Palladian Career Resources

I’m currently redesigning the Blog.  All the content should be back up and available by Monday 3/15/2010.

I have taken a break from writing over the last month.  There are a few reasons behind this, but the bottom line was I found I was trying to do too many things and reached a point where I couldn't keep up.  I plan on returning to writing in 2010, but am still working out how that's going to work.  Once I get things settled, I'll let you know.

This week, we take time to appreciate what we have.  In the United States, with all the turmoil, economic difficulties and other issues facing us, we still live in the greatest nation in history.  We have more opportunity and freedom than anywhere else.  Countless people from around the world would give anything for a chance at the life we lead. 

If you are worried about your job, or worse, are out of work, opportunities may seem elusive.  We are fortunate, though, but being fortunate doesn’t mean everyone will get everything they want.  What it does mean is we have the opportunity to build and grow.  The elements that have made this country great – hard work, determination, and optimism – will lead us out the current recession.  Some people are saying the turnaround is already started, while others say it will take a few more months to gain traction.  Regardless of how long it takes, the economy will turn.  As I wrote a few days ago, every day 80,000 people are landing jobs in the US.  There are opportunities and companies are hiring.  Stay positive, focus on your strengths and accomplishments, and sell your potential to add value to a company and a job will come.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

We’ve all heard the unemployment rate, and that it will get worse before we start to see some improvement.  On a national basis, this is a serious problem.  For an individual job seeker, the concern is more personal – landing a single job.  No matter how high or low unemployment is, the primary (or only concern) is whether you can land a job for yourself.  Despite this, there is some interesting and useful information in the jobs data.

Unemployment Claims

Yesterday, it was announced that 505,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week.  This is just over a hundred thousand people per day.  It’s a huge number.  Fortunately, the number does have some positives.  First, it’s 100k lower than were we were at the start of the year.  Second, we’re approaching parity with jobs created.  The number I keep hearing is 400,000.  At that level, the number of people losing jobs each week will roughly equal the number landing jobs each week. 

The 400k figure has some significant implications. First, it means 400k people are getting hired every week.  That’s 80,000 people every day.  If you are worried about the economy as a whole, that doesn’t mean much, but it you are a job seeker, it means a lot.  Every day you search for a job, 80k people are going to be successful.  Searching for a job is far from a hopeless activity. 

Job Postings

Looking at Indeed’s job posting trends, in October, there were just over 1.8 million job postings.  That’s a lot of jobs.  Divide that number by 22 (the number of work days in October) and you 81,000 – approximately the number of people landing jobs each day.  So, the job postings are also getting filled.  Companies are hiring people, even if it is at a lower rate than a couple of years ago. 

The competition for these jobs is high.  There’s no arguing that.  Right now, we have approximately 15 million people unemployed.  That’s roughly 8 people for every job opening last month.  Of those 15 million, roughly 1.8 million should land jobs in November, while 13.2 million won’t.  On a national basis, this is a major problem.  For your job search, there are 1.8 million positions out there and you only need one.

Geography

All locations are not equal.  Indeed.com has a great trend page showing the number of job seekers compared to the number of open jobs for different metro areas.  It’s no surprised Detroit is at the bottom of the list, and with all the government jobs, Washington, DC is on top.  (Check out the data: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/unemployment) 

If you’re in a city with a low ratio, you should be in good shape.  If you are not, your prospects are still not hopeless.  You just have more competition you will need to beat out.

Bottom Line

Some people will look at the stats above and get energized (80k people will be hired today) and others will despair (13.2 million people won’t get a job this month).  If you want to be in the 80k getting hired every day, you need to work at it and maintain a positive, energetic attitude.  If you don’t, you are much more likely to be in the 13.2 million.  Discouraged job seekers are making up a larger and larger percentage of the population and their prospects are very low.  They are much less likely to actively network, customize their resume and cover letter, prepare thoroughly for every interview and do all the little things you need to do to be successful. Staying positive during your job search can be as important a factor in your success as all the skills and experiences you possess.

