Storytelling may seem like a topic more appropriate for preschoolers than job seekers, but the most astute and successful job seekers understand how important it is to be able to articulate an interesting and compelling story detailing their work history and accomplishments. Do not underestimate the importance of outlining your background and describing it effectively. Hiring managers want to read your story, and they want you to prove you are a good fit for the job. It’s important to note: the story you tell should focus more on the skills and information the employer wants to see and less on information that you assume is most important. Tell your story in a way that makes it clear that you are a good fit for the position.

Identify Your Relevant Skills

The first step to a great career story is to outline your best skills and accomplishments. What do you want people to know about your work history? How can you explain what you have done in your past in a way that convinces your target employer to want to hire you? You need to understand what you offer before you can decide how to market yourself. Think about examples of times when you navigated problems and challenges at work and when you delivered measurable results.

One easy way to help you decide on a focus for your story is to study the job descriptions that interest you. Highlight everything in the job description that relates to your background and experience. Use the highlighted information to help you decide what parts of your story will interest the employer.

Mold Your Stories

With a list of skills and accomplishments that interest the employer, you can begin to outline your career story for each part of your job search.

Networking. Share your story in person and online. Showcase your best skills in your LinkedIn profile. Use the LinkedIn About section to feature a conversational bio demonstrating what you do and why you are good at it. You can use the first person (I, me or my) in the summary to speak directly to readers via LinkedIn. For example, if you are in customer service, you may say, “Growing up, I helped all of my friends solve their problems. Today, I do it for a living.”

‘ When you meet in person, remember to tell your story succinctly and directly. No one is interested in long, drawn-out tales about your skills and background. Narrow your story to about 30-40 words at the most.

In your resume. All of your bullet points should focus on your career story. Include important information about how you solved problems by using the PAR method; include details about the problem, the action you took, and the results you created. Focus extensively on the job description and incorporate keywords that match the employee’s needs when you explain why you are a good match.

In the interview. Prepare for interviews by identifying several stories that will address typical interview questions. Ultimately, the big question you must answer is: Why are you the right person for the job? Use the PAR approach when you prepare so you will be able to discuss problems you solved, explain how (what actions you took) and discuss results you accomplished during the interview. Spend the majority of your time explaining how you overcame the problem and the rest of your time detailing the results of your efforts. Ideally, you will mention the long-term impact you had on your organization. For example, “One year later, the office is still following the protocols I instituted.”

Remember, in all cases, be brief, focus on results, address the items the employer wants to know and practice your stories so you are able to flexibly adjust based on the situation and question. Once you identify the stories to tell, you will be well on your way to job search success!

The post How to Tell Your Career Story appeared first on Keppie Careers.

Here is how Dan describes it:

Summary: Volume 4, Issue 2 is focused on dressing for success both in person and online. What you wear in your online pictures provides a first impression to the majority of the world. What you wear in interviews is just as important as your attire on the first day of work. When it comes to looking professional, stylish and showing personality, this issue will navigate you in the right direction. With interviews from three editor-in-chiefs from Hearst Magazine, you will know how to present yourself  successfully.

Features:

• Full paid issue (November 1st): 23 articles total covering how to become a valuable and indispensable brand.
• Sample issue: 9 articles total, including how to make a good first impression, how to manage your digital image, and wardrobe tips.
• Interviews with: Kate White (Cosmo), Joanna Coles (Marie Claire), Ann Shoket (Seventeen), Nancy Lublin (Founder of Dress for Success), Hitha Prabhakar (CNBC contributor), Patricia Handschiegel and Meghan Cleary (Huffington Post columnists) and Silvia Tcherassi (Latin America’s leading fashion designer).

• Free sample URL: http://personalbrandingsample.com
• Paid subscription URL: http://personalbrandingmag.com
• Facebook page: http://facebook.com/PersonalBrandingMagazine

Be sure to click through for useful information!

Need help getting a job? Check out THE CAREER SUMMIT for lots of great career advice.

