Anything worth succeeding at takes some strategy. Take dating for example. When I set my eyes on my husband, I recall thinking "He has the kindest eyes." And I promptly began finding out what I could about him, to determine his eligibility. I asked about his marital status (single); about his stability (same job for 24 years); about his family (a sister and niece).

With the way cleared, I began "strategizing" running into him! Yes, I was shameless. Ten years later we are happily married, still hold hands, and are devoted to one another's happiness. Bliss.

Career management also demands strategy ... so what does it take to succeed at work, to position yourself for a promotion? Aside from a certain set of skills gained through education and experience, it takes strategy.

Communication

People often start out in entry level positions, in reception for example, and twenty years later progress to manage a large corporation. When questioned on career progression, one manager shared, “Every time I was getting bored and ready to move on I communicated that to everyone I could make listen!” Others, very intent on landing a promotion, and fully qualified to move on, don't share their goals only to find themselves trumped when a colleague, who had communicated his interest in moving into management, is appointed to an acting position upon a manager’s unexpected departure. If you don’t tell anyone, no one can promote your interests.

Visibility
Well ahead of the point at which you find yourself thoroughly bored, disgruntled, and no longer motivated, join committees, volunteer to lead a research assignment, apply for secondments or interim positions; in short, get yourself noticed! Also, keep a brag file in which you document project details, the ideas you contributed, roles you played, and each project’s successful outcomes. Remind your supervisor of what you have accomplished — when appropriate of course. Try not to point out your achievements in a general staff meeting as you would be perceived as boastful, but absolutely share your achievements during an annual performance review.

Development

Enrol in company training, in on-line or on-site college courses, conduct self-study — few amongst us continue to be effective without adding to our knowledge base. And surprisingly few people actually take this step. Completing a relevant course and putting your newly acquired skills to good corporate use is a career-enhancing move.

Work Ethic

There is no substitute for hard work. It happens that people land management roles only to be shown the door after their work ethic or productivity proves to be below expectations. Hard work doesn’t necessarily mean long hours and weekends spent at the workplace. Work smart! Along with upgrading your skills, tackle your long-standing, production-inhibiting flaws of procrastination, easily diverted attention, or disorganized paperwork. Ask for performance reviews to find out where, specifically, you could improve.

Here’s the thing: your career is yours to manage. And manage it, nurture it, you must—if you are serious about getting ahead. Put down roots in education, effort, and tracked results, communicate your interests, and your career will reach pinnacles you didn’t dare dream of. Just like my marriage!

- contributed by Stephanie Clark, owner of Award-winning NewLeafResumes.ca.

Nurtition and Resumes: You don't know what you don't know

Once upon a time I suffered from aches and pains in my joints, had trouble losing weight, (and dare I admit it?) suffered from gas. I ate low cal foods, snacked on those 100 calorie cookies, avoided red meats, limited how many eggs I ate, and on and on. Most of my friends, certainly those of a similar age, were experiencing similar problems, some even worse. And so I figured, "That's the way it is once you hit middle age."

Today, I eat read meat whenever I want, enjoy bacon and butter (instead of pretend bacon and margarine), my aches and pains have diminished to the point that I now live in a 2-story home, and I am a very respectable 128 or so pounds ... and I am in my mid-50s!

So what happened? I am following the advice of a nutritionist who has taught me how the body functions and the folly of trying to nourish a body with calorie-counting, nutrient-empty "foods." Valuable lessons. But before I learned these things, I simply didn't know.

The same thing is true of resumes. If you don't know that your resume is lousy, you don't know that it can be improved. You keep sending the same one out over and over, never hear anything, and think "Well, none of my friends have any better luck."

Ignorance is not bliss. Rouse yourself from a place of acceptance and fight! Fight for your health, and fight for the right to a decent job!

Resume standards have changed and yet most people use a resume styled after an example from the 1980s. Today's resumes have to sell not tell. They must relate how you have met workplace challenges, how you solved problems, saved money, earned money, improved processes, streamlined procedures, and otherwise provided your boss with a positive return on your salary. It's all about profits--business banks on it! Profits through performance and productivity.

