“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”
I tell my kids this all the time–the more you read, the smarter you’ll be, the places you’ll go, the people you’ll see. OK, so that’s my own little Dr. Seuss version of getting them interested in reading. Books and other reading material feed your intellect and affect the way you look at life. One recent buzz around Facebook was the challenge to list the ten books that have changed the way you look at life, right off the top of your head. Not classic books, or intellectual books, just the books you read that somehow lingered in your life. I made my list and it was super hard to keep it at ten. Librarians will tell you that people going through a crisis will often ask for books about someone going through a crisis because it helps to see how others cope with challenges.
In your career, reading a wide range of topics will give you a wide range of perspective on the way people think and strategies you can use for your advancement. It’s like a balanced diet. You need stuff from every food group in order to be healthy and you need to read both fiction and non-fiction to have a healthy view of the world. There is a difference in quality when it comes to what you read. Just as there is a difference in quality of food; you will start to see that difference as your reading variety changes.
Reading anything regularly increases your ability to comprehend and articulate ideas. If what you read is well-written, it helps you develop a sense of spelling and grammar, which gives you a professional edge in your communication.
If you’re unemployed, I’d say it’s a good idea to read something work/career related every day. This is easy to do by subscribing to a few blogs, but working through a book is important. Blogs and websites like those on the Job Resources Page are carefully concentrated chunks of information like an energy bar; a book is like a banquet that has been planned and prepared by a chef.
Dr. Seuss is right: the more you learn, the more places you’ll go. Your career will be enhanced by reading regularly.
That trade show or seminar might not be for a few months,but if you know it is coming, then you can put it in your calendar with the deadline for registry. Your career depends on being current, right? So plan for it. Very often, the notification for registry gets lost in the shuffle of daily tasks or the dates get filled with other things that could have been scheduled differently. January is a good time to pencil things in and make sure you allow time for them.
It’s a good idea to look over all the possible events in your field and evaluate them in the light of your career plans. When the time comes to move into another position, the fact that you have taken the initiative to seek out pertinent knowledge is in your favor. Trade shows, seminars, and the like are excellent ways to do this:
see what the industry is trending toward
network with others in your professional sphere
evaluate your skills
get ideas for improving those skills
Maybe your field has so many trade shows and seminars you’d be spending half your time attending. That just gives you a broader range of choices, doesn’t it? If you attended one last year that didn’t impress you, look for an alternative that has more promise. It’s too late to have many choices if you wait for registry deadlines because the good ones fill up fast.
Events like these are a help in defining your career objective. Your job is usually a small slice of a very big possible career, and attending these events can give you a much larger perspective on the possibilities available to you. But you have to get them on your calendar first.
JobMob recently published their Top 40+ Job Search Blog Posts of 2013. This is a great list from distinguished career experts of what other job searchers have been reading and have found helpful, all over the globe. One of our latest posts is on that list: Unemployed? You Have Secret Powers!
Of course, it is an affirmation that we provide a service our readers are interested in, and that’s always a good feeling. But it also shows that you are not alone in your search for employment, and that has all kinds of feelings attached to it.
It’s intimidating to realize there are so many job seekers out there
It’s encouraging to know you are not alone and have support
It’s hopeful to anticipate the results of steps you are making in your career plans
Professional Resume Services has a mission: to craft powerful, exciting, and effective resumes for every job seeker on the planet. That’s a big goal, isn’t it? Maybe it won’t really happen all over the planet, but it sure will happen a lot this coming year because we will be doing it one job seeker at a time. Maybe it will be in the form of a resume critique, or coaching, or a resume package. Maybe it will be in the form of this blog, encouraging and guiding along the search. Maybe it will be on Facebook or some other social media.
See how many facets there are? Like the cuts on a diamond, each different facet of a job search is another angle that reflects the light a different way. It takes a lot of angles to make a diamond shine and sparkle, and it takes a lot of angles to make a career do the same thing. All the different things you do make up who you are and what you have to offer, and a good resume is like those lights at the jeweler’s shop causing the gems to sparkle with reflections: it illuminates what you have and makes it shine.
