My entrepreneurial career path

I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my adult life. I didn’t plan to be one when I was growing up but I also couldn’t see a career path that was more relevant to my goals that came from working for someone else. I was in retail very briefly, in banking for about three years, and in property management for six years and if you count my non-profit contracts, I was in non-profit management for 18 years.

Entrepreneur in the career industry

But none of those paths gave me the sense of direction, happiness, or joy that come from being an entrepreneur in the career industry. Throughout my 30 years of working with clients who needed my help with resume writing, cover letters, and now everything from LinkedIn profiles to job search coaching, I have felt a sense of joy when my clients use my help to make their next step.

As most people know, being an entrepreneur (owning your own business) has its own challenges. Income is never regular, feast and famine are  the norm, and you are just as affected by economic challenges as people who are employees of other companies. You may have employees yourself but the company or business concept started with you. You have to look out for the whole picture.

Avoiding the roadblock of being envious

I can spend my life being jealous of everyone who hits it big either in my own industry or in others. I can be jealous or envious of the rich and blame them for my own financial predicaments. Or I can keep my eye on my own targets, keep learning, take advantage of changes in the industry that allow me opportunity, and grow my own future.

Social media and blogs give us a view into what people are thinking in an instant. Some of the time what they are thinking isn’t very nice. It also creates a “me too” response that can grow into an angry mob very quickly. No wonder we see more people dealing with depression, turning to drugs and alcohol, or even committing suicide. The feeling of hopeless and anger is contagious.

Find your sense of career direction

Even if you choose the employment path, you can also work on improving yourself and reaching new goals. Sideline businesses and opportunities pop up every day. Make yourself valuable to the people who are in the leadership roles and stop feeling angry or jealous that they got there instead of you. Make your own future.

Fill yourself with positive reading and information instead of spending your time whining on social media. The doorway to success is there but you have to put in the effort.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here.

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Brainstorm new job search opportunities

• Discover and use online resources to research new fields and opportunities. Susan Joyce has created Job-Hunt.org as a massive research resource that gives specific information (occupation, how many employed, decade growth forecast, salary, and education needed) for career paths from a state-by-state basis.

Propel your job search forward with a professionally written resume

• Position yourself with a resume crafted by a professional that resonates with your value. Yes, you can continue to struggle on your own or have your brother-in-law do it. However, the investment into professional resume writing services which typically start at $275 – $295 for entry-level roles and more for management or executive level positions can easily be captured in your first week of employment. The differential of having someone like myself who has crafted thousands of resumes and can leverage the latest strategies for creating a resume will shorten your job search when you combine it with robust research and the next step – Networking!

Empower your job search with Networking

• After you have done your research and hired a pro to write that value-infused resume, you have to build an understanding of networking and how to effectively network both online and in your daily life. Using LinkedIn (an option in my Gold and Platinum Levels) to discover and expand your network will help you find connections and insiders to the jobs you seek. Using LinkedIn and other social media gets you out of the dark ages and into communication that crosses boundaries.

Differentiate yourself through professionalism in your job search

If you are wondering if it is time to make a move and sitting on your hands, now is the time. When you wait until the last minute or procrastinate hiring a professional resume writer, your options of hiring the right career pro for your job search diminish. You can’t call in the morning and have a resume by nightfall. Today’s resumes take time to strategically plan, design, and write. Most professional resume writers have a waiting list just to get started.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here.

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Job Search Research at the Dentist

During a recent visit to the dentist to have two core build-ups, I found myself once again doing my research.

The dentist I go to now is both close to my house and very diverse in the services he offers. I switched from a good family dentist to achieve two goals. One was to be close enough to walk if I had to get there without a car and the other was to find someone who could provide a broader range of services without needing to find another specialist.

As a resume writer, I have worked with many clients in the dental field and even been the speaker for the seminars for about 9 years. However, I still learn every time I go to the dentist. I get insight in the tools of the trade and the latest in dental processes. I study the interaction between all of the staff and build an understanding of their specific roles.

I ask questions when I don’t understand something. Not only does this make my experience in the dental office better, it adds to my research.

