Sometimes the combination of your job or your lack of job with all the details that have accumulated over the months comes crashing down and you get overwhelmed. This is common at the end of the year when you start to look around for financial papers in anticipation of tax season…plus the New Year’s Resolutions game…plus whatever else is in your life right now. Too much stuff to think about is a recipe for feeling like not doing anything about it. Am I right?
This is why the Coaching Services offered by Professional Resume Services was established. Sometimes, everybody just needs an outside voice, giving a fresh perspective on your problems and suggesting concrete steps to resolve them. It’s a good service, one that pays off in multiple ways for every penny you invest in it.
If you are hesitant about hiring a professional, here are a few practical places to start when you feel overwhelmed:
- Take a break. Walk, play solitaire, nap, or get a snack. Sometimes that break helps your brain to process the details that have piled up and you get inspired to do something.
- Make a list. Start with all the things you have already done and draw a line through them. See how far you already are?
- Plot a plan. Break down the things that overwhelm you into smaller chunks to deal with. Decide on a few realistic steps to do each day toward your goals.
- Evaluate the results. Your plans and lists are not inflexible. If you don’t get something done one day, shift it to the next reasonable time. The idea is to consistently move toward a goal, not get it all done in one shot.
Being overwhelmed with the enormity of all there is to do is a very normal state of affairs for most of us. We can’t do it all, and we can’t do it alone.
“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.
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:
- Is this still where I want my future to be?
- Does my resume need to be updated?
- Are my social networking sites in sync?
- What’s working for me?
- What needs to change?
- How will I implement those changes?
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.
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.
Are You Ready For A Resume Package?
Resumes
This is the time of year when packages are everywhere. From the shipping packages going past in the delivery trucks to the packages wrapped in fancy paper with a bow on top, you are going to see more of them as the month progresses. But what is a package, really?
A package is a promise of good things bundled into a single unit.
There may be one good thing or several good things inside, but you have to open it to find out what that package holds. Sometimes your idea of a “good thing” is different than the giver’s, but the idea of a promise inside the package is one that is universal. Professional Resume Services offers several packages and they all hold a promise inside:
What is the promise in each of these packages? It is the promise of a future made hopeful by effectively showing the best of your past. When a potential employer is able to see the best about a candidate, that employer is more apt to see how they will be a good fit for their enterprise. You or the person you are gifting will not need all these packages, but each holds the same promise and one of them is right for anyone in the workforce.
As the year wraps up and all the packages are opened, the future looks brighter when your packages hold the good things you need.
Did you know that most human resource directors are going to be plugging into sites like LinkedIn to see what potential candidates they can find for an open position? To quote the Society For Human Resource Management:
Organizations (77%) are increasingly using social networking sites for recruiting, primarily as a way to attract passive job candidates. Fewer organizations (20%) use social networking websites or online search engines to screen job candidates.
That means that the way you appear on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and anything else online matters. It also means that you have a way to make part of your job search passive, just as some entrepreneurs have passive income. Here’s how that works:
- the income producer is carefully crafted to function with little maintenance once it is in place
- the entrepreneur will generally use several streams of passive income to make enough money to pay the bills
- samples of passive income: ads on blogs, ebooks, rental properties, royalties
Now, the way this works in your job search is that once your profile is created, then you can maintain a presence on LinkedIn with considerably less effort. You don’t have to stay on the site all the time because your input keeps your profile current and the search engines will bring you up in the first few pages. Passive — as long as you are prepared.
Those streams of passive income need maintenance but mostly flow by themselves, and your presence on social media sites is there when you are not at your device. The way your presence on social media sites is portrayed is dependent upon the way you maintain it.
As a result, the top reason you should be on LinkedIn is because it works for you while you are not there – if you use it correctly.
Questions You Should Ask During Your Job Interview
Interviewing
Most of the time, a job interview will consist of you answering questions. But most interviewers will also ask if you have any questions, and it’s a good idea to be prepared to ask the right kind. You don’t have to use my phrasing, but think through why these questions are good to ask and how you can ask something similar:
- “The job description cites these responsibilities. How are those responsibilities filled in a typical workday?” This gives you an idea about the work load and expectations involved.
- “What do you hope to see this position accomplish for your company?” A question like this gives you an opportunity to hear what their goals are for this particular job and get an idea of the long term plans you will be a part of.
- “Is there any reason you think I might have trouble accomplishing your goals for this job?” This is a scary question to ask, but it will let you address their concerns and possibly correct misconceptions they may have about you.
- “I see from the mission statement that you value creativity. How does this position employ creativity in meeting that goal?” This is a sample question…what matters is your display of knowledge about the company and their goals. You can use recent press statements, mission statements, or anything that shows you cared enough about the job to learn more about it and think about how you will do it.
- “Is this a newly created position or one that has been in place?” An established job description for a position that has been in place usually has a lot of support in place, too. They’ve figured out what works and you just slip into the spot and carry on. You can ask if the previous worker moved into another position, if you will be part of a team, etc. But a newly created position is fuzzier because the bugs haven’t been worked out yet. You can ask what the problems were that led to the creation of the position and how flexible the job description will be as you work on fixing them, for instance.
If the idea of asking questions like these fills you with fear, consider something like our career coaching services to help you prepare. You can choose a packaged deal or a la carte coaching and use the investment to gain the confidence to interact with ease. A coach helps you learn what you need to know and improve the skills you already have to be the best candidate for the job you want.