I received a resume from an Air Force NCO (non-commissioned officer) who has recently transitioned from active duty into the reserves.  The NCO makes a number of common military transition mistakes in his resume. 

The core of the problem is the NCO writes a resume focusing entirely on his qualifications in the military.  It would be a good resume if he wanted a job in the Air Force.  Unfortunately, that’s not his goal.  This individual is looking to do something in the commercial sector.  He wants to utilize some of the skills he gained in the military, but he is targeting a civilian job.

Let’s look at the structure:

Objective:  To use the training and experience I received in the military to make a significant contribution, as a civilian, in making my community a safer place to live.   
Technical Training:  <long list of military training classes, almost all are related to specific combat activities or Air Force equipment>

Work History:  <Listing to job titles and dates in the Air Force>

Experience:  <A bulleted list showing the scope of responsibility in various leadership roles held by the NCO>

Certifications:  <A certification related to the career field the NCO wants to pursue>

Awards:  <A list of performance awards won by the NCO>

There is some good content in this resume, but most of it is of little value to an employer. This individual wants a role using his Hazmat skills.  He has taken several training classes in this field, has a certification related to the field and one year of experience. 

Unfortunately, digging this detail out of the resume takes too much work.  The emphasis of the resume is on his military experience.  The military experience shows a pattern of success and progression of increasing responsibility.  This is a good track record, but it does little to show what the job seeker would do in a completely different role.  The military experience and success in the roles he held should play a supporting role on his resume.  The lead role is his experience and skill in the hazmat field. 

Below is how I would restructure the resume:

Professional Summary:  <A summary statement and bulleted list of key skills, training, certifications and accomplishments directly related to hazmat>

Work Experience:  <Job Listing with details of hazmat experience, leadership experience and other transferrable skills>

Education:  <Listing of education and training received>

Awards:  <Listing of awards>

This structure focuses the top half of the first page on the hazmat experience and skills.  It is much more relevant to a hiring manager than the previous version that listed courses such as “USAF Airborne Battle Management Course.”  Expanding the work experience section to provide significantly more detail on the job seeker’s responsibilities and accomplishments will also help.

The bottom line is the NCO needs to make a sales pitch for what he can contribute in the private sector, and more specifically, in the role he is pursuing.  Showing success in the military is nice, but there is a lot of competition for jobs.  The successful job seeker will demonstrate the value they can offer.  Demonstrating this value comes from showing key skills and accomplishments.  To maximize the effectiveness of the sales pitch, it needs to be at the top of the resume, not buried further down.

I’ve written a lot about the importance of accomplishments on a resume.  Accomplishments show what you did, while responsibilities show what you’re supposed to do.  Because accomplishments are so important to make a good impression, you should separate them from the list of responsibilities. The resume I read this morning did the opposite of this.

The resume had a chronological structure, with four sections: Objective, Work Experience, Education and Certifications.  The structure works pretty well.  I would have added a fifth section, Technical Skills, because the job seeker is in a very technical engineering role in the telecom industry.  This isn’t the big problem, though. The work experience section does little to show whether the job seeker has been successful.

In the work experience section, each listing followed the same format:

Job Title, Employment Dates
Company Name, City and State
Responsibilities:
<A bulleted list of responsibilities and accomplishments>

By titling the text under each job as Responsibilities, the job seeker creates an expectation that there won’t be any accomplishments listed.  It is unnecessary to say specifically “Responsibilities,” because anyone reading the resume is going to expect some description of the role. 

I turns out the job seeker did list some accomplishments.  There weren’t many, but each job had at least one.  In each case, it was the last bullet listed under each job.  This ensures someone reading the resume will find the accomplishments as one of the last items read. 

An easy way to fix this would be to summarize the responsibilities in a paragraph and put the accomplishments in a bulleted list.  This will draw the reader’s attention to the accomplishments ahead of the responsibilities and make a much stronger first impression.