Job Search Research wherever you are

Just as I conduct research mentally whenever I go somewhere – I do the same in restaurants, hospitals, law offices, and community events. I study operations and what makes them work, you can do the same thing.

I find that the most successful people are the ones who keep examining, researching and learning.  Process improvements and strategic planning are key buzz words today and people who keep their minds active by not zoning out when they are in a new atmosphere actually may learn things that help them in the future.

How to do job search research in the interview waiting room

Certainly when you get to an interview stage of a job search, you should be using the time in a waiting room to learn more about a company. Eyes and ears wide open rather than reading a magazine will give you an edge over the competition.

Study a job target and its competition in advance

If you are looking for a job in a public business, visiting it as a customer prior to being in a job search will help you. If you study not only your company of choice but the competition, you will find yourself with a broader base of experience to share when you get to the interview stage.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here.

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As I look down the page, I can rapidly count 15 people from the top who have no picture. I realize some of these people may be those that just connected on LinkedIn because someone asked them to answer an invite.

If you are going to use LinkedIn, you need a photo. Why? People instinctively trust someone more if they can see their face.

What should your LinkedIn Photo look like?

• Professional – Your hair should be styled and combed and your attire should be at least business casual.
• Close up – unless you are making a branding statement like Jacqui in the photo above, you should have your face as the primary focus.
• Background – A clean background without distractions but you can be creative and use inside or outside photos

Do I need a professional photographer and headshot for LinkedIn?

• While I think it is important to have a pro shoot you ever so often so you have an excellent photo to use, you don’t need to do that.
• Cameras today are everywhere. Find someone who is good at taking photos and even a phone picture with the right resolution may make the perfect LinkedIn photo.
• I often use the webcam to shoot a new photo but it is harder to have a good backdrop depending on where your webcam is located.

There really is no good reason to not have a photo on LinkedIn if you intend to use it as either a professional networking tool or a job search platform.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here.

1. A One-Size Fits All Resume is all you need   OR
2. You have to reinvent your resume from scratch every time you write the resume.

Both are incorrect!

Four tips to maximize the power of your resume

One size resume doesn’t fit all applications but you don’t to start over each time. When you have a fully optimized, value-infused resume, there are only four areas that need significant tweaking or changing to your resume fit other job postings.

• Your Headline (aka Job Target) rather than using a moldy old objective statement, create a headline to focus your resume, create immediate impact, and tell the reader what you are looking for in a position. Look at the sample resumes for ideas. Here is one example:

  Women’s Ministry Fellow

• Your Career Summary or Professional Profile. I often call this area your branding statement. Make it brief and punchy, filled with value but targeted to your goal and the job description. Here is one I wrote in December for a client:

Strategic and solutions-driven sales manager, expert in propelling sales organizations to maximize growth and profits. Optimized team performance by clearly communicating vision, mentoring leadership to excel, and igniting competitive drive.

• Your keywords, professional strengths, or core competencies. Change these to fit the job, substituting words that resonate with the employer’s specific needs.

• Your selected accomplishments or results. Create bullet points that showcase the ways you spearheaded change or revitalized organizations or streamlined processes that meet the needs of that particular job with that particular employer. See this example from a recent client:
  • Achieved overall 26% growth in the area since June 2012, which is the highest growth rate in the history of the organization.

How to use Save As in your resume to change your resume

Before you decide that all this is too much work, use a resume writer’s friend, the “SAVE AS” option! By simply saving your resume with a new name in the same folder with your other resume documents, you can then start making small changes.

Keep another document with extra accomplishment statements that didn’t fit with your original resume and cut and paste into your new SAVE AS resume. You change the headline, tweak the branding statement, change out some of the keywords, and add in the new accomplishments and you are good to go.

If you are challenged by the process, investing in a professional resume writer who creates new content for clients daily may make more sense and save you dollars in the long run.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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How do you decide which jobs to apply to?

At this point, several questions need to be examined to determine what decision you should make about each particular position. With the abundance of positions posted on multiple job boards, you need to examine several things before you go applying.

