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The value of professional education: What’s yours?

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:38:22 +0000

Karen Smith-Hanney (right) of Destiny Career Planners, Surrey, BC, breakfasts with me at the Catamaran before the Career Directors International 2010 Summit.

Education is one of my priorities in my career and in my life. I’m quite curious about a lot of things and love learning. The longer I write resumes and coach clients during their job searches, I find more and more people who feel the same way.

I’m in San Diego, CA, this week, taking in the Career Directors International 2010 Summit. In only a few minutes, I will be joining my colleagues to begin another powerful learning experience.

I’m excited to greet friends I haven’t seen for a year and meet new writers and coaches. My pulse races a bit when I think of the new skills I will pick up and the new information I will be able to share with you next week when I’m back in the office.

What about you? What are you excited about learning? Have you given yourself the opportunity lately? Have you increased your value to your employer? Have you added a new professional development line to your resume?

If it’s been awhile since you’ve thought about the value you’re offering your employer, it might be time to update your resume. It’s the one time you’re able to count up all of the fabulous things you’ve done in your career. Go ahead; treat yourself!

We’d love to hear about the learning experience you find most valuable. Please add to the collective knowledge by commenting below.

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Keep your resume in the running with keywords

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:00:16 +0000

Using keywords in your resume is important for two reasons:

Some employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan resumes before sending them to human readers. Keywords are what the ATS is looking for.
Human readers usually are in a hurry, and they appreciate well organized material with skimmable lists.

A keywords list fits both criteria.

Where to find keywords

Look for keywords first in the job description of the position you want. Think like the hiring manager or human resources person who wrote the list of keywords and job posting. Which words describe what they’re looking for in an employee? Which of those apply to your skills and knowledge? Those are your keywords.

If you still don’t have a clear picture of the duties, visit ONET. In the upper right corner, key the name of the position you want in the Occupation Quick Search field and click the arrow. You will see a list of links to jobs in relational order to the title you typed in. Click on the one closest to what you’re looking for. The description you see will be much more comprehensive than the job description in the job posting. You may find more keywords to match with your qualifications. List those with the ones you found before. List as many as you find. We’ll narrow the list next.

Which words to use

Again, make sure each word you have chosen is within your area of expertise or knowledge. If in doubt, choose a better word or omit the term altogether.

Choose hard skills over soft skills and attributes. For example, “Strategic Planning” is a better keyword than “Organizational Skills.” Note that keywords are often key phrases but that they need to be short and precise.

Make all of the keywords nouns or noun phrases. For example, use “PC Repair” rather than “Repair PCs.”

Be as specific as possible. “Excel” is better than “Spreadsheet Program.”

How to list keywords

Use no more than 21 keywords in a list. I prefer about 15.

Avoid the use of tables and text boxes to organize keywords because they are often omitted from ATS scans, the very reason we are using them.

Instead, use tabs to place your keywords in three columns across the page.

First type a heading such as Core Competencies, Knowledge and Expertise, or Value Offered.
Leave a vertical space, and then type your 15 to 21 keywords in one column.
Highlight the entire column without the heading and place a left tab (looks like a capital L) at 0 on the left margin.
Place a center tab (looks like an upside-down capital T) at 2.5 inches, and a left tab at 4.5 inches.
Unhighlight the column.
Note the length of each keyword or phrase and place the longest phrases in the center column.
Place the shorter words and phrases in the left and right columns.
If the words don’t fit in the column, try rearranging them or think of a shorter phrase. Be careful, however, that you don’t lose the searchability. If the company used the words in the job description, they’ll probably use them in the ATS scan.

Where to use the list

The list will appear in your resume immediately following the introductory qualifications paragraph and immediately before your Experience category.

Have you used keywords successfully in your resume? We welcome your comments below.

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Imagine your next job, career, or business

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:55:14 +0000

Author Piero Morosini and his new book, "Seven Keys to Imagination."

Italian Peruvian author and consultant Piero Morosini wants to center the world of work around imagination.

Not money, not power, not stock options.

Imagine.

Now, imagine what careers, jobs, and the transitions between them would look like in that world.

Seven Keys

I recently heard Peter Day of the BBC’s Global Business program interview Morosini about his new book The Seven Keys to Imagination, subtitled “Creating the future by imagining the unthinkable … and delivering it”.

“Imaginative” is not what you want to be called in Corporate America, unless you work in advertising. To call an accountant creative is practically an indictment. Don’t even mention “emotional,” which has been used to keep generations of women out of the board room. In the career industry, a “creative” job search technique conjures uncomfortable visions of a sandwich board or clown costume.

What if that were not true?

What if, Morosini asks — instead of distrusting our imagination and emotions as conventional business does — we treated them as valuable resources to be used to shape our future?

Perhaps:

“We’ve always done it that way,” would no longer end dialogs.
A business calamity could be turned to opportunity.
Layoffs would not be the most common corporate response to a recession.