Hot off the presses!!!  We just finished the new Palladian Job Search Guide.  The new 70 page guide is packed full of resume, cover letter, interviewing and job search advice. 

The guide replaces our Resume Writing Guide and Interview Prep Guide.  These guides have been effective, but we wanted a more comprehensive document for job seekers.  Many of the articles from the original guides were rewritten for the Job Search Guide and a substantial amount of new content was added. 

The new guide improves on our sample resume formats giving clear instructions for selecting font sizes, bolding, bullet points and indentations.  Following our guidelines will help you produce a good looking resume in no time.

We added a cover letter section with best practices and templates to help you write an effective cover letter.  Cover letters are an essential component when submitting a resume, but many job seekers skip writing a cover letter or do so as an afterthought.  The guide will help you develop a short, effective cover letter.

We introduced a Job Search section in the guide providing some of our best advice, including our Top Ten Job Search Mistakes and some tips for using LinkedIn in your search.

You can get a free copy of the guide by signing up for our newsletter.  Complete the form below, and you will receive an email with instructions for downloading the Palladian Job Search Guide.

It continues to amaze me how common it is for job seekers to fail to include any mention of a successful contribution to an employer in their resume.  This morning, I was struggling to come with a topic for today’s article.  After writing more than 360 articles over the last year and a half, I often need something to get me started.  I turned to my old standby…  my Inbox.  I receive a lot of resumes, and readying a few always produced an idea for an article.

Today’s search was just as fruitful as past searches.  I didn’t have to read many resumes to find one to inspire me.  It was the first I opened.  This is typical.  When I look at resumes, I don’t think I’ve ever had to open more than three or four to find a disaster to profile.  Now, to be fair, the some of the resumes I look at for my blog are from the really active job seekers.  I subscribe to some resume distribution services that send resumes to thousands of recruiters.  I really don’t know if these services are effective for the job seekers, but they help me ensure I always have a lot of bad resumes in my inbox.  For a job seeker to reach the point where they are broadcasting their resume in an email to as many people as possible, they would have been overlooked for a lot of jobs in the past.  A big reason these people haven’t landed a job is they have a terrible a resume.  So, the majority of resumes I receive this way are absolutely terrible.

So, let’s look at today’s resume.  It comes from a Marking Manager for firm selling agricultural equipment.  The person has been out of work for a year.  Prior to that, she worked for eight years for one company.  The resume has five sections:

• Synopsis
• Summary of Qualifications
• Work Experience
• Continuing Education
• References

The resume didn’t contain a single accomplishment – absolutely nothing showing the job seeker was successful at any point in her career.  Looking at the language used in the resume, the entire resume is focused on responsibilities.  Below are the first few words from each bullet in the work experience section:

• Assisted…
• Prepared…
• Developed and coordinated…
• Planned…
• Managed…
• Direct supervision of…
• Coordinated…
• Managed…

Most of these start with verbs, which is good, but the verbs are not very strong.  You can use these verbs in a resume and make a strong impact, but you need to include another verb in the bullet.  For example, “managed an advertising campaign for a new line of machinery, leading to initial sales 40% above budget.”  This would be a good accomplishment because of the second half of the bullet.  Unfortunately, the resume only included statements similar to the first half of the example. 

Another big mistake on this resume relates to the education of the job seeker.  She has a continuing education section with some good educational events, but nothing about her formal education.  She has an Associate’s degree, but it isn’t listed on the resume (it was in the cover letter).  A lot of hiring managers skip the cover letter.  Additionally, when a hiring manager distributes a resume to several other managers to review, the cover letter may not be distributed with the resume.  For key information like a degree, you need to put this on the resume. 

To improve this resume, it would only take a little work to make a huge difference.  The Summary of Qualifications section has five bullets.  Two relate to soft skills (organizational skills and teamwork), two are marketing related (creativity with graphic design and tradeshow experience) and the last lists technical skills (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.).  Under each bullet, the job seeker should add one line describing an accomplishment or noteworthy experience.  For the soft skills and marketing experiences, an accomplishment would be best.  For the technical skills, listing an accomplishment would work, but the job seeker could also summarize the continuing education she has completed. 