1. How long have you been unemployed? Why is this relevant? If you have been unemployed for a long time, you may need to change your standards to enable you to work and then continue to apply for positions that better fit your particular talents and abilities.
2. What are you using to apply? Sometimes, you think you can make your home-grown resume work for you. However, you may be putting out a product that no one wants to buy. Investing in a professionally written resume may allow you to apply for the jobs that were not looking at you previously.
3. Does the job fit your talents? If you are applying for jobs just to apply, you may actually be applying for too many positions. Narrowing your talents could help position you to be successful when applying for jobs.
4. Is the salary range in the right place for your budget? Again, if you have been unemployed for a long time and used up all your resources, you may have to reassess which positions you are applying for and apply for some you would have ignored in the first phase of a strategic job search. However, if you are recently unemployed, use resources like glassdoor.com, salary.com or payscale.com. You can review salaries for the companies you would like to work for, or a specific position, or a specific line of work.
5. Does the reputation of the company meet your personal ethics? There are some companies that you may not want to work for on the basis of what you know about them. If a company has a bad reputation, it isn’t likely to change when you work for them. For example, a sales professional may not want to work for a company that he knows doesn’t stand behind their products.

Back to the question, should you apply for job you don’t want? In my mind, no. If you are hired for a job that you know in advance that you don’t want for one of the above reasons, you will be out on the market again in the near future and repeated changes of job on your resume never look good.

What do you think? It takes a lot of confidence to stay in a job search mode when you could settle. But should you settle? Should you apply for jobs you don’t want?

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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Who coaches you on how to handle rejection in a job search?

In a job search, you often don’t have a professional sales manager or coach telling you that rejection will happen and so you take it all personally. You also make wrong assumptions. The assumption is that your résumé or cover letter is at fault. It could be but if you are one of the savvy job seekers who hired a qualified professional résumé writer and you are still getting the rejection letters, you can probably assume that it is not the résumé.

Competition has never been stiffer and though everyone coaches you on getting the right key words in your résumé to make sure you get to the interview phase, the truth is that you will not be “the One” if there are more highly qualified people even when you do have the right key words. Key words get you into the pool but if you are up against someone with solid experience in a field that you are just now graduating in, it will be more difficult. It will be even more difficult if you are applying only to the biggest organizations out there.

When a large organization is popular and they only need to hire one “Specialist” and they get 200-500 applicants, your online application may get the dreaded rejection letter.

What should you do to avoid job search rejection?

Let’s start with the job search process.

1. Again, I am assuming you have a value-filled strategic résumé. If you don’t, go back to hire a professional résumé writer who can deliver an accomplishment-driven résumé to showcase your talents.
2. Then… Don’t make all your applications the “point and click” variety. Although companies increasingly want you to apply online, there are still smaller organizations who don’t work that way. Find companies you want to work for and find ways of connecting with them.
3. Employing a networking strategy in your job search is critical. I think many people either avoid networking or don’t know that it is an essential part of job search and life in general. A healthy network should follow you throughout your career. You can’t avoid rejection but you can minimize it by creating in-roads that keep you in the know about upcoming positions before they are advertised.

You can find the rest of this post on The Secrets of the Job Hunt in my post, “How to deal with rejection in a job search.”

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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When everything seems backwards in your job search, you still have to look forward

I’ve written about this before. As an entrepreneur, I get the way job seekers feel. When you don’t have a regular paycheck coming in, you panic. Or when you are working in a job that pays you a fraction of what you need to meet your budget, you get upset. I get that. As an entrepreneur, I continuously strive to get ahead and put something aside for emergencies but there is never enough. I get it!

Make money stretch during your job search

If you are a wise job seeker, you already looked at all those little expenses that everyone talks about cutting out to save money. You already don’t go get a coffee out every morning. You make your own. You brown bag your lunch. You haven’t seen a movie in 10 years. Vacation? What’s that?

You are trying to use wise financial principles. You are paying down your debt and trying to keep money in savings so when the unexpected happens you are ready. But you find yourself swimming in circles and watching everyone else succeed.

Ignore the little green monster and launch your job search

My mom always said, “Don’t let the little green monster take over” and I knew that she was talking about envy and jealousy. When your world is going backwards, all the people around you seem to be doing the opposite. They are going on vacations to Hawaii and Mexico or Europe while you are lucky to go to the park. They are buying the new truck or fancy car while yours rusts in the driveway. You get the picture. The little green monster is winning.

