============================================= "Achieve Your Dreams" - Volume 25, March 2008 ============================================= Greetings! Welcome to "Achieve Your Dreams", a quarterly newsletter for people with a dream - - whether it's accelerating a career, changing careers, building a business, securing a new job, achieving that long-desired goal, or discovering a new life vision and direction. Each newsletter will offer 1-2 noteworthy articles, a section on "Office Happenings" and "Helpful Resources", and some favorite quotes and sayings to motivate and inspire you. In this issue: 1. "The Must-Have Features of a Winning Resume" 2. Office Happenings (He Got the Job!) 3. Helpful Resources (HR Panelists Share Job Search Secrets) 4. Favorite Quotes Feel free to forward this to those you believe would find it useful. Feedback is encouraged and appreciated. If there is a specific topic you'd like covered, please send the suggestion to me via the e-mail address below. ========================================== The Must-Have Features of a Winning Resume ========================================== The possibility - or necessity - for a career change can arise at any moment. New opportunities and new challenges could be around any corner. New priorities and new ambitions could also dawn within you! So, whether it be to seize your suddenly available dream position or avoid being a casualty of a failing company, it's important that you be prepared to take action when the opportunity arises. And that means making sure your resume is current, compelling, and ready to market you powerfully. Don't be caught off guard and miss out on an important opportunity just because your resume isn't up to date. Review your resume now and make sure it effectively represents you. Does it clearly and powerfully communicate your unique and valuable qualities and the direction you want to take your career? Or is it little more than a type-written application form? Should your resume need an upgrade and you opt to tackle this process on your own, be sure to incorporate the following must- have style and content elements of a winning resume: GO EASY ON THE EYES A resume that is difficult to read will likely remain unread. So, invite your reader to quickly and easily learn of your qualifications with a well-designed document. Use an easy-to- read font, such as Arial, and size it between 10- and 12-pt., according to the amount of information you need to include. Resist the urge to overload the page with text... this can leave your reader feeling dazed. Employ an appropriate amount of white space by using comfortable margins (.5- to 1-inch) and paragraphs no longer than three to four lines. And, don't be afraid to use - sparingly and with strategy - bolding, underlining, and centering of words and phrases to help guide your reader to what you want them to read. FOCUS, PEOPLE! Does your resume have a strategy? Can someone reading it tell exactly what kind of position you are pursuing? Too many people write a generic resume - one more reflective of a career autobiography than the compelling marketing document it should be. A powerful resume has a clear focus and showcases only those experiences and accomplishments relevant to that focus. So, eliminate or downplay extraneous job experiences that are no longer in line with your career goals. And be sure to highlight skills, responsibilities, and accomplishments that do support them. WHEN PROFILING IS GOOD Just below your name and contact information, your resume should feature a Profile - a powerfully-written, promotionally-driven, attention-grabbing summary of qualifications that showcases the unique value you bring to a company. It should make your job focus crystal clear and spotlight achievements and expertise relevant to that focus. Above all, an effectively written Profile should compel an employer to read on to the Experience section, where the claims made in your Profile will be supported with specific information. KEY WORDS ARE KEY Key words are an important tool for recruiters and human resources professionals. They scan for key words and phrases (both manually and via resume scanning technology) that describe specific skills and areas of expertise in order to filter resumes that best match the criteria for the job they want to fill. For example, in the case of a property management position, resumes would be scanned for key words such as "leasing," "budgeting," and "maintenance." For your resume to survive this scanning process, include key words throughout that reflect both the needs of the position you are pursuing and the skills you possess. TELL A STORY In the Experience section of your resume, don't limit your account of past positions to a simple list of job titles, dates and responsibilities. A resume should do far more than timeline your job history. A truly powerful resume guides your reader through your background, illuminating the reasons for your movement from one position to another and describing the challenges you faced when landing each job. For example, your move to your current job may have been the result of an internal promotion, or perhaps a referral from a former boss. And a challenge you faced may have been to turn around a failing project. Both of these circumstances reflect positively on you and, as such, should be described. AMPLIFY YOUR EXPERIENCE Each past position that is relevant to the job you are seeking requires a brief explanation of what you were accountable for. But, resist the urge to simply copy your old job descriptions! A bulleted list of duties won't hold anywhere near as much weight as a short narrative describing the scope of your responsibility. For example, if you were an Accounting Director and one of your accountabilities was payroll, make sure your job narrative includes the number of employees you were responsible for paying and the annual wages your staff processed. Don't simply tell your reader what you did... offer enough detail to let him/her know the significance of what you did. ACCOMPLISHMENTS... DON'T BE AFRAID TO BRAG! Strongly-written accomplishments describing specific projects or actions you took that added value to your previous companies are the linchpin of a winning resume, for they truly demonstrate your unique contribution to your previous jobs. So, reinforce the power of your job narratives by following each of them with