Billie Sucher Blog

Are You a Job Seeker -- Just Looking?

Imagine that you are out and about shopping for a new outfit for your upcoming interview. Let’s say you walk into a store and this is what you experience:

Crowded aisles

Cluttered displays

Disorganized merchandise

Dirty, dusty floor

Dressing rooms filled to the brim with discarded try-ons

Lighting that is dim and dreary

Music that does absolutely nothing for you

And you have money in your pocket, ready to spend. Are you going to invest it in that store?

While only you can decide the answer to that question, consider how browsing any résumé is similar to shopping at any store.

There are hundreds of stores – there are millions of résumés.

When a Hiring Manager views your résumé as a guest, what will he or she experience?

Crowded margins (mini-margins)?

Cluttered arrangement of words?

Disorganized information?

Too much text?

Hard to follow messages?

Lack of achievements and results?

Lack of brand evidence to do the job?

Words slammed on a piece of paper without thought, direction or purpose?

Do yourself a big favor today. Before you hit send, stop by your résumé store for a while.

And remember, you have money in your pocket to spend. Based on what you experience and see on the résumé before you (Brand You), would you be compelled and convinced to invest in the merchandise?

posted by: billiesucher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get This Party Started!

The other day, I was helping a client via phone with a review of her career management materials. As the conversation got underway, I offered:

Are you ready to get this party started?

Absolutely, ready to go!

Before we jump in with the review and all, I’d invite you to consider these three variables, factors, ideas – whatever word you wish to affix to them, before we get going.

1.  I would like you to pretend that you are a recruiter, HR pro and/or key decision-maker, okay? Put yourself in that role, see the world – your resume and cover letter world – through their lens, their eyes, their view.

Oh, okay, well why do you want me to do that?

2.  I would like to invite you to ‘Think Tweet’ – 140 characters with spaces, the essence of the message, brevity. Short and sweet. To the point. No fluff, no fluffy.

That’s different – so what does Twitter have to do with a resume and cover letter review?

3.  I would like to invite you to think about The Easy Button – you know, Staples – “that was easy" – that button?

 And I am thinking about the Staples easy button because why?

As we proceeded through the critique session, I could hear the client’s tone change from one of what am I doing at this l a m e party to I get it, I get it, I get it…I so get this now. My client indicated that after our session, she was going to start over in the way she presented her brand on paper.

No more long and boring resume, no more seven-paragraph cover letters. Make it easy for the reader to pick me!

As the session drew to a close, I offered “Any further questions before we part company?”

Yeah, it was a totally awesome party!

Résumés: Words and Worth

When I was writing Happy About the Career Alphabet, I wrote that particular book in a tweet-style format. Each and every one of the 805 entries in the book complies with Twitter’s 140 characters with spaces. There were times when I thought it would be easier not to do the book than to verify, re-verify, check, check and double-check 805 tweets, putting them in the ‘Twitter box’ and then rewriting again and again to ensure preservation of the essence of the tweet.

When the book was finished, I was ecstatic and grateful that I had persevered. Patience. Endurance. Tenacity. And word count. And Twitter. And thinking tweet. Writing that book made me more mindful of how to better serve clients. Whether I am teaching someone how to write a résumé, or partnering with them to build it, what I learned from writing a tweet-style book is that each and every word (and character) counts, matters and is of importance. Brevity works. Less is more. 

If you are writing your résumé on your own, here’s something to consider. How about considering the number of words contained in your résumé document and the dollar value each represents? If you read Career Hub routinely, perhaps you read the post on The Unemployment Line where I did a little calculation. Today, however, I have been thinking about the number of words on a résumé and return on investment (ROI). So here’s my next mathematical calculation… 

I performed a word count of three two-page résumés I had completed for three different clients: 

Résumé 1: 824 words

Résumé 2: 559 words

Résumé 3: 785 words

Average words per résumé (WPR): 722+. For calculation purposes for this post, I used 720 WPR. Let’s say that you are a job seeker, seeking a job that will pay you $55,000.00. How much will each word you put on your résumé matter, if you are measuring it in terms of the green stuff? 

$76.38 per résumé word

Further, for the sake of this exercise, let’s say that you are targeting a $150,000 job, what then will each résumé word be worth to you, based on 720 WPR?

 $208.33 per résumé word

Whether you are writing a résumé with 412 words or 892, each and every word matters – each and every character is important. Before you blast your résumé into cyberspace, drop it off to a recruiter, or submit it to a Hiring Manager, why not do a word count? Why not review each word, each line and each character to make sure it counts, to make sure it is conveying the most valuable, compelling message you can possibly deliver? In the long run, what might it be worth to you?   

The Unemployment Line

One of the things I love about being a career management professional is all that I learn from clients. And beyond the learning, it is also the comments shared that linger long after a client has left my office.  