Most professional builders wouldn’t dream of starting on a project without a set of blueprints. The detailed drawings are essential to guiding the process of building so that no important factors are left out. The blueprints are examined, changed where potential problems are noted, and referred to during the entire process.
Your career plans should have a set of blueprints, too. They don’t have to be big pieces of paper with diagrams on them, but there should be a carefully-thought-out plan that you follow to make sure all the important factors are being addressed. You should be looking at your career blueprint at least once a year and thinking about these questions:
The end of one year and beginning of the new is a popular time for looking at things like this. But be careful about making all those New Year’s Resolutions that end up ignored in February! Most people decide to toss the blueprint they were using and start over, then they get discouraged because it is too much change, too fast, and too difficult to maintain.
There is a lot in your life that is working well, and you want to build on that good foundation with small changes instead of completely changing an area. Sometimes, it is true that you have to tear down an old building and start over but many builders will renovate a beautiful older building and keep all the good stuff. Your career is like a building in this way — most of the time, the best can be presented in a well-written resume and a new job is offered because of the good stuff you bring to the position.
A blueprint is a professional, carefully designed picture of the planned project that is followed, evaluated, and only redesigned when necessary. The blueprint for your career should be treated the same way.
Recently, a young woman named Mita Duran died after one of the too-frequent 30-hour work days she put in as a copywriter for an international ad agency. The comments on this story number in the thousands; some fault the energy drinks she was consuming to stay awake, some fault the work culture that expects such long hours, others say they do it and it hasn’t killed them yet. The overwhelming impression you get from the comments is that it is common to be expected to put in increasingly longer hours if you are going to have a job and keepit.
I’m wondering how many people die from job related stress. It probably affects our lives more than we are willing to admit, but there are ways to make things a little bit better:
Make sure you are taking breaks and walking around. Your body needs it.
Drink more water than your drinking coffee or energy drinks. (You can walk to the bathroom for your breaks!) Your body needs to be hydrated and too much caffeine in your system will damage it.
Eat healthy. Take a snack that has protein and nutrients in it instead of straight sugar/fat/carb bombs that make your blood sugar shoot up and then crash.
Do stretches at your desk, and raise your computer so you can stand sometimes. I’m thinking about getting one of those huge balls to sit on. I hear it’s great for the stomach and core.
Put up a photo of a calm scene…the ocean, a mountain lake, etc. Gaze into it and imagine going there.
These tips are oriented to a desk job, but whatever your job entails there will be some positive actions you can do. Today’s work climate means you have to deal with the stressful conditions you encounter when working long hours. Hopefully, it comes in seasons and there are breaks. Sometimes the work load is an incentive to look for a new job, and we can certainly help you with that.
Nobody should be dying on the job. Change your work lifestyle in 2014 and your body (and mind) will thank you.
Baking with flour is pretty basic, but the results sure can vary, can’t they? An expert can take the same basic ingredients I have in my kitchen and come up with impressive results because that expert knows how to use the basic ingredients with skill. Entry level resumes are just like flour; a basic ingredient that needs to be used with skill in order to be impressive. You can have your basic information in a fill-in-the-blanks resume template and it won’t trigger a second glance because it looks like all the other fill-in-the-blanks templated resumes the reviewer has seen so far. You don’t have a lot of experience or work history to individualize your resume, but you can make sure that your resume is a skillful presentation of everything you have to offer.
Look at samples of entry-level resumes. You may want to check out all of the resumes, for that matter. So you can see how they vary. Take note of how the same information can be presented several ways (kind of like a croissant vs a dinner roll) and it is fine. All resumes, no matter how they are put together, need to be well-written and easy to scan for information.
Make a list of everything you have done: education, coursework, skills, volunteer work, etc. Did any of the sample resumes seem like a good recipe for your basic information?
