photo by shuttermonkey

Last night I was scanning Facebook and caught Troy Claus’s post: Why You Don’t Need A Resume To Work At Bonsai. He begins the post with:

For those of you who don’t know, Bonsai Interactive Marketing is a full service marketing agency focusing on 4 main categories:

• Integrated Marketing Services
• Social Media and Mobile Apps
• Business Education and Workshops
• Web, Print and Media Design Services

I really do like the team at Bonsai. I’ve watched Danny Brown and Troy develop this concept from the early days when they were building curiosity and intrigue with the company name, Bonsai. I’ve followed Danny since the beginning of my learning about what a blog is and how it works.

I do agree that what Bonsai needs is very different than what other more traditional companies may need in employees and thus in how a prospective employee may look at a position.

Troy says employers will Google you — and they will!

Troy indicates that he looks online when he receives a resume. I tell clients that every day. Plan that the employer will Google you. I also tell clients to Google their targets — the companies they want to work for and learn what services or products they promote or offer.

Troy says clients should know everything you can about the company you want to work for, period. — and they should!

I totally agree with Troy that clients need to be prepared for the interview with background information about the company and strategies to explain what the client brings to the table to help the company if they are hired.

Troy says you should have a LinkedIn Profile — and you should!

I agree that your LinkedIn profile is critical and you definitely need a value-filled profile to intrigue the prospective employer to rank you high enough to be called for the interview. But a LinkedIn profile can easily be mundane too.

At Bonsai, they are looking for candidates who already communicate at a high level. It would be part of the job description. I would assume then that any “real” candidate for a position would know that they need to fill a resume with much more than Troy describes:

I like resumes as much as I like job descriptions, which is not a heck of a lot. I find a lot of them to be so robotic, with the same mundane “skills”. I’m a good team player with a great attitude who can multi task and… you get the picture. To be blunt, I really don’t care what is on your resume – if I want that type of information, I will check out your LinkedIn profile (yes, you better have one of those).

I would hope that applicants to Bonsai would realize that if they choose to use a resume, it better be anything but filled with mundane skills. Troy is so right here! This is one of the biggest things that individuals who write resumes get wrong! They think the employer is looking for a trite document filled with pat phrases like “excellent interpersonal communication skills” but really the employer should be looking for a carefully prepared power-packed resume.

A quality resume is not fabrication

I do suppose some people fabricate resumes but there are some people who lie everywhere. They lie on social media, on LinkedIn, on resumes, on applications, and in interviews. Some people just don’t believe enough in their own skills, talents and abilities to tell the truth. I don’t want fabrications on resumes that I write. I want clients who think deeply about their accomplishments and value they bring to a company.

What Troy and I disagree on is whether you ever need a resume. As his title indicates, for a firm like Bonsai, maybe not. But if you are trying to get in with a firm who still values a resume, make sure your resume is anything but mundane!

There will always be people whose talents are not in the creative or communications field. They would not make great Bonsai employees but they might be perfect for firms looking for other talents such as strategic planning, engineering, project management, nursing, or a myriad of other roles that need different skills. Those people need to know how to sell themselves and many times that means a resume.

Photo by evilerin

People who know me will find this to be a hilarious topic. Start with Balance is post # 3 in my You have to START to finish series. Balance is one of the things I hear everyone talking about these days and I am about as out of whack as they come with the topic of balance.

I had planned this as part of this series but couldn’t help but hear Jim Connolly speaking to me when I read his post this morning, Have you been working this week? Jim also mentions Danny Brown’s post, the Danger of Not Work which also discusses this issue. Both of them talk about how when work isn’t “work” to us, we run the risk of never quitting.

Jim says this:

If like most business owners you LOVE what you do, always be aware of the need for balance.  Paradoxically, by working a little less, you often find that you achieve a little more.

and Danny says this:

When we’re passionate about something, we never see it as something we have to do – we see it as something we want to do. But how long does it take for our not work leading to everything else not working?

Both fit me well and have even before the solo focus on Design Resumes this year. I can remember way back, probably around 2003 or 2004 when one of my very good friends e-mailed me these words and told me to put them on my computer:

Take time for yourself — every day!

I put them on a post-it and left it there for a few years. My friend struggled and still struggles with the same problem himself, so in reminding me, he was reminding himself.