Don't know a resume writer? There are lots of us around with varying qualifications and niches. Some work locally (check your yellow pages) and some virtually (internet search), and some, like me, serve clients both local and global. Check out http://www.newleafresumes.ca/ for samples and information.

And check out that nutritionist too (http://www.katiecher.com/). If you don't have your health, your resume won't matter.

On Authenticity

On Authenticity

As a small business owner, marketing advice abounds. Particularly plentiful these days is advice on internet marketing. Have you seen this type of sales pitch? Typically a long scrolling page, building a case for how much you need a product. Periodically a link to “order now” and then more strong content telling you how the product will fix your outlook on life, lead you to a remarkable love life, show you the sure-fire way to lose weight, and yes, even guarantee you instant interviews and job offers.

My “watch-out” meter goes wild with these pitches, and yet, guess what, I have purchased a few. Afterwards I realize that it isn’t the magic bullet, fix-it and cure-all that the author has claimed. More often than not it is pretty standard fare; sometimes even a rip-off. Every once in a while though, the product is excellent. Although never a cure-all, some information is worth paying for.

Too bad it’s so hard to tell which is the snake-charmer/liar, and which is a truthful, caring business, actually wanting to improve your life, your work, your health…

I think it’s the ones that promise the impossible that you have to beware of; those that promise perfect health, lots of job offers, instant weight loss. And the ones that have good information to share are the ones offering answers to particular questions, as opposed to a one-stop, cure-all, for all.

For me, authenticity is important. I must live with my decisions, and be accountable to myself, my family, my clients. As a business owner I guarantee that I will do my very best for each client. I continue to add to my knowledge with additional professional training. I stand behind my product, and I support my clients’ efforts. Every client who returns with questions, unmet expectations or comments is listened to, and answered, supported, helped. Many return for updates as time passes and their career-itch returns! That is my reward for authentically supporting my clients’ career needs.

Indecision

My eldest daughter, Katie, recently published her first newsletter. (subscribe at katie.cher.com) She is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, who keeps her family, and others, healthy, and she is also a Certified Lifestyle Coach. In her newsletter, she asks, "Is failure not reaching a goal, or is not attempting it in the first place?" Good question.As a resume writer, I often have clients who are toying with the idea of changing careers. Far too often they don't even try. I've decided, now that I'm on the other side of that great divide, i.e. 50 years of age, that life is quite simply too short to "not try."

I finally figured out "what I want to be when I grow up" when I hit 45. Somehow I'd always known that I was destined to be a late bloomer. But once the writing bug had me, it had me good. Truth is, I always dreamed of writing so it wasn't perhaps a total surprise. My eldest daughter also says that people's daydreams about writing, the interest in real estate, the bookshelf full of interior design, or the massive collection of old movies - these may indeed be an indication of our "calling." They may be a nudge from our Maker, the whisper in our ear of where our strengths will be put to use, of how our interests will spur our impact or success (I hesitate to use the word "success" as too often it is associated with monetary success and I do not intent that meaning here), of the best place for our innate abilities to be of use ... from where our fountain of energy (if not youth, alas!) will overflow.

What's the worst that can happen if you try - you fail...and along the way you undoubtedly learn, meet new folks, realize something about yourself; not all bad things. And the best? You will soar like a hawk upon the updrafts - enjoying life with wild abandon, experiencing success, reveling in your abilities, finally feeling fulfilled and useful.Indecision is nothing more than failure to act. Without action there will be no failure - and no success. The choice is yours.

Cover Letters Are Not Just for Dummies!

Resumes, although not easy to prepare without some idea of what gives them vigor, do have a certain formulaic approach. And if you have good research skills, and writing skills, you can certainly pull off a decent and effective resume. But cover letters are quite another matter.

Last summer I submitted several letters to Joyce Lain Kennedy, for submission into one of her upcoming books. Imagine my surprise when, on vacation on Lake Huron’s shores, I received a call from Ms. Kennedy herself. Now, in case you aren’t familiar with Joyce, she has been a Syndicated Careers Columnist for some 40 years in the U.S. , and author of eight books on career management. Her article, Careers Now appears in over 100 newspapers and websites! Check her out at www.sunfeatures.com.