Pick a format and put your information into it. Does it work? Can you tweak this recipe to make it work?
Now proofread your resume after you take a break so you are looking at it clearly. Many times a typo will slip past the writer because you know what you meant to say.
One of the reasons Professional Resume Services began offering a Resume Critique is because many job hunters have asked us to look over their resumes with expert eyes and help them with the details that will take their resumes into the “impressive” category. It isn’t expensive because it doesn’t take that long, but the results of following professional advice on your basic entry-level resume will make a huge difference in your career.
It would be nice if the holiday season went in an orderly fashion, one event to the next, with perfect orbs of celebration repeating themselves in different colors. But that’s fantasy. What really happens is more like the whirlwind of leaves or snowflakes spiraling beyond control because there is very little you actually do control in this busy season. Still, there are things you can do to tame the chaos enough to enjoy the ride.
Lower expectations. Advertising is selling “perfect” holidays because they want sales, not because it’s right for you this year. Memories are edited by our emotions. Now is the time to talk to family about what is important to each member (cookie baking? game night? visit to an attraction?) and plan on getting each one’s top item in the calendar. You might decide to scratch some things off your list of things to do. Fill in your calendar now with the things you value or they might be lost in the flurry of invitations and demands.
Now is the time to decidehow to handle gift giving in the corporate world. Your coworkers may celebrate different holidays than you do or have different customs for the same holiday. Corporate culture will vary on expected gifts and value but knowing those expectations now helps you figure out what you will do about it. Last minute gifts are not usually impressive, but they invariably are expensive.
Most of us haven’t hauled out the decorations yet. Now is the perfect time to start eliminating things you no longer use in the home or your workspace. Don’t put the tinsel garland on top of the piles if you can get rid of those piles a little bit each day. Do the old “store it-give it-toss it” routine and clean the spot the pile was on. If you have to store it, put it where it belongs. If you don’t have a place for it, why are you keeping it? In the workplace and in the home the piles do more than get in the way, they are a safety hazard and an image destroyer. If you need everything in that pile you should make a home for it so it doesn’t get lost.
Start a change jar if you haven’t already and put extra cash into it. This is your “mad money” for indulgences. When it is gone, no indulgence until more is in the jar. Don’t wreck your household budget for frappuccinos with friends. Speaking of budgets; know yours and its limit. Keep January bills in mind when you use that credit card. It’s easier to make your financial plan now, including expected work expenses. Then you can use that plan as a guide to keep you out of impulse spending traps.
There’s no way to avoid all holiday stress, but doing what you can to anticipate it and lessen it will make your holidays more enjoyable this year, both at work and at home.
There are an increasing number of interviews conducted over the phone, and it is important to pay attention to your phone skills. When you think about it, your interview will probably be set up with a phone call and that call will influence the impression you make. You can’t control where you will be when the call comes in to schedule an interview, but if you know what will sabotage your chances of a job, then you can control as much as possible.
Background noise is distracting. If you are called in a noisy environment, apologize and get to a quiet spot immediately. But don’t make the mistake of going into the bathroom to be alone because the hard surfaces cause an echo that is unmistakable and the potential for another customer to make noise you don’t want is always there. Arrange to talk further in another place.
If you are actually doing a phone interview, treat it like you would any other meeting. Be prepared with all documents (resume, etc.) and be alone in the room. Don’t have the tv on or background music.
No gum, food, or drink. Talking with something in your mouth will change the way you sound, even if they can’t see you.
Smile and sit up straight. People can tell by the sound of your voice when your smiling. Smiling while you are talking exudes confidence and ease. Practice to a friend if you need to. Sitting up in a straight-backed chair will make you feel slightly less relaxed and more professional, and remind you that even if you and the other person are hitting it off, you are still on an interview.
During a phone call the only information that is transmitted is by sound. Anything that will adversely affect that sound will cause problems so take care to remove yourself from any interruptions..
