Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Connect the Dots Resume Writing

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Initially, readers may give your resume a 7- to 10-second glance.  Really.  (When I started this work over 10 years ago, we use to say it was 20 seconds.)

You have a very small window of opportunity to make an impression.  It is your job to connect the dots between what you offer and what the employer seeks.

You could be perfect for the job, but unless you quickly capture their attention and connect your skills with their needs, you won’t land an interview. Consider how to make yourself the perfect candidate. Specify your skills and accomplishments in your resume; don’t assume the reader will stop to think about what you have to offer. It’s your job to fill in the blanks and help the reviewer envision you working for them.

Two key “dots” for you to connect involve:
(1) knowing your skills and what you have to offer and
(2) having a clear understanding of your prospective employer’s needs.

At Keppie Careers, we are skilled at helping with these important steps. Some strategies to consider…

** Knowing Your Skills **
Assess your skills and accomplishments. How? Talk to your friends and co-workers. Review written evaluations of your work. Think about the skills you use/d in your positions. Study a skills and accomplishments list.

What aspects of your job do you enjoy? What type of work do you hope to do in the future? What skills do you have that will be the stepping stones to getting to the next rung of your career ladder? Once you identify what you have to offer, it will be easier to connect the dots between the employer and you.

** Knowing the Employer **
What does the organization value? Use the job description as a guide and research the company using the internet and any available published material. For example, if the organization uses the words “team player” four times on their company home page, you will want to emphasize your ability to work well in teams. If possible, conduct informational meetings with people in the organization or those who know about it.

Once you can articulate your skills and you know what the employer wants, target and tailor your resume. Communicate exactly how your skills are a good fit for their position. Include accomplishments and buzz words that support your candidacy. The more specific connections you draw between you and the job, the more likely you are to land the interview.

Consider these sample resume bullet points:

Before:
Conducted patient interviews and managed data collection for large survey.

After:
Demonstrated analytical skills and cultural sensitivity as leader of team conducting, coding and verifying 1000 patient interviews using SAS software.

The original bullet point expects the reader to jump to the conclusion that the applicant analyzed data. “Managing data collection” may imply analysis, but it is best to be specific. The terms “coding” and “verifying” clarify additional explicit skills.

The “After” bullet quantifies the size of the study and notes the applicant’s abilities regarding cultural sensitivity, which the writer knew from her research was something this company valued. It also mentions the software used.

Detailed descriptions are the keys to effective resume writing. Clarify skills and include quantifiable information whenever possible: numbers, percentages and dollar amounts all resonate with employers. Bring your resume to life!

Do you need to re-write your resume for every job? That would be impractical for most job seekers However, if you want to get your foot in the door, your resume must clearly outline how your skills and accomplishments solve a problem for the employer.  It is your job to offer clear reasons to interview you.

Let Keppie Careers help you create a resume that can be tweaked to appeal to a variety of jobs and organizations!

Discovering Your Value Proposition – The Elevator Pitch, Part I

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Have you written your elevator pitch? Otherwise known as your value proposition or a personal infomercial, this is a brief (some say 2-minutes, I like 30 seconds) introduction to you with a focus on what you have to offer.  This technique is used all of the time in sales and marketing, and since your job search is all about marketing YOU, having a well practiced, targeted elevator pitch is a good idea. (The name comes from the fact that you could deliver your “speech” while going down an elevator with a great contact.  I guess the length may depend on the height of the building! Since most people have a pretty short attention span, assume most buildings are short.)

Just as your resume should be targeted to the reader’s needs instead of your own needs, your pitch should focus on how you can solve a problem for the listener. What do you offer? What is your hook?

Discovering Your Hook

What is special about you?  What skills and accomplishments set you apart from every other person in the room? In your industry?

You need to know two things:

  1. What the employer wants.
  2. What you offer.

You will find out the employer’s needs via research, informational meetings and networking.  Discovering what you have to offer may take longer!

Big brands like Disney decide what they offer before they create and place their advertisements.  When they want to advertise Disney World, they appeal to families and parents’ need for an affordable, yet magical vacation.  Their brand is all about magic and family fun.  Their television ads appear on shows with a high viewership of people Disney targets.

If Disney didn’t consider what they offer, they wouldn’t be able to target their marketing.  By defining themselves and what problem they solve, they can offer a hook (an affordable family vacation).

What is brand YOU all about?  What makes you special and unique? Think about what you offer an employer.  Consider your top five work and personal accomplishments. Write them down and think them over.

Read more about writing your elevator pitch…

Build Your Networking Base as a Connector

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In her recent Shifting Gears column in The New York Times, How We Introduce, and What It Means, Marci Alboher discusses different types of connectors.  She references Wikipedia‘s definition:

Connectors are people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub. Connectors usually know people across an array of social, planes, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles.

Although connectors are rare — only one in several thousand people might be thought of as a true connector — they are, like mavens and salesmen, very important in the healthy function of civil society and business. Connectors are also important in trendsetting….

Alboher notes that there are different types of connectors, and describes these types in depth in her article.  In short, some are proactive, some passive and some don’t follow-up at all.

I recently attended a talk with Wendy Kinney, a networking guru, where she spoke about the different levels of connecting.  She noted that we must earn referrals by building trust and relationships with people. One of the strongest recommendations is when an ally inserts our name in a conversation and offers to set up a meeting without even being asked for a referral. (“It sounds like you should meet Miriam Salpeter.  She is a terrific career coach. I will set the meeting up.”)

