Month: January 2015

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NEXT Week’s Workshop: In-Synch Personal Marketing Collateral Materials… Thursday, January 29th, 10 AM @ The Egg and I in Addison

PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE FOR THIS WEEK ONLY…

Building on the concepts of ACHIEVING CareerFITness, this week’s Event will focus on content issues for high impact, productive collateral materials like a job seeker’s resume, verbal ‘pitches,’ and their LinkedIn Profile.

Actions requested:

Bring hard and soft copies of your current resume draft… bring your laptop (or other wi fi-enabled editing tool) if you want to do some self-inflicted, hands on editing of your resume or LinkedIn Profile… everyone will have the opportunity to practice their verbal collateral materials.

Homework:  Be prepared to tell us the KEYWORDS you choose for people to find you, and WHY you chose them.

The 411…

Let’s consider the difference between good and GREAT.  Why agonize over the creation of “the perfect resume?”  You’ve seen sketch artists capture the real you in a matter of minutes… A traditional resume communicates what you have already done… sort of a historical epitaph of your past.  It is very easily written from old job descriptions.

However, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a Dutch painter, was NEVER in a hurry.  A masterpiece takes time.  I have never known anyone, including professional resume writers, who are capable of developing and writing a high impact resume within an hour or two.  The upside of getting a resume out quickly is that you don’t sacrifice early opportunities.  Such a “quickie” may work well… especially if you’re seeking a commodity job in a soft job market.  You need a job fast, right???

  Wrong.

  • The time that you spend developing a GREAT Resume Template is some of the most valuable time that you’ll spend while in career transition.  A “GREAT” Resume is a dynamic documentation of your communication strategy, the vital epicenter of your Personal Market Plan. 
  • The downside of a “quickie resume” — when your true objective is to find work requiring professional talent and skills — is that the output is seldom very compelling and persuasive, truly fitting your career objectives.  And in today’s digital marketplace, your quickie resume may have extended shelf life, once “mined” from the giant, online resume/job banks.  It’s a monster of a problem.
  • Developed in parallel with your two-minute drill strategies and your LinkedIn profile, your resume will have clearly positioned and targeted marketing collateral that will serve you well.  Yes, written and verbal collaterals that are in synch with each other, will create and dispense your marketing message.

Next week’s workshop encourages you to communicate what you are capable of and motivated to do in the future, using your past as supportive evidence.  Its easy to make a resume look and read well… but does YOUR resume truly “FIT” your career objectives?  By learning and following the guidelines suggested this week, you will find the “journey” to your destination, successful career transition, to be smooth sailing.  

Plan to attend NEXT THURSDAY at 10 AM…

Who should attend:

  1. Job seekers who have not achieved productivity in their ONLINE efforts
  2. NEW Job seekers who need to develop their collateral ‘arsenal’
  3. Those that understand they must ‘tweak’ their resumes from time to time… but don’t understand HOW
  4. DFWCareerpilot ‘regulars’ with specific questions

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THIS Thursday’s Workshop: Achieving CareerFIT… Thursday, January 22nd at 8:45 AM @ The Original House of Pancakes in Addison

Thursday, January 22nd, we will focus on assessment activity leading to your communication strategies. …  My colleague, Brian Allen will co-present.  Your Careerpilot has created collateral development: resumes, correspondence, etc. as a separate topic for our next event.

NOTE: Change of venue-we’ll meet at The Original House of Pancakes in Addison (Belt Line, just east of Tollway)

Just what IS a good CareerFIT for you?

To achieve a good “fit” between you and any future opportunity, you have to ask yourself some basic questions about yourself and your prospective employers. The fit depends on how well the jobs meets your needs and how well your skills and abilities meet the employer’s needs. The employer will make a decision and extend an offer to you: now it is time for you to make your decision.  At the core of your drafting efforts is your communication strategy, those keywords that uniquely define YOU.

A GREAT resume makes effective use of the actual words and phrases you use to define the FIT between your motivated competencies and the market’s need for services and solutions.  Selection of those keywords comes from your assessment and awareness of those characteristics by which you are measured by others.  Your characteristics should be viewed in both hard and soft measurements.  They are so much more than the “the right buzz words,” or “keywords” as used in technology driven job banks (or the mirrored resume bank queries)… they are the building blocks of your message.

Most of us learned these lessons back in grade school.

  1. Word selection… Your choice of words can convey very different meanings.  For example, as a manager, do you direct the activity of your subordinates… coordinate the efforts of multi-level, interactive teams or peer groups… or actually do certain functions to achieve results?

  2. Effective phraseology… Often, the soft measure words used to describe what sort of a worker you are or how you perform your work, are discarded as self-serving “fluff.”  However, when built in to powerful, high impact phrases, they serve to differentiate you from others capable of doing the same work.  For example, being a “problem solver” doesn’t make you better than your professional competitors… but describing yourself as a tenacious (an adjective) problem solver, or one who solves problems professionally (an adverb), begins to personalize your strengths.

  3. Whole sentence structure… Build accomplishment statements that demonstrate and prove your abilities and experience.  While resumes utilize a truncated syntax that eliminates the repetitive use of the noun “I”, correspondence and conversation dictate the more narrative use of nouns.  Use action verbs to convey actual behavior, words and phrases to describe the object being acted upon, and, when possible, state actual results of the activity.  Constructed effectively, a good accomplishment can trigger all the right questions about your strengths.  

  4. Focused, behavior-laden paragraphs… to provide examples and offer proof of your strengths and experience.  A typical resume format doesn’t allow for much of this proof, but a well constructed message should trigger the questions that allow you to expand a conversation from your actual experiences.  Thus your resume and correspondence can create the dialog of your phone calls, personal conversations and, ultimately, actual employment interviews.