It seems that Joyce was impressed with my submissions! In fact she wrote me the following in a subsequent email:
“Stephanie, you are a bright new star on the North American resume writing scene! Several people have been given a peek at the sample letters in my manuscript of Cover Letters For Dummies, 3rd Edition and every single one picked out your work as a top favorite (of 57 writers). Your work is state of the art!”

Cover letters are formulaic only in that they have the standard letter features: salutation, introduction, body and call to action. It is how you develop the content that makes or breaks your cover letter’s effectiveness, and that is difficult to pick up through research alone.

Give your job search a boost of energy with a truly “WOW” cover letter. Why not pick up a copy of Joyce’s latest book? The contents cover how to create compelling communications, a sample of the best job letters, how to pen online messages, and more! It’s worth the effort or investment.

Are you a Generic Brand or a Name Brand?

Are you a Generic or Name Brand ?

- by Stephanie Clark, BA, CRS, CIS, Award-winning Resume Strategist. Contact Stephanie at 519.505.5627 or through www.newleafresume.ca.


What do you think: faced with a choice, will an employer choose to hire a generalist or an expert? Interesting question, and I know that people are confused by which strategy is better, and which one works. I know because I see hundreds of resumes, in my business and at job fairs, and most are very general. Let’s analyze the choices.

A generalist, in terms of our resume question, is one who claims to want a job that “uses my skills and provides room for growth.” This person figures that someone who will do all jobs is attractive to an employer. This is flawed thinking. Every position, from custodian to receptionist to sales person to accountant and on, has a particular set of skills, training or higher education, and character or personal attributes that are necessary to do the job well. And the person who demonstrates that he or she has what it takes to get the job done is much more likely to do a good job from the get-go than one who has no demonstrated background in this area.

Need a bit more convincing? You’ve applied with a general resume that lists your work history, listing position responsibilities and accountabilities. Two hundred others have also applied. Out of these, quite a number are like you: no focus, no strategy, just a general resume that is sent to hundreds of companies. Several, though, stand out. These are focused on the position at hand, and from beginning to end attempt to describe that person as a “perfect fit.” An H.R. consultant shared with me recently, “When faced with 200 resumes to sift through, I give myself two hours to whittle them down to 10 to 20 that look promising. Oftentimes I go on looks alone, and those skimpy bare-boned resumes, the ones where you don’t know what position they think they are interested in, these don’t even get five seconds of my time!” I hope you are convinced. If not, start clicking “attach” and “send,” and settle in for an extremely long job hunt!

Let’s turn our attention to why the “expert’s” resume is effective. The written word has power, and our experts from above understand how to ensure that the words on their resumes exert a powerful and positive impact on the reader. How does one do this? With focus. Demonstrate how you have the precise set of skills, related education and undeniable proof of accomplishments in the field to which you are applying. Carry this through from the first word to the last, and get ready to field the calls for interviews and job offers! Here’s how to do it.

