack – gplus.to/JillJack – JillJack.com

Multimedia Manager — Communications Strategist — Content Developer
Market savvy, writer/editor experienced in producing profitable online, video and ezine content.

“Jill combines a flair for the creative, an intuitive understanding of market trends and consumer needs with her unbeatable technical, writing, editing and management skills. I’ve never known anyone who can evaluate the landscape, design a strategy and execute on plans as well as Jill.”
– Peter Pan, Overseeing Editor, XYX Company (View this and other endorsements via LinkedIn)

What’s better about this header?

• It incorporates social media URLs – indicating this person is involved online and up-to-date. By inviting the reader to review her Twitter stream and LinkedIn profile for additional information, it’s clear (no matter how old this job seeker may be), the candidate is an early adopter (showing a Google+ account) and clearly willing to learn new things. Only showcase these URLs if you are using social media professionally. However, don’t assume no one will find your Twitter and other social media outlets.
• Notice this resume includes a link to the job seeker’s personal website/social resume. Having this online portfolio really demonstrates she is using technology and is up-to-date.
• This header uses important resume “real estate” at the top of the document to hone in on important points: job titles and key skills. It avoids “empty” words that don’t describe a connection between the candidate and the job. It’s important to select KEY words from job descriptions, company websites and LinkedIn profiles from others in your industry.
• It includes a recommendation from someone found on LinkedIn. This is a great way to help tell your story and to prove your qualifications from an outside perspective.

Watch the video here:

Stay tuned for more tips to help you evaluate and improve your resume!

photo by cobalt123

In the video, Derek was outlining things to think about regarding website design and how to pull together a site to encourage people to take the actions you want them to take. Watching it, I realized a lot of the advice Derek offered is similar to advice to I give to help people optimize resumes.

The first thing he said, “Just because you know what you’re about doesn’t mean others do,” got me taking notes for a resume post! It’s so true, and something a lot of people don’t think about when they write their own resumes. It could be very clear to you what you’d like to do next, but if your resume (or online materials) don’t make it obvious where you are headed, you will probably lose your audience. On a website, that means the reader will immediately click away. On a resume, it means you won’t get a chance to interview for the job.

Today, I reviewed a resume from someone I thought was interested in working in the medical field. (Based on something I had seen her post elsewhere.) However, the resume itself had nothing about the medical field on it at all. I’m now assuming I was wrong about what I previously saw, but someone in a position to hire someone in the medical field will simply put the resume aside, assuming there is no direct connection between the candidate and his or her hiring needs.

Another thing Derek points out in the video: “Welcome is not a good benefit – make a promise.” This, in relation to how to encourage people on your website to DO what you want them to do. Just “welcoming” them doesn’t cut it. Think about this regarding both cover letters and resumes — how are you showcasing something (a promise) to encourage readers to be interested in learning more about you? And no, just saying, “look at me” isn’t enough.

Which leads to Derek’s suggestion to use a headline at the top of a website! The best resumes today take advantage of headlines to reel readers in. The headline needs to be about your future, not your past. It’s about the job you want NEXT. Do you use headlines in your resume? They can be your targeted title, focus on your accomplishments, skills…The headline needs to be what will interest your reader. The headline is like a “promise” saying you are what the reader wants.

Derek kept talking about making that promise. He reminded viewers of an interesting point:  “Cluttered (web) pages used to convert better because people would be confused and click on ads.” I thought that was so interesting! Maybe that is why there are so many cluttered web pages out there – people are focusing on strategies that USED TO work. Same with resumes — so many resumes look dated and old fashioned. It’s time to think about what works today. Don’t get caught up in yesterday’s best practices.

Derek also gives advice regarding regarding font size, color, encouraging people to take action once they land on your website…While font sizes and use of color on resumes is a little different, the touch points between his web advice and resume advice are similar: you need to spell out your message clearly and make it easy to read and understand in order to convert readers to fans. Take a look at the video and be sure to visit Chris Brogan’s site for lots of useful and interesting information about social media and other topics.

photo by >^..^< maggz >^..^<

It certainly isn’t because you were “Responsible for” something or that you were “Recruited to” do something. A prospective employer wants to know what you’ve accomplished. What impact have you had on past employers? What obstacles did you overcome to achieve a positive result?

The most important thing you can do is target your resume specifically for the job. Use the job description as your guide and provide proof in your application materials that you have the skills necessary to accomplish the position’s goals.

Quintessential Careers compiled a comprehensive list of accomplishments employers seek.

Describe how you:

• Make money
• Save money
• Save time
• Make work easier
• Solve a specific problem
• Help the company become more competitive
• Build relationships
• Expand the business
• Attract new customers
• Retain existing customers

I suggest you answer the following questions:

• What problems did you solve?
• How did you improve your organization?
• What innovative ideas did you introduce (and what were the positive results)?
• How did you make a difference?

When you re-focus your resume spotlight to shine on what you have to offer instead of just listing what you’ve done, you will be much more marketable.

photo by Samurai John