Yes, its worth your practice time to focus on words.  They can create high impact and convey powerful “word pictures.”  

Remember… FIT HAPPENS !

SHARE THIS POST with your network… and let them know about the scheduling AND content changes at DFWCareerpilot!… THX

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This is a great place to start for new-comers as the other Core Topics will follow in sequence… THIS WEEK’s Workshop…  Achieving CareerFIT brings focus to those elusive decisions regarding positioning and targeting your efforts.

The first five steps of the 12 step process, from assessment to beginning the evolution of your LinkedIn Profile, will be discussed.

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Write out the factors that are important to you in a job… actually write out your list.  During your career transition, learn the value of setting your offer criteria, a key element of your Personal Market Plan:

  1. Creates an objective target for your efforts ahead;
  2. Gives you a meaningful set of questions to ask during research and networking;
  3. Provides an objective way to analyze and react to offers as they occur.

To manage your career wisely has you extending the same concept.  Consider some of the factors listed below … Examine each factor through the questions listed – and then ask, “does this opportunity fit me?”

Please let me know you’re planning to attend by filling out this quick RSVP… THX

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THIS Thursday’s Workshop: Achieving CareerFIT… Thursday, January 22nd at 8:45 AM @ The Original House of Pancakes in Addison

Just what IS a good CareerFIT for you?

To achieve a good “fit” between you and any future opportunity, you have to ask yourself some basic questions about yourself and your prospective employers. The fit depends on how well the jobs meets your needs and how well your skills and abilities meet the employer’s needs. The employer will make a decision and extend an offer to you: now it is time for you to make your decision.

SHARE THIS POST with your network… and let them know about the scheduling AND content changes at DFWCareerpilot!… THX

***

Thursday, January 22nd, we will focus on assessment activity leading to your communication strategies. …  My colleague, Brian Allen will co-present.  Your Careerpilot has created collateral development: resumes, correspondence, etc. as a separate topic for our next event.

NOTE: Change of venue-we’ll meet at The Original House of Pancakes in Addison (Belt Line, just east of Tollway)

This is a great place to start for new-comers as the other Core Topics will follow in sequence… THIS WEEK’s Workshop…  Achieving CareerFIT brings focus to those elusive decisions regarding positioning and targeting your efforts.

The first five steps of the 12 step process, from assessment to beginning the evolution of your LinkedIn Profile, will be discussed.

***

Write out the factors that are important to you in a job… actually write out your list.  During your career transition, learn the value of setting your offer criteria, a key element of your Personal Market Plan:

  1. Creates an objective target for your efforts ahead;
  2. Gives you a meaningful set of questions to ask during research and networking;
  3. Provides an objective way to analyze and react to offers as they occur.

To manage your career wisely has you extending the same concept.  Consider some of the factors listed below … Examine each factor through the questions listed – and then ask, “does this opportunity fit me?”

Please let me know you’re planning to attend by filling out this quick RSVP… THX

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THIS WEEK’s Event: DFWCareerpilot takes a field trip to visit The Southlake Focus Group

field trip-jWhen…… Thursday, January 15th

                        Where? Visiting the Southlake Focus Group where Bob is presenting Embracing The OTHER Job                                                             Market – basic philosophy and introduction of 12 step process.

Click HERE for more info

                        WHAT ?   Meet us there at 8 AM…or…

carpool CARPOOL with Brian by meeting first at The Egg and I at 7 AM

Remember, this is a TWO-Fer… following the Southlake Meeting, Bob will also be presenting at the HEALTHCARE Networking Group that meets at Stacey’s Furniture on Main Street in Grapevine.

 

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THIS Week’s Event: CLOSING THE DEAL II-Interview Tactics…Thursday, January 8th, 2015@ 8:45AM at The Egg and I Restaurant

As it is important to be prepared for pre-mature discussion of salary…

“He who mentions money FIRST, loses!”

As important, is to help the Interviewer to interview you effectively, building rapport and a relationship… working them toward that coveted OFFER.  This week’s session will include POST-Offer negotiation to help you optimize your offers.

We meet at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison.  Come prepared to work on YOUR most difficult or challenging interview issues.This coming week…

Thursday, January 8th, we will focus on Interview tactics, including MoneySpeak and the aforementioned POST-Offer Negotiation Approach.  This stuff is worth your practice time in anticipation of that terrific offer you’ll get!

Please SHARE THIS POST with your network.

Who should attend?

  1. Those who want to perform more effectively in actual interviews–get to the offer!
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct any interview and discussion of salary;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session with which to supplement your job search effectiveness!

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NEXT WEEK’s Event: CLOSING THE DEAL II-Interview Tactics…Thursday, January 8th, 2015@ 8:45AM at The Egg and I Restaurant

We meet at The Egg and I Restaurant (NW Quadrant of Arapaho and Montfort) in Addison.  Come prepared to work on YOUR most difficult or challenging interview issues.This coming week…

Thursday, January 8th, we will focus on Interview tactics, including MoneySpeak and a POST-Offer Negotiation Approach.  This stuff is worth your practice time in anticipation of that terrific offer you’ll get!

As it is important to be prepared for pre-mature discussion of salary…

“He who mentions money FIRST, loses!”

Please SHARE THIS POST with your network.

Who should attend?

  1. Those who want to perform more effectively in actual interviews–get to the offer!
  2. Those seeking a systematic, focused, more predictable way to conduct any interview and discussion of salary;
  3. “Regulars” who need a ‘booster shot.’… and bring a guest;
  4. New Comers and tire kickers… this is a great session with which to supplement your job search effectiveness!