The topics include everything from how to think about finding a job you love, to what has changed in search, demystifying the recruiting process, online career management, interviewing and (last but not least) — strategies and tips for your resume, social media profile and job search. Read more HERE or visit the site HERE to learn more.

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What a frustrating situation. I can imagine how difficult it must be for a job seeker who has not been in the market for some time – applying for jobs – even minimum wage jobs – and no one being interested.

If this sounds like you…Stop and think about this: Is it really your age or experience level that is preventing you from landing interviews, or is it your approach to the job market?

Start with the minimum-wage jobs:

Put yourself in the shoes of people at McDonald’s who receive your resume detailing your executive-level experience. If you were doing the hiring, would you hire you? What experience on your resume suggests that you would be good at running the cash register? Or that you have experience serving food to impatient customers? They can’t understand why you would apply for the job, and they aren’t going to stop and try to figure it out. Yes, maybe you are thinking of a franchise ownership, and want to learn the ropes, but have you said so? Regardless of your goals, have you tweaked your resume to suggest you have the skills they need to serve their customers?

McDonald’s just needs to put someone in the job who can manage the responsibilities. If you can do it, the onus is on you to explain how; you need to send a customized resume for the job, not the same resume your outplacement firm created to help you apply for executive positions.

As for the executive jobs:

If you are not landing interviews, there is a problem, either with your resume or with the way you are conducting your search. If you are applying to hundreds of jobs, are you really focusing on each position and company and tweaking your materials appropriately? I’m guessing not. Companies are interested in someone who has exactly the experience they need. They want what they want, and they are unlikely to spend a lot of time trying to analyze your materials to identify where the overlap between your skills and their needs might be. That is your job.

Target your resume. Identify organizations of interest and make inroads by networking. Use social media channels to expand the number of people who know and take an interest in you. (The side benefit of this for over 50 workers is that they look in touch and prevent themselves from being labeled out-of-date.) Use what you learn to improve your materials and help hook your targeted organizations.

Sorry to yell, but: DO NOT SEND THE EXACT SAME RESUME TO HUNDREDS OF JOBS. No matter what the jobs may be. You need a resume that you know how to tweak slightly and adapt for different positions. You also need a cover letter that makes it clear why you are qualified for the job. In a few special circumstances, I have written cover letters for clients who really didn’t have the exact skills and qualifications for the targeted job, but the letter earned them calls and generated interest. While I am not a fan of applying to jobs without having the qualifications, these successes show that a persuasive, targeted pitch can make the difference.

Take the time to focus your search. Don’t look for a scapegoat (your age, too much experience, the economy, etc.) Instead, use your skills, market your experiences and accomplishments to the right organizations and people and give your search a fresh, new start.

Of course, my job is to help people navigate the job search maze. Maybe I can help. Contact me for a quote. It might be the best investment you could make.

Footnote: If you are looking for meaningful work in the non-profit sector for your next (or encore) career, be sure to visit the Encore Careers site, which shares great resources to help people who want to use their skills to combine “purpose, passion and a paycheck.”

photo by CJ Roberts

The post Over 50 in the job hunt appeared first on Keppie Careers.

This issue has great advice about how to create or find meaningful work (by Julie Jansen), describes why personal branding is good for you (by Diana Jennings) and provides interview advice for return-to workers (by Carol Fishman Cohen), just to name a few. Read on to learn more about the project and consider ordering a copy!

Career Rocketeer’s goal is to bring you short, relevant and actionable advice to save you time, energy and sanity in your pursuit of your next job opportunity. Launchpad covers topics including: resume optimization, interviewing, personal branding, career search strategy, relationship building, professional networking, the use of web 2.0 search tools and much more. Contributors to Volume 3:

James Alexander, Paula Caligiuri, Carol Fishman Cohen, John Crant, Kristi Daeda, Meg Guiseppi, Jessica Holbrook, Julie Jansen, Diana Jennings, Dan Miller, Dorothy Tannahill Moran, Ford Myers, Cheryl Palmer, Chris Perry, Brent Peterson, Todd Rhoad, Steve Rothberg, Rick Saia, Miriam Salpeter and Billie Sucher

FREE GIFT: Career Rocketeer is proud to offer you a FREE, downloadable version of Launchpad: Your Career Search Strategy Guide (Volume 1). Get your free copy today!

