The Resume Reconstruction Part I - Get rid of your Objective

Ok, so it’s been ages since I’ve blogged but honestly, it’s been a great 6 month break.  Much needed.  I feel refresh and energized to start blogging again so I hope you’re ready.  I’ve got a bunch of content lined up so it should be fun again...which is always important for me.

Quick update on me before this weeks topic….we are settled quite nicely out here in CA.  It’s farking expensive but the weather, availability of most everything and live at the Mothership it’s hard to complain.   I’m still a boy of the 603 but the 408 isn’t so bad.

With that, I’ve been talking to a lot of recruiter friends (nod to referrer!) and have come to a conclusion...it’s time for a resume revolution.  The whole state of resumes is terrible.  The entire thing is just messed up.  Most of them don’t tell the right story and get good candidates rejected without any conversation.  So, for me, that tells me it’s time to just nuke the whole approach and start fresh.  Let’s start at the top and take a look at the “Objective”.

Honestly, I’ve probably read about a million of these things and for the most part they all suck.  The objective of your resume is to get you a job (or the job).  Period.  End of story.  The objective really isn’t to get you a rewarding and challenging position that blah blah blah blah blah…..it’s to get you the job.

True story, I’ve received SEVERAL resumes where the objective has resulted in an instant reject.  I mean, instant.  Sending a recruiter that says “To find a role at WRONG COMPANY” will get you rejected immediately.  Last one I saw was looking for a role at Amazon….that’s great, I love Amazon but um, I don’t work there.  Trash.

Alright...so I’m not a big fan of just complaining so in lieu of an Objective what should you do?  Here are a few options.

1) Don’t stress it.  Start your resume with your best attribute (Education or Experience) so when a recruiter or manager sees your resume it JUMPS to their attention.  This is always my preference on a resume.

2) Start with a summary of skills or experiences.  I don’t love this to be honest but if you’ve got a bunch of skills/experiences that an employer will really value than sum them up, show them off and then dig into the details later in your resume.

Make sense?  I hope so, my big issue with resumes right now is that they are filled with junk and don’t truly show off what makes a person exceptional….so over the next few posts we’ll blow it up.  I leave on vacation this week but will be posting from parts unknown….until then, enjoy the week

My take on creative job search tactics

I’ve been hearing a lot of stories lately of people using unique and interesting ways to get recruiters attention.  I figured I’d take a little time to talk about them and give you my take.  I’ll be honest, I’m not really a big fan of this kind of stuff but I’ll try to be impartial.  Anyone who knows me, will tell you I’m more of an old school networker.  I like chatting on the phone or having a beer via G+ Hangout…..get beyond that and honestly I start to twitch.

Anyway, this isn’t about me...this is about you using some off the grid unique ways to get noticed by recruiters or hiring managers.  With that...here we go:

Running ads with your name on them -  This one was pretty popular a few years back and there were a ton of examples.  Apparently this worked and it became pretty popular but I never really understood the appeal.  It’s a little too shotgun approach for me, although optimizing and targeting the ads definitely helps.  The example I posted cost $150 which if you think about it is a great deal.  I don’t hate this approach, but when I see ads like this targeted towards me I always think they are spam and I just ignore them.

Making your resume look like a product or web page - This one has been popular for a while and will probably continue to be popular.  This particular post is a great example if you’re looking for one.  From my perspective, this is a good idea if you’re early in your career or in the market for a creative job.  A few candidates through the years have sent this kind of resume to me and I always enjoy checking the creativity.

Video Resume - I’m a sucker for the video blog, especially this one.  They haven’t really taken off but some places ask for them and there are a lot of good examples out there as well.  Done right, a video resume is a great way to show off your skills and personality for a potential employer.  You want to make sure use good quality video and have a well scripted plan to develop a professional video.

Creating personal action figures - Ok, last one. A coworker sent me this blog last week and I have to admit I love the idea.  I looked into making “Jeff Moore - Recruiter” action figures but kind the cost scared me off….I’ll keep researching.  Anyway, I think this is a cool idea but is potentially pretty expensive.  If you are in the toy industry or another creative role, this could really get you a great job.  For me, I just think having my own action figure would be fun :)

Alright, so there are a few thoughts...obviously, I’m only one data point and every recruiter is different.  Doing something creative can be a great way to get noticed but you’ve got to make sure whatever you do reflects your personality and your voice.

Good luck out there and if you find another other examples please share as I’ve love to see other examples.

Your priorities define you...

Happy holidays everyone!  Hope things are going well.  It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged but I really wanted to share something.  I had an interview this week and the candidate made a comment to me that I really loved, I mean….loved.  They said:

“The priorities we set define us”

It got me thinking, for those of you experience a job search or thinking about moving your career needle...what kind of priorities have you set?  Now, the idea of priorities is pretty complicated and honestly only you can set your priorities but I did spend a lot of time thinking about this and had a few thoughts I wanted to share

Rank your priorities - This one is obvious right?  The question really is, do you want to be the best parent in the world?  Best recruiter?  Does money matter?  Do you work to live or live to work?  Literally, there are a bunch of things to consider.  What you need to do is figure out what really matters to you...define it and then optimize your more tactical priorities from there.

Set sub-goals - Ok, so you have your high level priorities set.  Awesome...huge step and most people never get there so feel good about this.  Next, start trying to define what each one of those priorities really means and what you need to do to accomplish them….and be realistic.  

Build a timeline - You’ve got your priorities set and you’ve got a bunch of tactical steps you need to take to accomplish your goals...now you need a timeline.  The timeline will keep you honest and make you focus.  A key here again will be to be realistic.  For example, you can’t say you are going to interview for 50 jobs in the next month...not enough days in the month.  So, really focus on setting a timeline that you can work with and get things accomplished.

Get going - This is the most important step.  Get going and get it done.  The difference between superstars and everyone else is superstars get stuff done.  Now is the time to define yourself by not only setting priorities but getting them done.

That’s it this week, I’ll try to get a few more posts done by the end of the year and start strong again in 2014.

Good luck out there, the holidays are a GREAT time to amp up your job search