If you haven’t completed any assessments as you prepare to launch a job search, you should.  This is true even if you have done assessments many times before.  One key reason I think this is an important time to do this is there is no pressure, no employer involvement, so you can really be yourself.

Assessment can be as informal as going to the top of the mountain for some quiet time to focus your thoughts and goals.  Or, it can mean completing a battery of formal assessment tools which are interpreted by a professional counselor.

Community colleges are great resources for the formal tools.  For free, or very low cost, you can complete several well-chosen instruments and have them evaluated and interpreted for you.  And, you don’t have to be a current student or alum.

I tell clients not to expect a great epiphany from assessments.  That only happens once in a hundred cases.  But it is reasonable to expect several good things to emerge: 1) confirmation about what makes you tick and how you operate, 2) concise, accurate words to describe yourself to others, and 3) some clarification as to the job content and work environment that will maximize your chances of success.

For most of my clients I use a simple tool that evaluates passions, interests and abilities.  The passion portion asks them to think about the various constituents in their lives–self, family, friends, employer, community, state, nation and the world–and consider what they want to achieve vis-à-vis each.  Then they prioritize and, finally, consider what the findings imply about the job they should be seeking.

The interests and abilities section first identifies the abilities they have used to achieve important goals in the past–things they are good at.  And, it looks separately at their interest in using each ability in a long list.  Where we see matches between high interest in using an ability that has also been instrumental in achieving goals, we have a list of job components we want to find in our next job–a job that will make our tails wag when we go to work.  We also develop a list of low-interest abilities that we want to avoid using in our new job, or at least minimize.

All of this information helps crystallize their vision and focuses their efforts in the job search.  It also helps them explain their vision to others,  which invariably optimizes the help offered.  All in all these are good outcomes for a few hours of effort.

I never believed bright colored paper or odd-size stationery was a value-added approach to getting an interview.  Factors like organization and content were truly the things that set resumes apart and got recruiters to call.

However, now there are some options that are not only eye-catching, but functional too.  For example, you could create a link within an accomplishment statement which could take the reader to a page on your own website that shows a feature article about you in the company’s internal magazine.

Or, as another option, a link in your resume could take the reader to an addendum page right within your resume itself.  So, your resume document could be many pages; the first two pages being an excellent stand-alone resume and the additional pages being linked support material for those who want more detail.

The margin is a place where employer’s logos might appear and have a link embedded which takes the reader to the company’s website for more details.  Colorful logos can be eye-catching, but they lose luster if the company is not well known.  Nevertheless, even a plain link to the employer’s site could be helpful in some cases to better explain your history.  Use your imagination.

Like any other feature, you can overdo it of course.  So use discretion and consider whether these features are needed [or even make sense] in your individual case.

One caution, make sure the reader can easily find his way back to the point of origin.  Don’t let your reader get confused or frustrated.  Providing a return link should take care of this.

And remember, the more gimmickry [i.e. fancy formatting], the greater the chances that the document will lose its formatting when it’s read by the reader’s computer system.  So, use a PDF file format for transmitting to human readers and use a TXT format for resumes to be scanned to a database.  None of the fancy stuff will get sent in the TXT file.  But, computers really dig TXT files, so they’ll be smiling.

It is my contention you should NOT hide your age unless there is a compelling reason to do so–and age, in and of itself, is NOT a compelling reason.  But, if you truly believe it’s necessary, it’s pretty simple to disguise your age on your resume.  Here’s what to do:

1. Leave off the first chunk of your early job history,
2. Leave out school graduation dates,
3. Leave out dates on other items like seminars attended, activities, offices held in non-profit groups, awards, etc.

However, leave in dates of all jobs that you do show on your resume.

Recognize when you do this any reader will  be suspicious that you are hiding your age.  Recruiters know when education dates are missing, this is usually the case.  And, it may be pretty obvious when your oldest job title listed is higher than entry level.

One final note.  If you decide to create an abbreviated resume, I suggest you also develop an unabridged version–including all jobs and dates.  When interviews come you will undoubtedly find it helpful to be able to provide the complete version instead of going through the tedium of adding the missing information on the spot each time.

When I talk to recruiters their reaction to cover letters is luke warm at best, but that isn’t a reason for not doing one when it’s an option.  Take on the challenge and make yours stand apart from the rest.

At a minimum cover letters give you a chance to show you can put a sentence together, spell, organize your thoughts and express yourself clearly.  These are valuable skills in most jobs today.  But, cover letters can do more, much more.  They can bring up or expand on points not adequately covered in your resume.  And they give you a chance to underscore your knowledge of the hiring party’s particular industry or company

But, be careful!  A poor job on the letter will get your resume thrown in the dung heap without a glance.  So, proofread carefully.  And, if you have any doubts about how well your letter will come across, have someone else read it before you send it.

Job searches are taking longer today, so it can seem you are making no progress at all after several months.  However, you may be progressing just fine with the process and it is just taking more time than you imagined for your search to gain traction.