Adding five lines in this way would help tremendously.  Throw in the Associate’s degree in an Education section and the resume should be reasonably effective. 

One last note…  The last section of the resume, a list of references with names and phone numbers, should be eliminated.  There is no need to put references on a resume (especially in an email blast to the whole world).  Companies know they can ask for references throughout the hiring process.  Listing a person’s contact information is actually an invitation to cold call them.  The three people listed are likely to be people who are respected by the job seeker, so a recruiter may toss the resume, but keep the names of the references.  Who do you think is more marketable… the job seeker who sent the resume or the Director of Marketing who is still at the company and is listed as a reference?  By listing the references, all the job seeker did was distract the attention of the reader from her background.

Send Me Your Questions:  I’m always looking for ideas to write about.  Do you have a job search question you want answered?  Send it to me and there’s a good chance I’ll write an article on it. Just send your questions to me at gcapone@palladianinternational.com. 

Sales is a field where the emphasis on quantifiable metrics is extremely high within the hiring process.  Hiring managers look for sales professionals who have an established track record of beating their goals.  Sales goals are easily measured and are one of the most commonly published metrics in an organization.  This makes it extremely easy to find sales data for your resume.  Despite this many job seekers omit hard data on their sales performance.

There’s a good reason many omit the information.  Sales is a field with a high failure rate.  There are a lot of sales people who just aren’t that good.  They may work hard and land some sales, but struggle to reach the company’s goals.  Putting sales numbers on a resume would highlight this poor performance, so they leave them off. 

For a hiring manager, demonstrated success in sales is critical.  Most will assume the job seeker was a failure if the job seeker doesn’t specifically tell them otherwise.  The resume I read today made this mistake.  It didn’t give enough information to know if the job seeker was successful, or if he was a failure.

The problem started in the cover letter.  It is 178 words long.  That’s on the long side for a cover letter, but isn’t too long.  In it, there are five paragraphs.  The first explains the person is seeking a business development role.  The second and fourth paragraphs make general claims about a successful track record through the career, but nothing specific.  The fifth paragraph is a simple closing.

The middle paragraph has four bullet points.  A bulleted list in a cover letter is like a giant magnet for attention.  Most people will be drawn to the list before they read the majority of the letter.  That’s what I did.  I read the first sentence of the cover letter and jumped to the bullets.   Here’s what I found:

• Creativity in developing new business opportunities
• Credibility based on previous success
• Proven executive experience
• Positive attitude and desire to succeed

I’m not sure how a successful sales person could write something this boring and expect to grab a person’s attention.  A desire to succeed is a good quality, but I assume anyone successful has that.  If that’s one of the most impressive qualities you have to market, you’re in trouble.  

After reading the bullets, I skipped to the resume.  The only reason I know what is in the other paragraphs of the cover letter is I read it to write this article.  The bullets made it clear it was a waste of time to read, and that conclusion was proven correct when I did read it.

In the resume, the job seeker included a few performance metrics.  Each job listed a few big clients he landed, some with deals in excess of $10 million.  Selling multi-million dollar deals is a marketable experience, but it still doesn’t answer the question about the success of the job seeker.  In sales, you have to remember the old quote, “Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every now and then.”  Is this job seeker a blind squirrel occasionally tripping over a sale, or is he a superstar?

The resume covers 11 years of sales experience.  In it, the job seeker lists four years where he lists his performance relative to his quota.  In those four years, three are listed as meeting 100% of quota and one is listed as hitting 350% of quota.  The 350% year immediately preceded the three 100% years. 

So we have a sales professional, who in 11 years of selling, is telling us he met the minimum expectations for his job four times, and once had a “blind squirrel finding a nut” year blowing his targets out of the water.   He wants us to hire him because he’s creative, credible, experienced, and has a desire to succeed.

