I had the pleasure of interviewing and chatting with Nick Corcodilos for last week’s Ask The Headhunter.  It was a blast.  I had questions for Nick but the audience had a lot, too.

Here’s the conversation, enjoy!

Note: Vimeo video.  To make this full-size, push play and then on the bottom right click the icon that looks like this:

This case study / example is more minor than Monday’s and Tuesday’s but it’s still really cool.

In 2005 this person (I don’t know the name) wanted as job at Electronic Arts (over $4B last year)… right out of school he sent a pretty weak resume (image at the bottom).

Well, pretty weak except for the Accomplishments sections:

Here’s the whole resume… not even a job at Taco Bell or anything… but the Accomplishments is killer, and written directly for this industry (I’m not a gamer, but I bet those games are EA games).

Are you customizing YOUR resume to stand out, and to directly address the WHY?

Awesomeness.

I was recently asked for a resume.  This is for what I think can be an exciting writing experience (I’d essentially have my own “column”).

The person who asked me said I would need to submit a resume.  Folks, I haven’t had a resume for about seven years!  And that resume is for a project/product manager, not for a writer.

In the last seven years my career has taken a dramatic twist, and what they want me for is for my writing.

I asked if I could send them my LinkedIn Profile and they said that might be fine, but to please put it into Word.  So I exported to pdf, then copy-and-paste to Word.

As I was looking at the “document,” which was liked a stripped down Profile and nothing like a resume, my thought was “the LinkedIn Profile CAN’T take over the resume.”

Perhaps if my Profile had only resume-like stuff on it… maybe it would work.  But putting my exported Profile into Word and thinking it was going to be a “resume” was a joke.

I think there will always be people who ask for a “resume.”  And your Profile will not look like a resume.  To get it right you’ll have to do a lot of reworking… might as well start from scratch.

I would love to hear your opinion and experience on this.  Mine says NO WAY.

Get ready to think out of the box.  This is not a post on how to make the most awesome cover letter.

This is a post on how to communicate with your audience, capture their attention, speak to them, and have an impact.

Ginger Korljan of Take Charge Coaching, shared this excerpt from a cover letter, which I LOVED (read her post here):

“Please do not discount my résumé because I am overqualified. I am NOT looking for a supervisory or management position. I want to get back to the basic grunt work of payables, researching invoices, matching them to purchase orders, and preparing the check run. If you hire me you will get experience, maturity, dependability, and a team player with no personal drama ready to hit the ground running.”

Guess who got the job?

Yep.  Read more here.

Would you have the guts to be that honest in your communication?

Hey folks, still plenty of room for the webinar in one week at 11am EST, 8am PST.  Sign up here:

I Have a Resume – Now What???

This builds on Kim’s webinar from October titled: No Dream Job Yet? It Could Be Your Resume.  I have to figure out how to convert GoToWebinar’s crummy recording to a normal file… then I’ll post it.

In this webinar with Karen Huller we’ll learn about sharing your resume, and your brand, where to spend your time, and strategies in the job search.

Sign up here, and share this post with your friends/contacts.

October’s Ask The Expert webinar with Kim Mohiuddin was awesome. I hope to have the recording up in a couple of weeks (just got back from a trip, and have some big deadlines to hit). But I wanted to share this with you right now so you can schedule it and sign up – no cost.

You can check the JibberJobber webinar page for all upcoming webinars.

Karen Huller, owner of Charésumé, is the guest in November.  She says:

Having an effective résumé is critical for earning interviews, but it alone does not land you a job. In order to execute a swift, successful job transition, you also have to:

• Present a consistent brand, online and offline
• Develop and implement a sound distribution strategy
• Invest your time wisely
• Avoid the common pitfalls

Many job seekers express have similar, frustrating experiences in their job transition. Most of the causes for these experiences are completely avoidable.

In this Ask the Experts webinar, Karen Huller, CPRW, Owner and Founder of Charésumé (ka rez oo may) will address what you can do to remove resistance in your job transition momentum and gain traction fast.

Within 4 weeks you could be in-process with 3-5 viable opportunities and feel much more in control of your professional future.

Please join us to understand how you can UNVEIL YOUR BRILLIANCE and take charge of your career transition.

Sounds good, right?

Sign up, and PLEASE tell others about it – forward this blog post to them, share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (you can easily do this by clicking one of the buttons above).

NOTE: please plan on coming 10 minutes early – we will start right on time.

Tomorrow morning at 9am MST (which is 8am PST, 11am EST) I’m doing the first monthly Ask The Expert webinar with Kim Mohiuddin.  There is not cost to attend…

Check out more info here.

And register here.

Please come 10 minutes early – we’ll start at the top of the hour, even as others are rolling in late.

Have concerns about your resume?

Join me and Kim Mohiuddin as we talk about what could be wrong with your resume.  Kim owns a company called Movin’ On Up Resumes and has had a really cool approach to creating a resume (or, career marketing documents).

As Kim and I planned this webinar here are some other titles she thought of:

• Job Search Stalled? It’s Not You, It’s Me. Signed, Your Resume.
• Job Search Stalled? It Could Be Your Resume.
• Could an Antiquated Resume Be Hindering Your Job Search?
• When Bad Resumes Happen to Good Candidates—And How to Fix It!

Here are some things we’ll talk about:

The Resume Black Hole: What Happens After I Hit “Submit?” Talking about what the ATS is (software that analysis your resume, but she’ll go into more depth)

Navigating The Black Hole: How Do I Give Myself a Fighting Chance With an Electronic Screener?

Beyond the Black Hole: How Can I Optimize My Resume to Appeal to Human Decision-Makers Sharing simple formulas for how to write your opening profile, work history, education, and extras. She’ll also include some Word templates to get them started since most people have trouble formatting their own resumes and Word’s templates are pretty bad for visual and technical reasons (i.e. ATS systems don’t read tables properly and Word templates involve many tables).

In my job search my resume was my #1 enemy. It was keeping me out of interviews, but I didn’t realize it until months later.

Is your resume your job search enemy?  Come to this webinar and get an edge.

NOTE: please plan on coming 10 minutes early – we will start right on time.

Title: No Dream Job Yet? It Could Be Your Resume.
Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM MDT (note: that is MOUNTAIN TIME. Schedule this appropriately based on your own time zone)

My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it.

Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time.

I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did… spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document.

Knowing what I know now, here’s how I would spend the first week (it’s a GIVEN that I’d use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p):

1. Listing my Target Companies,
2. Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies.
3. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews.

I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that “pipeline” filled up.

I’d also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  I’m guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong.

In my spare time, and only after I’ve reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way).

I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards…. right?  That’s what I thought.  I went about it all wrong.

Please don’t waste the first week of your job search like I did.

Don Goodman wrote an excellent post on how to write a better sales resume, titled Key Musts for a Sales Resume.

In his post he lists the following considerations:

• Meet and/or Exceed Sales Quota
• Your Rank Against Your Peers
• Drive New Business
• Strong Customer Retention and Account Penetration
• Closing Rate
• Awards
• Training and Certifications
• Highlight Your Relationships

For a more detailed explanation of each, read the full post here.

As a hiring manager who just hired a sales professional, I can vouch for these elements in a sales resume.

How do you set yourself apart?

Each profession has “things,” like what those listed above, you can list and jump apart from a pack of resumes that all look the same.

I want to know the sales professional I’m going to hire is awesome… that they have outperformed their peers, that they regularly hit their numbers, etc.

This is the language I want to see to let me know you are a professional salesperson, not just a dabbler.

Read Don’s full post here.