When this happens, you may feel tempted to do some radical things.  You will hear people telling you to “reinvent yourself.”  This could mean investing time and money in re-education or certification in new areas.  Or, it could simply mean trying to rework your resume in an attempt to become a candidate for something new.

But, before doing radical surgery on your career, shine some light on your job search strategy, tactics and results so far.  Evaluate what you have done and what you have learned during the course of your search. 

If you have learned your profession has gone the way of the buggy whip, it’s clearly a time to reinvent yourself.  But, if you have evidence the opportunities will return as the economy rebounds, it doesn’t make sense to reinvent yourself unless you have been an unhappy camper in your current profession.

If it looks like the opportunities will rebound, first make sure you are following a sound search process, and doing all the elements well.  Ask yourself if you are working all the marketing channels, not just some.  Ask yourself if you are getting the results you should [tempered by the realities of a tough market].  Is your resume accomplishment-based and does it represent you well?  Have you gotten some interviews?  Have you gotten beyond a telephone screen?  Have you developed a comprehensive list of targeted companies that employ peope like you?  Have you worked diligently to post your resume on their websites?  Have you worked diligently to make network connections into those companies?  Are you constantly building your network?  Are you circling back to recruiters and your network to get / give updates?  Etc.

If you have evaluated the fundamentals and found yourself lacking, it’s time to suck it up, quit whining and do the work, even though it’s uncomfortable.  Alternatively, if you give yourself high marks but you are getting no measurable results, it’s probably time to rethink your strategy.  Ask, is it time to widen your geographical limitations?  Should you consider bigger or smaller companies?  Are you limiting yourself too much by looking only at public companies vs. privately owned companies?  Changes to any of these parameters will give you access to more opportunities with no change to the type or level of job you are seeking.

Resist the panicky feeling you get from time to time in the search and take the time to analyze your approach and results.  Chances are you are on the right path and only need to do some tweaking, adding a measure of persistence and patience.

I went on vacation recently, doing something meaningful.  My wife and I joined in the Ride2Recovery Florida Challenge bicycling event.  www.ride2recovery.com

Ride 2 Recovery is produced by the Fitness Challenge Foundation, (501C3) in partnership with the Military and VA Volunteer Service Office, to benefit Mental and Physical Rehabilitation Programs for wounded warriors that feature bicycling as the core activity.  So far, my wife and I raised about $6,000 and rode the 390-mile bicycling event from Tampa to Jacksonville with veterans and many wounded warriors.  Each day for 6 days we all rode 50 – 80 miles.

These young men and women benefit both physically and mentally through this program.  Working with the VA hospitals, the Ride2Recovery progam provides stationary bikes, training for VA staff, street bikes [nice road bikes], helmets, shoes and apparel.  It also runs events like the Florida Challenge all over the country–Texas, California, Colorado, Virginia to name a few.

We witnessed first hand how this program is making an astounding difference in the lives of our warriors who have sacrificed so much for the rest of us.  We rode beside many multi-amputees [including Noah pictured below] who learned they could do things they wouldn’t have believed they could do as a whole-bodied person. 

We rode beside PTSD victims who find bicycling is a therapy which enables them to move forward in their lives and reconnect with their families and society.  Nick [a vet] and his son, Brandon, [pictured below] were reunited through this event and it was the motivating force that got Nick off the couch to get the help he needed to reclaim his life and his son.  And, there are so many PTSD victims coming from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Far more than the Pentagon predicted and planned for.

If you’ve managed to read this far, thanks.  The quid pro quo I have in mind is this: if you feel you have benefited from the advice offered in CareerWizard, give something back by donating to Ride2Recovery in my name. 

Credit Card:
Go to www.ride2recovery.com and click on “Sponsor a Rider”; then enter “David Hahn” and give whatever amount you can. 

Or, you can send a check to:
Fitness Challenge Foundation
23679 Calabasas Rd, #420
Calabasas CA 91302 [please enter "David Hahn" in the memo space on your check]

You will be helping a veteran who needs and deserves your help.  Your contribution is TAX DEDUCTABLE to you. Thanks!

People use lots of bullets on resumes, but it’s obvious in most cases they haven’t thought strategically about why they are doing it.  I’m talking about the type of resume where, under each job title, you see a long list of bulleted statements.  Occasionally there is a gem mixed in, showing how the candidate actually moved the needle on productivity, cost, quality or revenue.  But 90% describe job duties and responsibilities, or just some sort of experience during the candidate’s tenure on the job.

MARKETING BULLETIN: when you mix the routine with the special, the special gets short shrift.  So, put your job description in regular paragraph form just below your job title, and put your accomplishments in bulleted form below that. 

 Let me clarify my reference to “experience” in the first paragraph with an example.  Let’s say you “led a cross-functional team that addressed productivity issues in your company.”  When I see a bulleted statement like this on my client’s resume, I ask “So what?”.     What makes this more than just an experience, or a responsibility?  Answer: In its current form, NOTHING.   The “So what?” is asking for the results.  Did you and your team actually DO something which in fact improved productivity, or did you just “address…issues?”  If you can show a result, you have an accomplishment, and it merits an attention-getting bullet.