But I do love what I do, I love working with my clients, I love blogging, I love social networking and writing in general so none of it is work for me. However, I do know that I can’t be creative all the time and the well does run dry. So I break up my days, doing house projects sometimes and on days when I am running out of steam, I take a nap.

In the summer months, I tend to be outside much more. Wisconsin doesn’t lend itself to play much, for me, anyway since I don’t ski or snowmobile. In the spring, summer, and fall, I walk and work in my yard or even just move to the deck.

I wrote about the job seeker perspective in All Work and No Play, Or earlier. The same concept applies to anyone, job seeker, career changer, entrepreneur, or happily employed and not moving. We all need to look at the issue of balance.

Since I am still working on the  balance concept, here’s a few of my concessions:

1. I’ve started reading fiction again. Not deep fiction, just light fiction that makes me relax. I finish a book every few days. Delving into someone else’s world gives me a different perspective and I love to read. Before I was only allowing me to read books related to marketing or the career industry and so I was getting to the point it wasn’t relaxing to read anymore… it was work! Now the novels entertain me and often teach me at the same time.
2. I go to bed much earlier these days. Before I stayed up until 10pm or so most nights but sometimes the last three hours were just me sitting watching TV mindlessly and waiting for the magic hour. Now if I wake up sleepless, I pick up my book and read again until I am tired and my average sleep is more than 7 hours most nights as opposed to 5 to 6 hours.
3. I break away to go cook something. Again something I love and it serves a duel purpose — I enjoy being creative in the kitchen and I and whoever else is around gets fed.
4. Periodically, I meet a friend for coffee or lunch and just leave for a couple hours. Since I don’t have a car right now, I really am at home (which is also where work is) most of the time and so getting out just for a bit helps.

Notice that none of the points above cost anything except #4 costs any money and even #4 can be under $20 easily (if you opt for lunch instead of coffee). For job seekers watching a budget, there’s a few options to break up your day.

I suspect balance will always be a challenge for me, but in 2011, I will give more thought to finding more. Stay tuned to my next thoughts on Start with… my series on You have to Start to finish!

Photo by Rex Pe

Like many bloggers, I use Feedburner to manage my subscriptions. I am still learning to use all the features and I was commenting to my husband that I had x number of e-mail subscribers.

He said: “So people pay to read your blog?”

I laughed at him. He doesn’t do computers and if he wants to see something online, I search for him. I told him that no, that just lets people get my posts in their inbox whenever I write a new one. The advantage is that if someone don’t want to check my blog daily, they get an e-mail with a link that takes them to my latest post.

Currently, the subscription box looks like this:

Before this morning it didn’t have the “subscribe (Sign-Up) for FREE” words in it. I put those in today because after I talked to my husband, I mentioned the topic to my 24 year-old son who knows his way around the web. Even coming from much younger generation (Dad is 63), he said, “Mom, I think Dad’s right. To me, subscribe means pay.”

I looked at the Feedburner settings but I don’t change code and it doesn’t look like they have options. So I added that little phrase, “Subscribe (Sign-up) for FREE” to clarify things for people who might think like my husband or son.

Why would anyone want to get reminded by e-mail to read blogs anyway?

You could read it when you see the post on Twitter or Facebook or you could check the blog for new content. Twitter streams are great but content flies by so fast that you might miss the post of your favorite blogger. Same with Facebook. Yes, you could search the stream of the bloggers (writers) you love best and figure out if there is a new post. But it takes time.

I have “subscribed” to a number of blogs I started reading them regularly a few years ago, some I unsubscribed to when my inbox got too full. I think you can overdo it. But I like getting a reminder in my inbox that there is new content from my favorite writers.