„ According to recruiters, they are such busy people that they would appreciate knowing, right on the resume, the title of the position applied for. Show your respect for the recruiter’s time, and right at the top, add in Candidate for: Customer Service. You’ve removed the need for that Objective statement that every person writes in a similar fashion, that bores recruiters and makes them wonder if they live in a society of cloned job hunters!
„ Take your title a step further now. Give yourself a tagline. Think Nike’s Just Do It, or your favourite restaurant’s Comfort Food Just like Mom’s. Our Customer Service rep could add Delivers Service with a Smile or Thorough and Accurate. Whatever you coin for yourself, make sure it is authentic to you, and is backed up in your resume.
„ Create a list of skills that are necessary to that job. Our Customer Service rep could list things such as Customer Service Training including Conflict Resolution and Sales Follow-up, Database entry, Keyboarding of 60 wpm, Proofreading. Each position has hard skills that are needed to complete the job—list yours. You may think that this is obvious, but there are two reasons for this list: one is that the HR recruiters may use a checklist of key words to evaluate your candidacy, and the second is that some companies use scanning software that looks for keywords to evaluate your candidacy! Make sure your resume is full of key words appropriate to your field.
„ Pen a profile of yourself that can best be described as a further condensation of your resume, which is already a synopsis of your relevant education, skills and experience. Your profile, whether in point form or paragraph, will list number of years’ experience in the field, the sectors in which you completed this work, the accomplishment you are most proud of, the skill you are most recognized for, and the personal attribute for which you are well-regarded. Whatever you do write in that profile, make sure you back it up in the body of the resume.
„ Strategize that profile. If you are applying for a position, such as police of firefighter, your profile should address those many qualifications they are looking for. For example, what grade of license you hold (and in good standing of course!), the certificates you hold, reference to your physical condition in a meaningful fashion (conduct daily training for the New York marathon). Get creative, make it interesting, and be authentic.
„ Focus your workplace accomplishments on the attributes and qualifications the position requires. Show how you contributed to a team effort, the role you played, the outcome of the project; show how you came up with improvements on your own, and how you researched and presented your proposal to management. Get specific and provide enough detail to add context to your accomplishments. Use numbers as much as possible. A universal language, numbers also add that all-important context. For example, rather than stating: “Revamped the filing system,” state: “Revamped a 2,000 unit filing system. Over two months, researched available systems, developed a report and proposal for management, secured buy-in with one hour presentation, and received corporate ‘Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award’.” Context makes all the difference!

This approach to focusing your resume’s content, and branding yourself as an expert is not reserved for executives. Even “Joe the Plummer” can aspire to brand name recognition. He could state: “leak-proof plumbing guaranteed or your money back.” An administrative assistant could write: “whose telephone smile builds rapport,” and a retail associate in women’s fashion could sell her value with “building repeat customers with undeniable fashion flair.” Admittedly this is a difficult exercise for most of us as it requires a level of self-knowledge that few seem to have, so you might need to brainstorm with trusted friends and family.

Focus serves to corroborate your positioning as an expert in your field. Aside from ensuring that your resume will be noticed, there is another side-effect to “branding” yourself: a better offer. Everyone will pay more for a brand name, whether in clothing, sporting gear or construction tools. The same holds true for employment. Do your career and your pocket book a favor: drop the generic approach and position yourself as an expert—as a brand name.


No part of this article/guide may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

Imagine if Work=Enjoyment!

How’s Your Worklife?

Last autumn my husband and I took in the annual Frederick Street Art Walk. It’s an “open house” event to the many artists’ homes located in this downtown Kitchener neighbourhood where the community can purchase every imaginable art form. I couldn’t resist a small black and white graphic by local artist Andy Macpherson. In his usual playful, simple and joyful style, Macpherson’s piece captures the essence of a good life: Across the top is a simple word, gratitude, and beneath are depicted three essentials: community, good food and good work.

Think about it: belonging is a human essential, we all enjoy a good meal, and there is nothing that gives one quite as much satisfaction as a job well done and a paycheque in hand. Human beings need to be busy, and enjoy being useful. But more than that, we need to make use of our particular and unique gifts. It is only when we do what we are good at, and work at that which gives us enjoyment or satisfaction, that we will thrive and excel. And it is only when we work to our strengths that we can develop a successful career: excelling at work generates workplace accomplishments which provide the backbone of a top notch resume; those accomplishments then make an interview a breeze, and thus a career takes shape.

I speak from experience. I spent years in jobs for which I had no passion. I suppose I did well enough, and I certainly enjoyed the benefits that went along: paycheque, good working conditions, pleasant colleagues, pension plan and more. But at the end, no benefits could deter me from doing what I had grown to love, and I left a secure job for self-employment. Now I am passionate about what I do, love the positive feedback, marvel at my success, and sometimes feel like I’m cheating because even though the hours are long, it doesn’t feel like work.

Imagine living this equation: work = enjoyment. You owe it to your own well-being to figure out what you love to do. Studies have shown that those who don’t like their jobs are most at risk of ill health – and that the risk is equal to that associated with smoking and a sedentary lifestyle. That’s pretty serious and reason enough. Next blog will help you figure out what you want to be when you grow up!


Stephanie Clark, B.A. C.R.S., is owner of New Leaf Resumes. See www.newleafresumes.ca
“the Deeper the Root, the Higher the Reach.”