Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

How to find the job you love – don't go to a pizza place if you crave sushi!

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This week has been all about food analogies! First, I reminded you that it’s  not a good idea to order your Chinese food in French. Or, more specifically, to use the language that your targeted employer will understand when writing your resume. Yesterday, I offered tips to help you think about spoon feeding your resume to your targeted employer. Today, another food analogy:

If you are going to have an exceptional resume and successful search, it is very important that you KNOW WHAT YOU WANT! Yes, it’s
true – you can’t have a great resume unless you have an end goal in mind. It’s kind of like planning a trip when you don’t know where you want to go. It would be pretty hard to get there! Ah – but this week is about food, so here it is:

Analogy #3: You wouldn’t go to a pizza place if you are craving sushi.

That is, if you were actually hoping to GET sushi – you would go to a sushi place. What does this have to do with your job hunt? It’s about knowing where to spend your job search time and resources! So, are you doing the equivalent of driving to the pizza place when you don’t even want pizza?

The answer is YES if you:

  • Have a resume that isn’t particularly clear regarding your goals.
  • You spend a lot of time online, aimlessly looking for job postings that “seem good.”
  • You sit down to “job hunt” at your computer, and 6 hours later, you realize that you’ve spent the whole day and haven’t accomplished anything.

So, if you want sushi (a job you love, in this case):

  • Make a job search plan so you will avoid aimlessly “driving” around online.
  • Your plan should devote a large percentage of time to networking (in person and online) and to following up and keeping in touch with people you have already met.
  • Identify job opportunities of interest (you may want to use GreatPlaceJob’s new, free search feature to help with this) and ensure that your materials identify you as someone who is well qualified for the jobs you seek.
  • Stay tuned to the rest of my “food analogies” posts for more about how to position yourself to compete for the job you’d love to have!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

photo by Zeetz Jones


How to get an employer to review your resume – spoon feed it!

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spoonfeed2136507155_3b31d1f9ab_mYesterday, I reminded you that it’s  not a good idea to order your Chinese food in French. Or, more specifically, to use the language that your targeted employer will understand when writing your resume. Today, another food analogy:

Food analogy #2: You need to spoon feed the employer exactly what you have to offer.
In other words, you would not hand an infant with no teeth a whole apple to eat; he or she wouldn’t know what to do with it. (For the uninitiated, take my word for it here. The baby may just throw it back at you and still be hungry. And crying.)

Instead, you would offer applesauce and manipulate the spoon full directly into the infant’s mouth. Similarly, (see where I am going here?), you need to give the employer exactly what he or she needs and understands with regard to what you offer that will help him or her. Just like a baby couldn’t really care less about YOUR needs, your potential employer cares most about his or her own requirements and is not all that interested in what YOU want.

To extend the analogy, you better not be serving up green beans if the baby employer wants bananas! To top it off, the bananas need to be peeled and mashed and on the spoon if you want a chance to succeed.

So, two lessons from this analogy.

#1 – The resume is about the employer and how you directly fit what he or she wants. Spending a lot of time including things on your resume that are unrelated to the job at hand is only going to confuse the employer and make him or her wonder why you are interested in THIS job.

#2 – Don’t expect the employer to spend a lot of time figuring you out. If you aren’t making it easy to “eat” your resume – if you are passing crunchy apples when applesauce is preferred, you are not likely to pass the initial screen, no matter how great your underlying skills may be.

The fact is, recruiters and hiring managers are too busy to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your job is to break things down for them into easily digestible, bite-sized pieces AND spoon feed it directly to them. When you do make solid connections between what they want and what you offer, you will find that your search goes much better and your chances of landing an interview increase exponentially!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

photo by seandreilinger

Improve your job search prospects: Don't order in French at the Chinese food restaurant!

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chinesefood429537352_e3f1654733_mFor some inexplicable reason, I seem to be thinking of a lot of food analogies when I’m coaching clients. I’m blaming this on reading too many peoples’ lunch and dinner menus on Twitter, but the analogies really do make a lot of sense when thinking about the job hunt.

For example, I was explaining to a prospective client how important it is to identify and target job and career goals in order to write a resume that will appeal to employers. She was having trouble deciding where to focus her search, and rather than choose some specific areas to address that would appeal to hiring managers, she combined everything in one resume – kind of a “jack of many trades” document, in an effort to demonstrate all of the various “things” that she could do.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 100 times – the resume must speak in the language that an employer will understand. If that job requires someone who knows how to “develop proposals and presentations detailing new implementation process plans implemented by top management,” saying that you have done that is terrific! If the job has nothing to do with developing proposals and presentations, that language might as well be Greek to the hiring manager simply stating your ability to do that task is not likely going to help your cause.

