I’ve mentioned my intern, Emily, in several posts:

1. An “A” on your resume does NOT mean you have an “A” quality resume! which was a post actually suggested by Emily as a real need for those people confused by what their campus teaches and why professional resume writers advise a totally different strategy, layout, wording, and process.
2. In Is the career fair worthwhile? I talk about Emily’s successes in a career fair and why I think it worked for her.

Should you change your appearance to move into the job you want?

Yesterday, I had my first solid session with Pattie, my new intern, who is also from Rasmussen College’s Intern program. Pattie and I were talking about college degrees and why they matter.

She startled me with the revelation that as she sees some of the students whose academics are stellar, (think 4.0), she has observed that those same students may not want to change the way they dress, look, or even grasp that they do have to change their appearance to move into the jobs in the career they studied in school.

She said that she sees many who are ready to graduate, have done great in school but are firm in their belief that what they look like doesn’t matter or that they see no reason to change their appearance to get a job.

Her comment was, “So they will graduate with a degree, be great students, but the degree will do them no good at all because they couldn’t get past a stumbling block.”

Are you clinging to status quo?

Perhaps the desire to work in the new field isn’t as great as keeping things status quo (the way they always were for you, not the new employer.) For a college degree to be helpful, it has to be relevant to the industry you are targeting, be desirable by employers, and you have to succeed as a student in the subject matter.

What Pattie was saying is that for some students, all of those are in place and yet it is the thinking of the students that creates the barrier. Whether 25 or 55, she said that some students can’t seem to realize that there is a standard to strive for in dress, hair, and appearance in general.

Think about this. This also applies to the person who didn’t have to worry about haircut, beard, dress, or perhaps even cleanliness in their last job. To succeed in landing your next position, you have to be ready to change your appearance and that may mean you need to change your thinking first.

Stuck in your job search or existing position? Don’t know how to get unstuck? Hire an expert to do it for you. You will hit your target much more quickly and be doing what you do best instead of trying to figure your way through the job search maze. To find out how, Click here!

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If you lost your job during this time, you felt the angst and uncertainty personally. If you are a small business owner or corporate leader during this time, you have made hard decisions and given up many things you took for granted.

Perhaps because I have been a small business owner for most of my adult life, I have seen more ebbs and flows than the average person. I have never been able to count on a dependable paycheck every two weeks. But I also made mistakes and took things for granted.

What not to take for granted

If you still have a job, start by not taking things for granted. Don’t take the paycheck for granted. Don’t assume it will always be there, because it might not be there. Take a good look at your finances. If you don’t know what you owe to who and what interest rates those debts are at, maybe it is time to find out. Use a spreadsheet and put it all down. If you don’t use a budget, it is time to create one. Don’t leave out those cash expenditures either… they add up. Do you have at least $1000 in savings? You should. The car will break. You will have unexpected expenses. When you use up that $1000, put it back in there.

Don’t assume anyone – your employer, the government, or anyone owes you anything. Take charge of your own destiny.

I don’t know when or why I woke up, but I did. I decided that our first goal is to become debt-free. It is work to get there and it will not happen over night. I stopped financing anything with credit cards. Tough decisions.

What have I given up?

1. We’re operating on one car now. This means I don’t have one. If I need to go anywhere, I have to coordinate with my husband or someone else to get me from point A to point B or walk. My friend and WordPress Expert, Kim Woodbridge, shared how she lives car-free here. I am not ready to fund a car, car insurance, gas, and repairs yet. I suspect someday I will buy a used car but not now.
2. Though one of my biggest goals is to remodel the kitchen, we are not ready to do that even though I pulled the old, yucky linoleum out in November 2009. My husband got ahead of me and bought the laminate flooring but I refuse to put it down in a kitchen that 20 years ago needed a complete remodel. But I will not get a loan now. I just plan on continuing to move forward paying down debt and then saving to fund my goals.
3. I had given up health insurance after self paying for about 20 years but in January after 6 years of no insurance, I found a catastrophic policy that will cover a major health issue more to make sure that we wouldn’t get stuck with no income and big bills. But I have never been a run to the doctor kind of person and don’t plan to change that.
4. Colleagues have asked if I am going to the career industry conferences. I had a great time in 2010 finally getting to meet my colleagues in person and learning new resume writing strategies and career coaching methods. It was a great launch for running my business, Design Resumes solo without other contracts or sources of income. But right now, I don’t see funding trips to conferences as a priority.
5. Same thing with vacations. I work from home and work long hours but we have never planned in vacations or even much time off.

What causes economic problems?

Obviously, economic issues are complex and there are many causes. But I think one of the reasons we are in trouble now as a country (United States) and globally is that no one was willing to give up anything. We forgot every lesson we should have learned from people who lived through the Great Depression. We failed to plan and we failed to be willing to give up anything.

In this time of troubled economies, what lesson are you learning?  Are you putting something away for your goals? Are you being proactive with your career management? Or are you taking things for granted?