a bulleted list of your greatest accomplishments. Be sure to start each accomplishment with a strong action verb, i.e., "Led", "Increased", "Reduced, "Spearheaded", etc., and quantify your statements where possible with measurable data. Above all, be brief and to the point. ... AND THEN BRAG SOME MORE It's possible that not all of your relevant experience, skills, or accomplishments have been gained on the job. So, be sure to include any education, training, or achievements you've completed beyond college that are pertinent to the job you are seeking. Do you have special or required computer, technology, or industry-specific skills? Have you attended any seminars, gained any certifications, or executed a special project through volunteer or professional association work? These should be noted in a special section, typically located near the Education section. ================= Office Happenings ================= My "10 Steps to Interviewing With Confidence" DVD continues to get rave reviews! Recently, a prior client purchased it to help him get ready for an upcoming interview, and here's what he had to say: "A couple of weeks ago I purchased your 'Interview' DVD. It is great! I subsequently traveled to (XYZ organization) in St. Louis for a series of interviews regarding the position of Chief Advancement Officer. I felt your DVD prepared me for just about any circumstance. Well, that must have been the case. Minutes ago I received a call from the hiring consultant with an offer. The salary is (six figures) with a moving allowance of 15% of my salary, an extremely favorable benefits package... and an opportunity to really grow significantly in my profession. I would have a staff of 30 reporting to me and I would report directly to the CEO. (Your) DVD was a fantastic help! I watched it nightly for about a week and it covered every conceivable issue. Thank you!" - B.P., Chief Advancement Officer If you're ready for a job change and want your next interview to result in a job offer, go to http://www.careerdesigns.biz/dvd.htm and read how "10 Steps To Interviewing With Confidence" can help you ace your next interview! ================= Helpful Resources ================= I recently attended an Association of Career Professionals International meeting that featured a panel of five senior HR professionals representing the biotech, healthcare, high technology, higher education, and financial services industries (companies included SkillSoft, Harvard University, John Hancock, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield). They offered some interesting perspectives on how their companies manage the hiring process and I wanted to share with you some key points I took away from the meeting: * The post-interview Thank You letter still plays an essential role in the hiring process. It is expected and read by most HR recruiters and hiring managers. Several of the HR professionals shared that they've seen candidates who have not done well on an interview successfully put themselves back in the running after sending a compelling and well-written thank you letter that continued to make a case for why THEY are the right person for the job. QUESTION: What is the quality of your Thank You letters? Would they convince a hiring manager that YOU are the right person for the job? If not, what needs to be done to improve them? * Strong communication, influencing, listening and collaboration skills are the top "soft" skills that hiring managers look for in candidates. Even if one possesses the requisite technical skills, if a hiring manager feels a candidate lacks the ability to communicate and work well in a team environment, they will be less favorably considered. QUESTION: How strong are your communication and collaboration skills? What do you need to do in an interview to convince a hiring manager that you are a team player and can work well with others? * Each of the HR panelists stated that their company uses the job boards extensively to find candidates. Yes, they conceded, it can seem like a black hole, but the resumes that best fit the requirements of the position and stand out from others are acted upon. Linked-In, Craig's List, and niche boards were cited as popular sources for finding candidates. QUESTION: How are you making the best use of Linked-In and niche job boards to further your job search? * Every HR person on the panel stated that candidates must manage the information that's found on the web about them because leading candidates are often Googled. They shared that they are shocked at how much inappropriate personal and negative information is on the web about many candidates. QUESTION: Do you know what a recruiter will find if they Google you? And if what they find is negative, do you know how to mitigate that negative information? * Candidates are being evaluated during every step of the recruiting process... from the quality of their resume, to their confidence on an interview, to the way they handle any negotiations during the offer process. Candidates who "slip up" during any of these steps may not make the final cut. QUESTION: What are you doing to ensure your success during every step of the hiring process? * Employment agencies (ie, headhunters) are being used less and less as companies install sophisticated resume tracking systems and databases. Now, companies can have the same database of applicants as headhunters do. So they rely on the job boards and networking (they especially tap new employees for referrals) to fill openings. QUESTION: How are you using the job boards and networking to aggressively move your job search along? =============== Favorite Quotes =============== "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... You must do the thing you think you cannot do." -- Eleanor Roosevelt "What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do." -- Anonymous "Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first." -- Frederick B. Wilcox "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less then the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." - John F. Kennedy In support of you, Jeanne ** If you would like someone added to this newsletter distribu- tion list, please forward their name and e-mail address to me. They will be added promptly. ** If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply to me via this e-mail address. I will remove your name promptly.