The post Career advice from the experts – LaunchPad, Vol. 3 appeared first on Keppie Careers.

Monitoring your name and tracking references should be a part of your routine. Learn more in my Job-Hunt.org article, Monitor and Influence Your Online Presence.

photo by jessicafm

The post With social media, you decide what others find when they Google your name appeared first on Keppie Careers.

Do you find that just having a plan makes it easier to think about a big task? Sometimes, making the plan work involves partnering with an expert. I am a big proponent of hiring someone to help me when I’m trying to do something that is not my forte. In fact, I mentioned to my client my story about painting my house. While I *could* have painted (the inside) myself, it would have taken me a lot longer and the results would not have been as good as they were when I hired a professional. (You should have seen my painters painting trim – they didn’t even use tape!) Stay tuned for tips to help you plan your job hunt, but today, I thought it would be fun to share one of my “hired some experts and didn’t regret it” stories from the archives! Hope it’s a good reminder for you!

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This week, I’m having my house painted. Inside and out – fresh paint, new colors. It has been a while. My friends know that this has been a long time in coming. I’ve been talking about painting for months!

The first obstacle – picking colors! For the interior decorators among you, this may be hard to believe, but choosing colors for several key rooms in the house seemed like an overwhelming problem. What if it looked bad? What needed to match? Or not match? I had no interest in making a mistake in my home.

What did I finally do? I hired an expert. Laura came in with her paint swatches, asked me what I liked and proceeded to explain what she would recommend. She has seen the colors she recommended to me in many, many homes. On the walls! I trusted her ideas and knew I could move forward confidently.

But, that wasn’t all. I still had a few choices to make. I needed to buy some samples and see how I liked them on the walls. But, being “too busy” (I really am busy – how do you think this blog gets written?!), I procrastinated. For a long time. It wasn’t until the painter I had said I would hire called back to check in that I finally went to work on making final color selections. It was easier to TALK about making a change than it was to actually make a change. Surprise!

Does this sound like you? Not about painting, but about your job hunt? Is it overwhelming to even think about starting? I hired someone to help me (trying to take my own advice to hire an expert). Should you do the same thing? Think about it – you can sit around and procrastinate or you can take some action!

Even when I had my professional advice, I still needed to actually take action and move forward. The same is true for you. No matter what, you will need to take steps to move forward. The fact is, nothing was going to get painted in my house unless I made a conscious choice – and took a bit of a chance.  Nothing happens without action.

What action are you taking to move your job hunt forward? (Don’t miss my post: six tips to help you from being overwhelmed by your job hunt to help get you started!)

photo by caveman

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I’m happy to add new functionality for readers, including providing automatic tweeting and “liking” options and new ways to help you find content and information you need. I also have a great new Search functionality and a new way to go through the archives. I’m really loving the drop-down menus on the navigation bar…If I’m not careful, I may wind up with 15 items per topic — I’m having so much fun adding them. We’ve also included integration that shows my Twitter feed, which I am enjoying, but am not sure I will keep. What do you think?

I’ve moved my blogroll here (accessible from two different places) and plan to use the new space I have on that page to highlight my friends’ and colleagues’ blogs…All in good time!

I hope you enjoy the new logo as much as I do. Thanks to Elise Elswood, I believe my logo really captures what I want to share about Keppie Careers. It’s about energy, empowering and reaching for success. It’s about moving forward – riding the wave to the next great opportunity. I love the colors, which turn out to perfectly represent my brand.