Food analogy #1 – Would you go to the Chinese food restaurant and place your order in French?
Not if you want to get your order right, you wouldn’t! Similarly, you need to speak the language that your target audience will understand.

To do this successfully, you need to:

1. Know 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.

2. Know 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.

Parse their information down and pull out the language that resonates with your audience. Identify exactly what they want and demonstrate how and why you fit the bill.

For more information and some examples FOLLOW THIS LINK! Stay tuned for more food analogies…I need to get something to eat!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

photo by voteprime

Read They Don't Teach Corporate in College for a smooth transition from "flip flops to wingtips"

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corpincollegeAlexandra Levit’s first book, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Somethings Guide to the Business World, is now out in a revised edition to help anyone ready to try to transition to the working world in today’s tough market. As the author of four books and a Wall Street Journal contributor, Alexandra keeps her finger on the pulse of the corporate world, particularly as it relates to Gen Y.

I believe that job seekers and careerists of all ages can benefit from reading They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. It is packed full of useful advice and tips, all of which are nicely summarized at the end of each chapter for the impatient reader.

With advice on everything from goal setting to networking, problem solving (even when the boss isn’t around) to how to appropriately showcase your abilities in a work environment and how to recognize when it is time to start looking for a new job, Alexandra’s book is a useful and valuable resource for anyone who could use a little
advice about how to succeed in the business world.

But this isn’t your typical, “rah rah” corporate guidebook. It’s an honest and open examination of some of the many challenges that workers today face. (Constant restructuring, difficult or overstressed bosses, overly competitive colleagues, the list goes on!) The author shares her own experiences that compelled her to write the original edition of the book. She isn’t speaking from a vacuum, but from an in-touch perspective of someone who has “been there, done that” and lived to tell the tale!

One of my favorite sections reminds readers of the importance of optimism. Alexandra suggests that “you are what you think.” The take-away? “As a human being you are responsible for your own life, and you have the ability to choose your response to your environment” (p. 170).

I think this take-away is key for all job seekers and professionals. It’s a message I constantly share and an important point for job seekers and anyone hoping to improve his or her professional life. Reading Alex’s book is one step in the right direction!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

Using your "motivated skills" on your resume

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motivated221946800_60549aa0bf_mYour resume is highly optimized. It is skills focused and accomplishment driven. Take another look. How many of those skills are the ones you actually enjoy doing? Are you emphasizing what you might be GOOD at doing, but don’t care to do at work?

Richard L. Knowdell spoke at the Career Management Alliance conference, and I was intrigued by his suggestion that coaches advise clients to OMIT skills from their resumes if they are skills the job seekers do not enjoy.

In a tight job market, this advice seems extreme, or even foolish, on first glance. Shouldn’t we all be marketing everything we have to offer? It’s a recession, after all! So, I posed the question on Twitter: Should job seekers leave off (or de-emphasize) skills on their resume that they do well but don’t enjoy?

Veronica replied, “As job seeker, I don’t think should leave off any skills that could help get a job. Each circumstance individual.” @vmodarelli

Sam Blum, Co-Founder and CEO at Razume said, “Resumes are marketing documents, not statements of personal interest. I say list any skill that can give you an advantage.” @samblum

Reasonable replies, certainly.

However, my goal (and that of my colleagues in the career coaching world) isn’t only to help people find and land jobs, but to secure positions doing what they enjoy. My friends who are experts in personal branding have a different take!

Deb Dib, a CEO coach and personal brand expert explained: “I leave them off/give subsidiary placement. Don’t want burnout skills attracting interest; fit won’t be right.” @ceocoach

Walter Akana, a life strategist and personal branding expert said, “Yes, deemphasize skills that you don’t enjoy. Emphasize ones you do – provided, of course, what you offer creates value!” @walterakana

This makes a lot of sense to me. Why attract opportunities that may be a bad fit?

Two social media/marketing professionals had some practical advice:

Avi Kaplan suggested: “Leave everything on applicable to each job & don’t apply for roles needing skills you don’t want to use,” which Neal Wiser echoed, “If a job seeker doesn’t like doing something, they shouldn’t apply for that job.”

Think about it…Are you over-emphasizing skills you are not motivated to use on your resume? How much time do you spend thinking about applying for and targeting positions that you would enjoy doing? Are you applying for just “any old job?”

I hope this is food for thought…I’m open to your “take” on the subject, but I hope you’ll seriously consider focusing your job search in areas that appeal to your motivated skills. I’m happy to help. Follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together to optimize your resume to help you land the job you love!

photo by BPM