The other day, someone said to me…the unemployment line sure is a long one.  While the comment was made a few days ago, I have not stopped thinking about it. And clearly, it must be bothering me, or I wouldn’t still be pondering it with this post. Casual remarks. Unanswered questions. Nagging away at my incessant thinking about how to best help job seekers in this current job climate. So how long is the unemployment line, anyway?  I wondered how long the unemployment line would be if each and every unemployed person in America stood up, side-by-side one another?

Yesterday, I got tired of wondering. I pulled out my trusty ruler and decided I would do some basic math. I say basic, because I am clearly no Archimedes at mathematical endeavors.  Twenty-four (24) inches I measured for my experiment -- that is the amount of space I allocated for each unemployed person in America – two feet.

I then commenced my calculations, using 14 million as the number of unemployed people in America. Though unsure of the precise number as of this writing, for the sake of my experiment, that is the number I used.

Checking multiple sites for the driving distance between LAX and JFK, I settled upon 2,785 miles. Based upon my calculations, the number I came up with is:

5,303 miles

Five thousand three-hundred and three miles of people who are unemployed, in transition, and out-of-work in this country, the United States of America.  

If this number is anywhere close to being accurate, that means that the unemployment line could start at LAX and go to JFK and then return nearly all of the way back across America, almost all of the way back to LAX short of a few hundred miles.

The unemployment line.

Sure is a long one.

Job Seekers, Waiting To...Waiting For...

Job seekers, waiting to...waiting for...

Waiting to hear back from an employer

Waiting for the mail to come

Waiting for a phone call

Waiting for a text

Waiting for an email message

Waiting for a job posting

Waiting for the recruiter to call back

Waiting for the train, cab, bus

Waiting for something to happen

Waiting for someone to connect

Waiting for a recommendation letter

Waiting for help to get here

Waiting for an appointment

Waiting for good news

Waiting for further word

Waiting for the next time

Waiting for a reply

Waiting for unemployment to kick in

Waiting for a job offer

Waiting for the dreaded rejection letter

Waiting to hear if I got accepted into the MBA program

Waiting for her/him to show they care

Waiting for time to pass

Waiting for things to change

Waiting for someone to do something sometime – soon

Waiting for a better day

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

What are you waiting for?

The Magic of Power Words -- Job Seekers, Do You Use Them?

Last week, my client was speaking about power words to use when communicating with others. He told me that there were seven power words. In my quest to find the seven, I came upon information that led me to more than seven. Perhaps you know the seven?

Upon discovering the most persuasive selling words I decided to put myself in the role of a #jobseeker, utilizing power words to communicate with a Hiring Manager…here’s what I came up with (example only for purposes of this post).

Dear Hiring Manager:

You can get a new gift and an exciting, exclusive bargain you will love and here’s how if you hurry and immediately discover (Brand) for a lifetime offer of happiness, guaranteed healthy results and proven safety in money savings delivered free, direct to your door. It’s easy – contact…

So, what do you think? Do you think that a Hiring Manager would be more convinced to get in touch with you if you used these magic power words listed in the text above, and or below?

You

Easy

Discover

Proven

New

Happiness

Love

Money

Results

Health

Safety

Guarantee

Are you using power words to communicate with your target audience?

 

Remembering

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

-- Eskimo Proverb

photo by

billiesucher 

Job Interviews and The Rest of the Story

Remember Paul Harvey, an American radio broadcaster and his famous The Rest of the Story? If you are looking for a job, do you freely offer your listeners ‘the rest of the story’ or do you make your listening audience drag information out of you syllable by syllable, word by word, line by line? Is it painful or painless for a listener to converse with you about your product offering? Let’s say you are scheduled for a telephone interview tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M. – listed below are ten questions for you to ponder prior to that time:

Have you practiced your opening lines?

Have you rehearsed the overall brand message you wish to deliver?

Have you considered your best traits and greatest value?

Have you evaluated your liabilities and weaknesses with responses that sound genuine and credible?

Have you selected three to five of your key competencies (with supporting examples) that relate specifically to the organization’s needs?

Have you thought of your best attributes and thoughtfully crafted examples to support each?

Have you created conversational efficiencies to help the employer get to know you and your brand’s best?

Have you cited specific examples of key portable and transferable skills that align with the employer’s needs or will you be dreaming up answers ‘off the top’?

Have you compiled a convincing body of evidence that you have the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities to perform the job of interest?  

Have you contemplated ‘the close’ of your interview conversation?

Knowing ‘the rest of your story’ before you proceed with a job interview will help distinguish you in today’s intensely competitive job market. Make it easy for the listener to pick you to move forward in the interview process.

Do you know the rest of your story – the part that will make you stand out in the listener’s mind?