Imagine your career

When we imagine our career, we realize everything we have done has brought us to this place and this moment. “If only” has no place in our vocabulary. We can turn regret into opportunity simply by recognizing it. We can remain in one place, looking back over our shoulder and wishing that we had taken the job, not taken the job, made more money, made more time for family, not been among the layoffs, quit the job sooner. It doesn’t matter. What is, is.

Then, we can imagine what is next. Morosini suggests imagining the unthinkable … and delivering it. What would that look like?

When I was in my thirties, I quit a job that was killing me before I had landed another job. I know it’s not a great idea, and I don’t recommend it to my clients today. Unfortunately, my dislocated jaw and muscle spasms in my back had become unbearable under the stress I felt. Instead of looking for another job, I started my first business. It was nearly unthinkable. I had never dreamed of owning a business. I hadn’t even taken bookkeeping in high school or college. A more unprepared business owner has probably never lived.

Instead, I imagined it. I put all of the things I knew how to do in a figurative bowl, stirred them up, and poured out a freelance writing business. Soon, resume writing had become my bread and butter. In those days, I’d never heard of resume writing as a profession, but I was doing it. My imagination and a DOS-based PC with a 20-MG hard drive made my living. I have a bigger computer now, and I have a whole bunch of credentials I didn’t have back in the early days of this industry, but I’m still making my living using my imagination.

I’m not suggesting your career transitions be as drastic as that one, but I am recommending keeping all of the options in the bowl. When you use your imagination on what looks like a jumbled mess of ingredients, you can end up with a cake, as long as you follow the directions.

How to

Morosini says his seven keys to the imagination “can be recognized, developed and applied by all individuals, teams, and organizations who have the courage and determination to unlock their power to imagine and create successful futures for themselves.”

Michael Murray described the seven steps in his article, An imaginative approach for entrepreneurs:

The first two [steps] involve trading on mindset and customer obsession, with the aim of enabling individuals to imagine ‘radically new, unimaginable futures’ by seeing around them important things that others keep missing. The next four – Wiraqocha leaders and tinkunacuy, Peruvian concepts that loosely mean inspirational leaders and co-operation based on respect, as well as gentlemen’s promises and common glue – all allow imaginative individuals and teams to make the challenging mental pictures they originally conceived a reality. The remaining key, purposeful mission, turns these imaginary thoughts into a results-oriented process.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, skim through the related articles below for some early 20th century inspiration from Napoleon Hill and his band of merry millionaires.

Does this article spark your imagination? We welcome your comments below!

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Career opportunity: University trains pilots to ease forecast shortage

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:58:48 +0000

flickr.com/photos/innac/2484822619/sizes/l/

Airlines just surviving the recession now face the challenge of finding enough pilots. University of North Dakota Aerospace in Grand Forks, N.D., is soaring to meet that need with more than 2,200 students and the world’s largest, most comprehensive program and most technologically advanced environment for aerospace education, training, and research. That combination spells career opportunities for students from as close as next door and as far away as China.

According to Business Strategy Futurist Joyce Gioia, the International Civil Aviation Organization predicts growing airlines around the world will need an average of 49,900 pilots per year. The problem is that the current training capacity is only 47,025.

Executives at UND Aerospace have come to the same conclusion, based on information about the growth of domestic and foreign airlines. Except there aren’t as many long faces about it at UND as there are at airline offices.

“UND Aerospace can take advantage of this as an opportunity,” said said Chuck Pineo, Executive Vice President of UND Aerospace.

In the next 12 years, the major U.S. airlines alone are expected to hire more than 40,000 pilots. However, the US will face competition from faster-growing countries, such as China and India, Brazil, and Turkey.

Over the past five years, foreign governments and airlines have made significant increases in their demands for pilot education at UND Aerospace. The program currently has 300 international pilots from Taiwan, China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan on the flightline, and the number appears sustainable, Pineo said.

UND trains foreign pilots in a condensed undergraduate program. “Usually, the students have undergraduate degrees or close to undergraduate degrees from universities in [their own country]. They come here for a year of pilot education and are prepared to be first officers,” Pineo said.

With the learning curve for pilot training, the shortage is going to last for a while and foreign carriers will struggle most, Gioia predicted, adding that Airbus anticipates world passenger traffic will increase an average of 4.7 percent a year between 2009 and 2028.

Even if airlines are able to find pilots, they will have to pay top dollar for them because they are in such demand, Gioia predicted. That could also be good news for UND-trained pilots.

Other career opportunities

In addition to pilots, developed and developing countries alike will also need more airport managers, air traffic controllers, and others in aviation careers, creating more opportunities, UND’s Pineo said. In addition, the Air Traffic Control program is training 300 U.S. undergraduates and 36 from Norway. “A lot of people don’t realize how diverse we are,” Pineo said.

The software development side of the aviation industry is also growing. The military has a huge demand for training software for unmanned aircraft, for example. UND Aerospace provides computer courseware for the United States Air Force through Crew Training International.