Reasons you might chose to subscribe to a blog:

• If you are a job seeker or career changer, you might choose to subscribe to this blog or others on careers or work that you can find in my sidebar:
  • A Different Kind of Work by Christine Livingston
  • Career Trends by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
  • Executive Insider by Robyn Greenspan & others at ExecuNet
  • Hire Imaging by Barb Poole
  • HRMargo by Margo Rose
  • Interview Angel by Brent Peterson
  • JibberJobber or I’m on LinkedIn Now What by Jason Alba
  • Job-Hunt.org by Susan Joyce
  • Keppie Career by Miriam Salpeter
  • The Job Quest by Melissa Cooley
  • The Write Solution by Dawn Bugni
  • Tim’s Strategy by Tim Tyrell-Smith

• If you are interested in other things like marketing, public relations, personal development, stress management or Technology, there are other fascinating bloggers on my sidebar as well as throughout the blogosphere.
• I just updated the definition to many of my links after I published this and I found that Danny Brown wrote his own post on the same topic, E-mail or RSS – Feeding the InBox while I was working on mine. For his take, go read (and you could subscribe to him too!)
• Jim Connolly has written more than one post on the topic and since I gain much valuable marketing advice from him, I take heed when he explains why and how to do things like in this post, Increase your blog’s readership the easy way!

You can find great writers who write compelling, educational, or inspiring posts and you can subscribe. I know some people prefer to just go to the blog and that’s fine. Others like using Google Reader or other readers and subscribe to RSS feeds. I never look at my feeds that I signed up to read so that doesn’t work for me.

But if like my family, the words “Subscribe” made it sound like you were committing to payment or a lifelong relationships, you aren’t. My blog posts are free. When I charge for a service, I tell you.

We live in a world where at least two things are happening. Some people think that everything everyone does or promotes on the web should be free and some people are afraid of anything that might enter them into a commitment.

If you subscribe (sign-up) here, Thank YOU! I am grateful that you want to follow what I might say next. Note that Feedburner sends you an e-mail that you have to verify to make sure you are not a bot or spammer. If you get scared by the e-mail and skip it or you just let Feedburner’s verification e-mail sit idle in your inbox without finalizing, you will not get the posts by e-mail. Right now there are at least 7 people on my subscriber list that never finished signing up.

If you decide later that you want to unsubscribe, I get that too. Just know, it doesn’t mean Pay.

Just stay connected. I like that… let’s stay connected!

Photo by Carbon NYC

I’m in the business of creating career marketing strategies for job seekers. This is not new to me. I have been doing this for 25+ years. How I do it has changed and the level of complexity of the job search has changed. Our global communication has changed and we know what is happening instantly and yet we don’t.

Job search challenge

We have a dichotomy of job seekers and career changers right now. For some, they are moving seamlessly from one position to another, in some cases even being promoted or recruited into much better positions than ever before.

And then there is the opposite. The person who lost their job more than a year ago. They may have sought professional help, used social media, communicated their value, and done all the right things. In their industry or their location, they are not connecting. They have tried to use transferable skills, may have applied for retraining, or to jobs that are at a different level than their former positions. Nothing.

Desperation sets in. Basic needs are not being met. People who once dined out frequently can’t even fill their refrigerator for the next meal. The mortgage is late, the rent check bounces. The phone bill isn’t paid. Despair.

Government programs don’t fit them because they don’t fit into the profile. Unemployment benefits are used up or stalled.

From my seat, I know I can’t help every one. And I too need to pay for mortgage, phone, lights, food, and more.

But I need to see if there is something beside the government programs which may take too long to help the person who is without food, rent money, and is willing and able to work. Some touch point for those who are broken and need fixing and fell out of the system.

In addition to basic needs and job search help, the long term pain grows with every rejection and depression sets in. Career coaches and resume writers are not trained counselors or psychiatrists but sometimes that is the need. The long term effects of this economy are debilitating and devastating to too many job seekers. Professional help is needed.  Financial resources are needed.

While we are on this topic, one of my favorite bloggers who I consider a friend, Danny Brown, wrote a post on his blog while I was writing this one. Danny has helped countless others with his 12for12K project which will roll out with a relaunch on October 1. Danny’s post is titled: Imagine If. It is very short but has some provocative thoughts for all of us, starting with:

Instead of blowing $50,000 on the staff Christmas party, companies offered employees the option of a smaller bash and donated the rest to a local charity.

His points are along the lines of what I was thinking. If everyone who is working, made a few changes and companies made a few changes to help, we could change the world. Government programs are mired in bureaucracy and there are definitely some that work but the length of time and dollars involved make true help hard to get when a person needs it.

I’m not offering a solution. I am asking for your input. How can we provide the support those people need? How are we going to help? I believe there is a solution but it will take so many people without agendas working together to bring a viable solution for people and then we need employers to step up and hire. Thoughts?