This assumes that the connector has a fairly close relationship with each party and that it is possible to leverage the introduction.

Dan Shawbel, whose focus and website are all about personal branding, reminds us that it is important to give before receiving.  I agree with this philosophy.  Just being aware of how important it is not only to be connected, but also to connect others, is a great step in the right direction.  Building trust and relationships with colleagues and associates is key to networking.  It’s something every professional should work on regularly – not only when job seeking.

Enhance Your Linkedin Profile for Job Seeking

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In light of the fact that linkedin has become a source of choice for people who love to hire passive job seekers (those who may not actually be seeking a new job), I thought it would be a good idea to remind readers to pay attention to your linkedin profile!

First, a note on visibility….

If you use linkedin, you know that your visibility goes up the more links you have. Your second- and third-degree connections help put your profile in front of more people. I am a 3rd degree link to all three candidates for President! (Yes, Obama, Clinton and McCain are all on linkedin!)

There are several ways to increase your connections:

  1. The preferred way is to link with friends and colleagues. When I started on linkedin, I convinced a friend who always sends mass emails to a g’zillion friends to join linkedin. In about a day, she had over 100 connections, all of which became my 2nd degree connections.
  2. Another easy way to increase your visibility is to link with a LION (linkedin open networker). These LIONS have over 500 connections and welcome any invitation to link. You gain visibility to all of their connections with the click of a mouse.

Your profile…

First things first – Be sure that anything in your profile is spelled and punctuated correctly! Typos scream “don’t hire me” to anyone with a critical eye. Have someone with an eagle eye proof your profile. (Keppie Careers will be happy to assist in revising or proofing your profile. Email me at [email protected] for details.)

Especially if you are looking for a job, focus your profile to include skills and experiences that will be of interest to potential employers. As with a resume, don’t just list what you did – help the reader envision you working for them by highlighting your skills and accomplishments. As you would with your resume, use active and interesting language.

Unlike a resume, you can use mini paragraphs in your profile. Keep it short – large blocks of text are hard to read. It should be somewhat conversational to grab the reader’s attention. It is okay to use “I, me or my” in your profile, unlike in a resume. (Don’t overdo it, though. You don’t want to appear self-centered!)

Make use of the “HEADLINE” feature. It goes right under your name and is the first thing people see. If you are a marketing professional, you can say so! Maybe you are a “Skilled problem solver and community builder.” Think of a tag line that grabs attention and describes you.

Be sure to edit your “Public Profile” to have a vanity URL (that has your name at the end).

I really like the “Summary” and “Specialties” sections. This is where you can briefly sum up what you offer. If you have a “Highlights of Qualifications” or an “Accomplishments Summary” section on your resume, it should be easy to transfer it to linkedin. The “Specialties” section is like a list of tags – keywords that describe you and your work.

If you have a website or blog, use the “other” category and name your site when you add the URL. Also, you can edit your linkedin URL in your profile to include your name.

Ask colleagues and clients to “recommend” you on linkedin. They can say all of the flowery, fabulous things about you that you can’t say about yourself! Only ask those you know will write a quality review. Most people will discount a poorly written recommendation.

Especially when you are job hunting, your linkedin profile may be your golden ticket. Make sure you keep it shiny!

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Keppie Careers will help you with every aspect of your job search…Resume writing, linkedin summary editing, interview prep, career coaching…Contact us to see how we can take your job search up a few notches! www.keppiecareers.com

Majority Say Recession Is Here…What It Means for Your Job Hunt

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After all of the talk about “are we” or “aren’t we” in a recession, the Wall Street Journal reports that it appears that the people who know these things really think we can honestly say we are in a recession:

“The evidence is now beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co. Thirty-six of 51 respondents, or more than 70%, said in a survey conducted March 7-11 that the economy is in recession.

So, the big question of the day for job seekers is this:

What impact does this recession have on your job prospects?

Penelope Trunk blogged today that A Recession Probably Won’t Affect Your Job Market.

She quotes experts who note that Boomers are expected to retire in droves causing a shortage of employees.  (Click here for another take on what the Boomers may have planned.) Penelope suggests that even sectors that have been hard-hit by the economy such as finance and real estate should maintain their hiring.  Trunk notes that “In terms of real estate…almost 60% of people working in this market will be retirement age by 2010.”  In theory, there should be plenty of jobs to go around!

I agree with Penelope’s assertion that it is pointless to get all worked up about a recession.  There are many steps to take to help make yourself more marketable and competitive in your search.  If you need a job, job  hunting at this stage may or may not be harder than it ever has been in the past.

However, the fact is, if you are out of work and can’t find a job, pundits and researchers aside…How you are impacted by the recession is based on your own circumstances.  If you are a Boomer not ready to retire or re-invent yourself, this may be a difficult time for you. On the other hand, Gen Y job seekers right out of school may find many job opportunities (assuming they aren’t starting their own online firms!)

Back to the point of the job search being in YOUR hands…

The fact is, optimists outperform their peers in their job searches. Research shows that persistence and a postive attitude pay off in the job hunt, even in difficult economic times.

I think most of us in the career industry agree that leaders, well-branded professionals  and flexible performers who are on top of their career plans should do fine.

The key point is to be prepared, keep on top of your game and don’t let negative talk get you down. Opportunities happen for people who make them happen.