Time for a recheck. What’s good in your life? Sounds trite to talk about counting your blessings but it really does work. List four things that you can be happy about at this minute. In an hour or two, repeat. If you feed the little green monster, he grows. If you ignore him, he shrinks. Once you push him out of the way, you can refocus and get moving in the right direction.

Now to move forward, let’s get your resume written. Channel the negative energy into positive and proactive energy to create a dynamic marketing document to position you to move forward in your own goals.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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The Parent investment into their child’s resume

Sometimes it is a parent who wants to get Johnny moving in his job search so they make the checking me out call to see if I am legitimate and whether investing in their child’s job search makes sense. I understand that they have often a vested interest in making sure Johnny is hired especially if Johnny is eating out of their fridge and still living rent-free in their house.

The Spouse investment into the resume for their husband or wife

I also get calls from spouses who want me to write the resume for their husband or wife. Perhaps the spouse is the one managing the finances and wants to make sure it is a good investment and again, they are probably making sure I am credible and will really do the job.

The Sibling investment into the resume for their sister or brother

Once in awhile, I get the older brother or sister, often someone who worked with me before, who wants to get their sister or brother started with a new resume. Sometimes it is a birthday, college graduation, or Christmas gift and I even have gift certificates for anyone who wants to make it a surprise gift.

The Friend investment into a resume

Once in a rare while, I even have friends who contact me, check me out, and pay in advance or give a gift to a friend for their resume and jobsearch package. This can be a great way to help someone out.

The problem with resume or job search gift giving

In many cases, this works out perfectly. One of the things I insist on though is talking with the actual client before the commitment is made. The client needs to understand my process and commit to sessions with me to develop their resume and create the actual documents together. My live resume writing process has gotten rave reviews from many clients but the client has to be invested personally into the process.

All resume writers have had the over eager mom or dad, wife or husband, sibling or friend, who did all the talking and says something like, I think I should be there for the sessions or I don’t think Johnny or Jane will talk to you so I better be there to help.

The client has to be able to talk to the resume writer

Not going to work. If Johnny or Jane isn’t able to articulate his or her accomplishments to me, what is going to happen in the interview? I have been very successful when the individual who is paying for the resume understands this and lets me take over as the guide for their friend or loved one’s resume and job search strategy but I have to have the process going with the client directly.

One recent call from a wife who did all the talking and took what I said back to her husband, an unemployed for the past 1 1/2 years as an engineer, and she called to say he would rather do it all in writing. Hint – you can’t do an interview in writing. If you cannot articulate your career stories to me, you won’t be able to do it to get hired either.

No one can run your job search for you!

If you are the person letting someone else run your job search, stop it! You need to take charge and make the difference for yourself. It is ok for someone else to pay for  you as long as you actually are doing the work to create your own resume and career marketing plan.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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“I’d like you to write a resume for me.”

“Ok, what industry are you in and what positions are you targeting?”

“Oh, I just need a resume. Can’t you just write something generic?”

Why a generic resume is useless

No, I can’t. A generic resume is useless. At some point, the job seeker has to determine the directions and select the path he or she wants to travel. When you throw a dart at everything, it hits nothing.

When I write a resume, we analyze the target and determine what accomplishments fit the particular target. There are times I do put in some accomplishments that are in another direction but it is because they depict a strength in the client that would be an asset in the position.

Determine the job search target first

Sometimes a job seeker is so afraid that they will never get a job that they push out applications for everything out there. When the focus is so garbled, they sell nothing. In order for a resume to be targeted, you need to determine the direction. If a professional resume writer is writing the resume, they will guide the process to isolate the specific traits, accomplishments, and keywords that fit the types of the job the candidate is seeking.

Writing a generic resume will never connect with the right audience because you have given them nothing to tell them why you fit the position. One of the assignments I often give job seekers is to find two or three positions that they would love to have and then we can narrow that down to a specific direction.

In addition, your resume needs to focus on the value you bring a specific employer and what differentiates you from another similar person.

To get your job search launched with an outstanding resume, simply click here!

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