As for the site itself, Willie Jackson designed and build it for me on the well-known Thesis platform. As I have written before, I have really enjoyed working with Willie to totally revamp my site. He’s done an amazing job of figuring out how to accomplish my goals, implement things I wanted to include as well as suggesting and incorporating ideas I did not even know were possible! THAT is the reason to hire an expert if I ever heard one.

I hope you agree that the brand new look is a great way for me to help you stay current with cutting-edge techniques and ride the tide to success!

I’d love your comments…Thanks so much for reading!

photo by Look4U

The post Keppie Careers is staying current with a cutting-edge new site! appeared first on Keppie Careers.

This redesign has been a big deal in a different way. It has forced me to take a new look at what I am doing with the site, what my goals are for the pages and for my readers and to rethink aspects that have been part of my current site for a long time. A fresh look, with the help of some professionals…It is a good thing!

I am also launching a whole new look for my site, complete with a new logo! I was very excited to partner with Elise Elswood for my logo. Once we launch the new site (soon), I hope you will agree that it is energetic and a good visual representation of my brand. (I also have fabulous new business cards she designed for me!) As for the site itself, I will be moving to the often talked about Thesis platform for WordPress. Many respected social media stars use and promote it, and I have several friends who have successfully optimized their sites via Thesis.

Willie Jackson has been doing a great job on the technical and web design front. I can’t tell you how great it has been to partner with professionals to help me achieve my target goals. I am no graphic designer and, while I certainly could have done something on a Thesis site on my own, it wouldn’t have been anything like what Willie has created.

So, two thoughts to share:

1. If you have been head down in a job hunt without taking some time to reevaluate or retool, think about using the weekend to take a step back. Maybe don’t involve yourself in any job search activities for a few days. Then, on Monday, really spend some time thinking about what you can do differently. I’m sure there is at least one thing that will make a difference for you.

Don’t stop trying to find a job, just do it differently. Maybe you can talk to people who can’t help you to propel your search? (You may be surprised!) Or, think about how your body language matters in your job hunt. How can you do what your competition is NOT doing? Is that optimizing social media for your job hunt? Maybe it is time to use Twitter to propel your job search? There is something you have not done that you can still try.

2. Since I always advise hiring an expert for job search materials, I am always happy to say that I have followed my own advice. It is tempting to try to do everything. It saves money, you maintain all control…But, in the end, it can be a real waste of time and the results are not what you want. A resume writer can help you get a job. No one is an expert at everything! Partner with a job search pro...The results may be beyond your expectations!

photo by missmossie

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There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.

1. Lack of confidence – If you don’t believe you can succeed, what’s the point in trying?
2. Lack of focus – If you don’t know what you want, do you really want anything?
3. Lack of direction – If you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do it?

The Mayo Clinic suggests boosting self esteem and improving confidence using these five suggestions:

Step 1: Identify troubling conditions or situations

Step 2: Become aware of beliefs and thoughts

Step 3: Pinpoint negative or inaccurate thinking – make note of physical responses to negative thoughts.

Step 4: Challenge negative or inaccurate thinking

Step 5: Change your thoughts and beliefs

(Be sure to read their post for more details and advice.)

The SitePoint blog has several suggestions to improve your focus:

1. Write Everything Down

2. Chunk it – take things in small pieces, one at a time.

3. Analyze Time Spent

4. Think of the Finish Line

5. Cut Distractions

(Be sure to read the full post for more details.)

I am not a therapist – I see myself as a coach and a cheerleader, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if you don’t feel confident, you will have a tough time marketing yourself for a job. Take a close look at these points and think about if you should spend some time focusing on your attitude before you apply for another opportunity.

photo by vindothchandar

The post 10 ways to help boost your confidence appeared first on Keppie Careers.

The trailer for the movie is below…Take a look – you may be inspired!

Thanks to my new partners Simon North and Nisa Chitakasem, for sharing this video via the Position Ignition Career Advice Blog. Position Ignition is all about helping you get clear about what you want to do next with your career and how to make it happen. They focus on helping people who are wanting a more purposeful, rewarding career and those who are considering a career change.

photo by pink sherbet photography

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