I rarely advise my clients to have an objective on the resume.  But, I always insist they write a clear, specific objective for other purposes.

Why not on the resume?  Because, in most cases, we use a Career Summary at the top of the resume instead.  It makes it quite clear what the objective is and does a lot more too.  An objective would seem redundant and take up precious real estate.

If you are going straight along a career path, having an objective on the resume is really not necessary.   But, maybe you want to get back to doing what you did two or three jobs ago.  Or, maybe you are trying to shift career fields, say from sales to purchasing.  Or, perhaps your career to this point has been rather eclectic.  A clear objective can really help set the stage for the reader to evaluate your experience in the way you want.

When we write an objective, whether it goes on the resume or not, you better believe it’s not mumbo jumbo.  It’s clear and specific.  My goal is always this: use words that clearly encompass all the jobs in which you are truly interested AND for which you are at least minimally qualified.  At the same time the words rule out jobs you are really not interested in doing AND / OR for which you are not qualified.

My clients go into this exercise scared that I am going to force them to write something that will exclude them from good opportunities, and they’re reluctant to forego any opportunity in a tough job market.  But it turns out to be satisfying and reassuring instead.  Once they see the final words on paper, they realize the goal is achievable [even in a down market] and they find peace in having clarity of purpose.  Further, when the written objective is shared with others, they know they are dealing with a person who has a well conceived purpose.  How refreshing!

First, just so we’re on the same page take a look at a sample functional resume.

Most of the time a functional resume is not your best choice of styles.  If you find yourself tempted to create one just because it’s cool and different, resist.  That’s not among the reasons to use this style.

Recruiters, both independent and in-house, do not look with favor on functional resumes.  Why?  First, they have a reputation for being used to hide or disguise things in a person’s past–like gaps of employment or frequent job changes–so recruiters are immediately suspicious when they see one.  Second, functional resumes are often used to help candidates change to a new industry, or a whole new career field.  [Recruiters are not in the business of helping career changers.]  Finally, it is often impossible to discern when and where you got the experiences and achieved the successes you so proudly display on the front page.

Remember, recruiters are the ones who screen resumes that are: 1] posted on job boards and company websites, 2] sent in response to classified ads, or 3] sent directly to an independent recruiting firm.  So, if these are critical marketing channels for you, think very hard before using a functional resume.

As you read the above, you learned by inference when you should consider using a functional resume–

• Camouflaging employment gaps and frequent job changes, 
• Moving to a significantly different industry, or
• Making a change in your career field. 

If the functional style is truly right for you, I also recommend a modified strategy in marketing yourself: put very low emphasis on channels that rely on recruiters to do first screenings, and put great emphasis on working through your network.

Most people write really poor resumes.  They don’t include accomplishments which are the things that truly set them apart from their competition.

One candidate I worked with said it best: “Now I get it.  If I’m one of a bunch of engineers let go, we could all use essentially the same resume if all we included was a description of each job and our responsibilities.  It’s the projects I worked on and the results that set me apart.”  Amen and hallelujah!!

Yes, it’s customary and important to have a paragraph for each position describing the duties, responsibilities and scope of the job.  Write that down in a paragraph of  two or three short sentences and place it immediately under your job title.

Now for the most important stuff–the accomplishments.  No whining now.  I want you to think.  What did you do that moved the needle on things like improving productivity [your own or other's], reducing cost, increasing revenue, improving quality?  These are business drivers, things that make a business grow and thrive.  Employers want to hire people who understand this and can demonstrate they have achieved these types of things.  [NOTE: In case you're waffling, almost every person I have worked with can think of real accomplishments with some effort--no matter what level their job or job function.]

Many people have a hard time thinking of contributions they made, but a little research usually does the trick.  Your calendar, project files, awards, and performance reviews can jump start your memory.  Use the CAR method to organize your thoughts–Challenge, Actions, Results.  Then write down ONLY the action and results parts.  Voilà!  You have the makings of an accomplishment statement.

Results should be expressed as numbers. [No whining, I said!]  Don’t make excuses.  Reason your way through the information and make an educated estimate if at all possible.

Here’s what I mean.  Let’s say you made a change in a procedure.  Instinctively know it saved time [productivity, cost], but you don’t have a report showing you the difference.  This is where most people give up, but don’t allow yourself to do this.  Think.  Under the old process, how much time would you estimate it took, for how many people.   Now do the same thing for the new process.  With a little arithmetic you have some results you can use.

After you have challenged yourself fully, if you just can’t come up with an estimated number, you can at least express the result qualitatively.  Some examples are: improved productivity, decreased cost substantially.  Perhaps 5% of the time this is what you have to do.

Work hard at this.  Resumes with accomplishments bring phone calls for interviews.