Now, you’re a sales manager trying to fill a key position.  Sales are down, the economy is tough, and you can add one key person.  If the person comes in and is successful, you will keep your job and may even earn a bonus.  If the person bombs, you’re likely to get canned.  Is this candidate going to get your attention?  Are you going to bet your career on his performance?

So, what could this job seeker do?  He should give more detail on his performance.  What were his quotas each year and how did he perform?  He had a long run with the same company, so there’s a chance he was more successful than the picture I painted.  The three years he listed that he met 100% of his quota, he notes he received a corporate Circle of Excellence Award.  Usually, awards indicate exceeding expectations by a significant amount.  If his quota was a stretch goal, he should really show what his performance was relative to his minimum expectations.  Even better, listing how he performed relative to other sales people would help.  He may have been the best sales person in the company, or the worst.  We have no way of knowing.

The key is giving a hiring manager insight into how your boss would assess your performance.  The more detail you can provide about your specific performance, the more credible and impressive your background will be. 

If you want my unbiased professional opinion of your resume, get a Palladian Resume Assessment.  In the review, I will assess your resume and provide you with an honest assessment.  Unlike friends and relatives who won't want to hurt your feelings (and haven't read thousands and thousands of resumes), I'll give a straight forward assessment with the good and the bad.  The review also includes specific recommendations for how to improve the resume so you can fix the problems yourself.  When you sign up for a resume assessment, I will often turn around the results the same day, and if I can't will let you know when the review is complete.  Order a Resume Assessment

Experienced professionals often struggle with deciding how many of their jobs to list and how much detail to provide for each.  This can be a tough decision.  On a two page resume, you won’t have enough room to write in detail about everything.

You should provide at least the last ten years in detail.  Hiring managers will be much more interested in your recent experience, so you want to prioritize this.  You can summarize your experience further back if you don’t go into detail.  For example, you could include a line like:

Progressed from entry level production supervision to materials management, including roles as production controller and logistics manager.

This line would take the reader from the start of your career up to the place on the resume where the detail starts, a materials management position.  In this example, the progression is fairly typically, starting in production and shifting over to materials through a serious of positions.  Most materials professionals will recognize this career path and won’t need additional information. 

If you have been with a single company for more than 10 years, you should show the entire progression with them.  Stability with a single company is a very positive sign on a resume.  It shows the person was successful through the progression of promotions.  List the full progression, since it demonstrates a strong pattern of success.  For positions a long time ago, you can summarize the experience by listing the jobs, for example:

• Logistics Manager December 1992 to July 2000
• Production Controller August 1988 to December 1992
• Shipping Supervisor March 1985 to August 1988
• Production Supervisor June 1980 to March 1985

This shows the progression without any detail, just the titles and dates.  From this point forward, the resume would show the detail of the materials management experience.  You could even consolidate the summary further:

Held production supervision, production control and logistics management positions from June 1980 to July 2000.

This is a short summary providing enough information for a hiring manager to understand how you got to the materials role. 

Job seekers who return to school in the middle of their careers have a different challenge.  Getting a degree can transform a career, allowing a person to switch paths completely.  In this case, the experience prior to completing the degree may be irrelevant.  For example, consider a person who worked in hourly production roles and completed an IT degree.  The person upon graduation takes a job as a network administrator and moves along an IT career path from that point forward.  In this case, there’s little benefit to the experience prior to completing the degree, and it can probably be omitted, especially if it is more than ten years ago. 

For older workers, there is a lot of concern about age discrimination.  Listing every job back to start of a career will help ensure hiring managers know exactly how old you are.  There’s no reason to highlight this.  List the last 15 to 20 years, giving significant detail to the last 10. 

The main reason you want to omit or summarize your experience from more than 10 years ago is it allows you to focus on the last 10 years in much greater detail.  Your recent accomplishments are your biggest selling points, and you want to focus on them.