How to stop fear from making you follow the wrong experts

How to stop fear from making you follow the wrong expertsFear makes us follow the wrong experts, don’t you think?

Unfortunately, the web is filled with wrong job search information that appears to be from experts. Often, those experts are the wrong experts.

Do resumes need to be one page long?

No, they don’t. Your resume must highlight your unique talents, gifts, and accomplishments. Therefore, fill your resume with keywords fitting the position targeted. If you need two or three pages, use them.

Wrong experts say: Don’t put details in resumes, just the bare facts

No. You need accomplishments that say you can do the job!

The wrong expert advised:

Start with the employment information. Everything else is just filler.

No, it isn’t. If you position your brand and your leadership success highlights at the top of the resume, it ensures they are not missed.

You want to stick with old strategies

“Stick to my old format, I had a professional do it, it worked 10 years ago and it has always gotten me a job.”

It might not. Someone told me his resume was done a by a professional, I prepared for only small changes. The whole layout was old, stale, and lacked any components of today’s resume. After a review of my samples, he let me rewrite the resume.

A week later, he called to say he was headed to the interview!

Resumes get stale!

A client of my own came in last week who told me, “I keep coming back, your resumes always get me the job!” A look at the last resume I wrote in 1999 and I told her the resume needed revision and refocusing.

When you go to the wrong experts, such as your brother-in-law who hired some people, the teacher who hasn’t written a new resume in 15 years, or even an ill-informed writer on the web, you miss job offers.

Ultimately, letting fear drive your job search may make you miss landing the job of your dreams!

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

12 Comments

  1. Barbara Safani on December 15, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Julie,

    I think the “How long should my resume be” question is the one people ask most often and the one that everyone thinks should have a set answer. My set answer…it depends…Everyone’s story is unique and people need to tell that story in different ways. Forget quantity and go for quality. Nice post and thanks for the shout out!



  2. Andrew on December 15, 2009 at 8:12 pm

    I uploaded the PDF of my resume to LinkedIn. It completed the profile.



  3. Barbara Swafford on December 16, 2009 at 3:46 am

    Hi Julie,

    I totally agree. It’s not just resumes but nearly everything we do in business or online. Just because one expert says that’s the way it “should” be, others follow like sheep.

    I like the fact you’re using your creativity to produce something different, which in the end will make a bigger statement than 200 resumes that all look the same.

    Merry Christmas to you and yours! 🙂



  4. Julie on December 16, 2009 at 9:11 am

    Hi Barbara, I’ve never made a very good sheep… Even though I have this “shy” streak (hard to tell when I’m out here talking all the time) but I still am very independent and tend to do things a bit differently.

    Good to see you here again and I will be coming back to Blogging without a Blog, http://bloggingwithoutablog.com/ for more lessons soon!



  5. Walter on December 17, 2009 at 12:35 am

    Oftentimes, the best approach to make something work is researching, studying and plain common sense. 🙂



  6. Ali Davies on April 24, 2010 at 2:00 am

    Julie, I see this in my market too. People “buying” the wrong experts out of fear. Some of these experts are using, in my opinion, inappropriate tactics that play on peoples fears to get them to buy whether their product is right for them or not. You are spot on when you see people need to seek out the genuine experts in their field who really know their stuff. As with all these things it is a case of buyer beware.
    .-= Ali Davies´s last blog ..How to work less hours =-.



    • Julie Walraven on April 24, 2010 at 5:02 am

      Thanks, Ali, I love visiting your blog and find something great there every time I go. You walk the talk and are the expert. Insightful and full of great tips!

      Authentic is one of the buzzwords in social media but you exemplify it. There are so many people who I wonder how they justify what they do. I am glad I have met so many ethical people in this online space.



      • Ali Davies on April 24, 2010 at 7:27 am

        Julie, I am deeply touched by your very kind comments about me and my blog. Thank you.
        .-= Ali Davies´s last blog ..How to work less hours =-.



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