Stuck in your job search or existing position? Don’t know how to get unstuck? Hire an expert to do it for you. You will hit your target much more quickly and be doing what you do best instead of trying to figure your way through the job search maze. To find out how, Click here!

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Complex global economic factors

Obviously, there are complex global economic factors that are at work that are far beyond my comprehension. However, I do know that there are some things in play now that are different than in the last recession in 2001. Did you know that there have been nine recessions since 1955?

We tend to think of this one and the Great Depression as the ones with the most impact on our finances. But recessions and recoveries are cyclic. When I went to the Economic Outlook: 2012-2015 presented by Clare Zempel, Economist and Investment Strategist in February at a Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce meeting, I didn’t realize how many times I would reference the presentation.

As I talk with clients worldwide, I hear the question all the time. Where do you think we are headed? What direction do you see things going? Mr. Zempel suggested there is no sign of long-term economic slow down and he does not believe we are headed into a double dip recession. You could almost hear the sigh of relief in the packed Jefferson Inn meeting room from the almost 200 participants.

Global communication

Here’s one of the big differences I see impacting the economy. We are now much more globally connected than ever before and we can communicate on multiple platforms much quicker than ever before. We talk with people in Europe and Asia, Canada and South America without batting an eye. The marvel of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ let us connect with people oceans apart and talk about things as mundane as the weather or as complex as the economic recovery. Since we now can spread information much more quickly, everything seems much closer.

Employers are watching too. How can they not hear the impact of all of the changes when you are surrounded with it. It is hard to build confidence when you hear so much bad news.

What should job seekers do?

My Design Resumes services have needed to change with the economy too. I spend much more time with my clients analyzing the potential career paths, understanding their specific talents, and reviewing the industries they are targeting. As the job seekers partner in their career marketing project, we explore how to best leverage their value and accomplishments and teach them how to find the hidden job market. Understanding that with the onset of the increased communication we also have increased opportunities to connect makes social media marketing as critical to the job seekers career marketing plan as it is to the small business marketing plan.

Individuals who are looking for a new job need to approach the market place as if they are doing comprehensive research. They can’t just grab the first job out there and hope it will be a good fit. The resume, which I contend is always going to the foundation of the job search is not just a piece of paper but a strategic marketing document designed to pinpoint the skill sets and value of the job seeker.

The danger I see is that many job seekers still think their brother-in-law is the most qualified person to help them with their job search or they lean on career centers that have not kept up with the times and are still promoting job search strategy that worked in 1980 but not today.

I think there is plenty of hope on the horizon but it takes the serious job seeker to invest the time and talent to market themselves effectively or they will find themselves stuck.

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on or up from your existing position? Julie Walraven, a Wausau, Wisconsin-based professional resume writer and career marketing strategist, can help you get ready for your next role! To find out how, Click here!

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You hear a lot about getting your resume ready to apply online these days. This is very important and that’s why professional resume writers either offer the text resume as an option or as a standard item.

Recently, I heard a dialogue between resume writers about being careful to optimize the resume for online applications in case it is scanned in. Tables don’t read well in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) so the thought was that you should never put a table in your resume.

Very interesting from a number of points. First of all, my clients are being hired in multiple fields from manufacturing to banking to pharmaceutical sales to defense contracting. And shocker… many of my resumes have tables in them. I teach my clients many back door strategies to put their resumes in front of decision-makers. Of course this means that they have to put in extra effort to find and make connections.

Everyone uses Applicant Tracking Systems – uh, No!

When you hear something from one employer or human resource manager and assume it is the only way, you are often missing the boat. Every company has not yet gone to ATS methods of resume intake. Your small businesses are more likely to either want the resume e-mailed or mailed.

Even if the company is using ATS methods, they are not all the same. In addition, your keywords should be in every facet of the resume, not just in a keyword table. The resume needs to have value-driven resume stories to make the employee worth hiring.

Here’s one of those resume stories from a recent client’s resume:

• Designed and implemented a computerized preventative maintenance program that notified drivers on the road when their truck was due for service.

He went to his second interview yesterday and his resume also had a table in it:

I think that if more people worked on building their skills, creating their resume “stories,” and making themselves invaluable to the employer, they would find their new positions much quicker. You don’t believe me? Then read this by Seth Godin:

“How to get a job with a small company”

Most advice about job seeking is oriented around big companies. The notion of a standard resume, of mass mailings, of dealing with the HR department–even the idea of interviews–is all built around the Fortune 500.

Alas, the Fortune 500 has been responsible for a net loss in jobs over the last twenty years. All the growth (and your best chance to get hired) is from companies you’ve probably never heard of. And when the hirer is also the owner, the rules are very different.

Listen to him. The rules are very different. Don’t assume the same rules apply all the time.

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on or up from your existing position? Julie Walraven, a Wausau, Wisconsin-based professional resume writer and career marketing strategist, can help you get ready for your next role! To find out how, Click here!

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