Have you thought about your resume lately?

These awesome resumes were brought to my attention and I just had to share them! How cool would it be to send one to a potential company, I think it would really make you stand out!

Check out this link for more!

http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2010/1/8/16-infographic-resumes-a-visual-trend.html

Are you linked in?

A friend of mine sent me an article a few months back about linked in and how it has become a digital resume. It doesn't really replace your resume but what I really like about it, is that you can get back in touch with and stay linked in with work colleagues from your past. So I thought who could I find from ten years ago? I found close to 200 people I directly worked for and with over the past ten years! What's great is my job today has me working with a different group of people almost every week and now I add those people to my connections. 

Also I have been requesting people to write recommendations about my work, I have ten recs out of 280 connections. My next goal is to actually get in touch with each person on a one and one basis and see how they are doing. Everyone I have worked with over the years has helped me get to where I am today. I'm grateful I have a tool that helps me keep in touch! Right now I only use the free version but soon once I know more I'll be upgrading. It's a great way to focus on career networking which everyone must participate in once in awhile. You can also join groups and get involved in industry conversations! Try it and see how many people you can reconnect with!

I'm Back

All rights reserved by xorsyst FlickrI know I haven’t written in months, but I have been thinking about it. A lot has changed in my life and I had to stop writing and focus.

I have been working 60 – 70 hour weeks since Thanksgiving, including working over the Holidays. It just had to get done. It’s not always healthy to work that much, as a result I got sick for about three days. The remedy of course was sleep and letting my boss know sometimes I can’t handle three projects at once because they all are full time endeavors. The hard work paid off and I was rewarded with some gift cards. Not much, but my reputation was further enhanced as a hard worker and I developed great relationships with key people in my company. My work ethic has always been to push myself and be the best team player. It’s a great feeling when the people I work with recognize me. That is one thing I love about my company is that I always get the appreciation I deserve.

Now the second major event that had taken over my life (nights and weekends), over the past year was working to get into business school. Let me start off by saying I had tried to get in and was not accepted. I was heart broken, but at the time I didn’t realize it wasn’t meant to be. After all when I didn’t get into B-school the first time I ended up meeting my fiancée! That’s right, I’m newly engaged and he proposed just a few months ago! I’m so excited, but of course haven’t had much time to plan in between work and working on my application and studying for business school. After years of hard work and not giving up I was finally accepted to ASU’s W.P. Carey Business School. I worked so hard and I am going to take in more than anybody because it wasn’t easy for me. I start classes in August and I am going to try and write a weekly post, “What I learned as a business student this week.” See now you know I was truly busy even though in my heart I wanted to write more blog posts.

Sometimes in your life and your career you have to refocus your energy on one or two things that need your attention. I sacrificed time with my family, friends, my readers and most of all my fiancée, in the end it was worth it and I know everyone understands. So, if you have a goal that you need to achieve, know that you are going to have to make sacrifices, but make them now, when that goal is in sight!

The Resume – How Important is it really?

Considering you will not meet anyone until they first read your resume, it is the most important tool to get you in the door. Make sure you spend as much time, hours, days or weeks as necessary making it better and highlighting your accomplishments.

1. The first question you need to ask yourself is what kind of job do you want and in what industry? You’re resume needs to be tailored to EVERY job you apply for.

2. Your resume needs to say what YOU did on the job and what YOU accomplished - so write down what you did this week, you might be surprised at your accomplishments! Write down everything and I mean everything that you remember over the past few weeks and years if you can remember, email me if you want a template to see how I track my projects as a starting point for you.

3. It can take 4 to 6 hours to write your resume after you have collected all the data! Make sure you spend the time and really focus on what people will be thinking as they read your resume.

4. Next you have to write your past job descriptions to try and match them to the new job you want to apply for. Look at sample job postings. Do you have those skills? If you don’t, can you get those skills in your current job and then add it to your resume later? Give yourself six months to acquire these new skills so you can add them to your resume and actually be able to talk about them in your interview for a new job.

5. In the meantime if you do not have the experience then do as much research as you can about the job, the company and the industry. Go meet people that have that job, ask for informational interviews and how they got started in the industry. You need to find an in, and it might be just through meeting people and taking their specific advice.

6. Quantify everything you do and do it right after you work on a big project because you will never remember what you did last week let alone six month ago.

7. Make your resume personal. What did YOU do?? Do not just list the job responsibilities. What was unique about you working in that role? What projects did you work on? What goals did you accomplish?

8. Google for sample resumes in the field you are currently in to help you find the buzz words and key phrases that will jog your memory on what you do every day. Go to the library and look at sample resume books as well, that's what I do when I want to update my resume.

It’s All About Relationships

It’s been close to four months since I was laid-off from my job in June. And as they always say it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I was not truly happy there because I was not appreciated and my talents were not utilized. I kept pushing my skills and talent but that didn’t matter, and in the end it didn’t matter to them. And that’s ok! I am where I am supposed to be, it’s crazy how things work out.

So after a month I did find a job, I actually had the opportunity to go back to work for a previous employer. What was great about it was that I could work from home because the job was based in Los Angeles and I didn’t really want to move back. Within a week of the interview I was offered a job. It was a win-win situation because they needed someone to start work right away and since I was employed there before there was no ramp up time. I didn’t need six months to figure out what I was doing. In fact I started working on projects the day after orientation and I haven’t stopped since that first work day. It’s a win for me because I get to work from home and really focus on my work product and I AM appreciated! On every project I work on even a thank you for your hard work or we couldn’t have done it without you really adds to my sense of accomplishment. At the end of the day I consider positive comments accomplishments. I now also appreciate the company more since I left, experienced a new place and realized that today I am going in the right direction for my career.

Who I really have to thank for giving me this opportunity is the people I maintained relationships with while at the company over the past few years since having left. I call these people my Champions because they really championed me coming back. New management was in place that didn’t know me and they reached out to many people in the company across the U.S. and point blank asked how I was to work with. They also probably asked if they wanted to work with me again. Yes, my resume had the right experience, but I am confident that my relationships with people across the company was one of the main reasons why I was offered the job. In the end it really does come down to relationships, people work with who they like and trust, the only way to get there is by building relationships. Creating relationships should come from a genuine place and happen each time you work on a new project. The more you put into a project the deeper the relationship gets. Spend the time getting to know the people on each project you work on because in the end business IS personal.