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Portions of this report are from ‘The Herman Trend Alert,’ by Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurist. (800) 227-3566 or http://www.hermangroup.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group of Companies, Inc.”

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Tweet your resume with this new app

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:33:07 +0000

Twitres Sample Screenshot

If you aren’t using Twitter for your job search, start now.

One of the first things you can do is to use Twitres to tweet your resume.

Here are some tips for using Twitres:

Recruiters post job descriptions on Twitres, so search for any that apply to your target position by using hashtags. A hashmark or pound sign looks like this: #. If you put a hashtag in front of a word (#resume, for example) the word turns into a search term on Twitter. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter operating procedures, visit Twitter.com and read their help files.
Follow the same rules as when you post your resume on a job board. For example, unless you want everyone in the world to have access to your street address, omit it from your resume. You can leave in the city, state/province, and country if you wish.
Be sure your resume showcases your accomplishments, not just your everyday duties.
Browse to the location on your hard drive and upload your document in one of these formats: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .txt, .rtf. A .pdf is more difficult for someone else to change than a Word or text document, if you’re concerned about the security of your document.
A message is automatically inserted that encourages viewers to check out your resume. This appears in a revolving format on the Twitres home page along with a thumbnail of your and two other resumes.
Make your tweet searchable with a hashtag in it.
Read the Twitres terms and conditions, click submit, and you’re done.

While you’re waiting for the phone to ring (just kidding – that’s not a good search strategy), get acquainted with Twitter searches.

If your resume isn’t ready for its close-up, contact us for a makeover.

Have you used Twitter and/or Twitres in your job search? We welcome your comments below!

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Mentoring for international award nomination, landing job

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:36:49 +0000

You know that saying about life being counted not by the number of breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away? I just had one.

I’ve been nominated for an award in the Best Creative Resume category of the Career Directors International (CDI) annual Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) competition. This is the first year I’ve entered, so I’m thrilled to have been nominated this early in my experience with the association. They are a great group whose focus on excellence and education matches my own (and I thought that even before I was nominated!).

The first thing I did (after calling my husband into my office to be sure I was actually reading my own name on the screen) was to email my gratitude to my mentor. Laura DeCarlo, director of CDI, offered mentoring services this year before the award entries were due.

Now, I knew how to write a resume before her mentoring. I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and people get interviews with the documents I write, but she taught me practical tips for content and design that made my resumes even more effective. I can’t imagine that I would have come close to a nomination without her.

_____________________________

Mentoring leads to your success, too

Mentoring can also be one of the secrets to a successful job search and career. Just as Laura’s mentoring took my writing to new levels, mentoring from a career coach can put your job search or career change on the fast track.

You can talk with your friends and colleagues about changing positions, and they’ll likely support and encourage you. Will they hold you accountable? Can they advise you on effective techniques for your job search? Interview preparation? Salary negotiations? How much do they know about the current employment conditions?

Friends, family, and business associates are not your best source of education and guidance about a subject in which they are not expert, but about which they do have an agenda. They love you, in the case of friends and family, and business associates are likely to at least want to keep you around – or not; either way, it’s an agenda.

Like a mentor, a career coach’s only job is to prepare you for your next career move. No agenda, no hidden motives, no extra baggage.

Contact me today to be your career coach and resume writer. I’ll guide and mentor you through proven techniques to increase your success. After all, I’m a better mentor now, too. Look at the great mentor I’ve had.

Keep your resume updated in the Update Club

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:20:10 +0000

What we hear from our clients:

I’m so glad you wrote my resume, but it’s out of date.
I don’t know how to update it without feeling like I’m bragging.
I don’t know what to leave in and what to leave out out the update.
I can’t remember what I’ve done that should be on the resume update.

What we’re doing to fix it:

Everything.

Clients who have a Workwrite Resume are eligible to become members of the Update Club. For $99 per year, you can send us an email, text message to 218-791-4045, Facebook message, Tweet, or LinkedIn status with new information. We’ll add it to your resume and send you the updated document.

The point is that you will always, always have an updated resume in your computer, phone, on LinkedIn, wherever you want it to be.

That means you’re ready for anything, good or bad. If the VP comes over to tell you that management position has opened, you’re ready. If , on the other hand, a pink slip lands on your desk, you’re ready. If your spouse suddenly gets transferred, you’re ready.

You can be one of those Always Prepared types without even trying. The only thing you need to do is shoot us a note when something good happens. Your message might look like this:

“Made a presentation to Sales Team about Social Media, and Sales Manager asked me to do training next week. Said it was the best one he’d seen in five years.”

Seriously, that’s all you need to write. We’ll contact you for any clarification needed and put it on your resume so it sounds something like this:

“Presented “The Influence of Social Media on Advertising Sales” to Sales Team of 10, and was invited to present an interactive training seminar for team members. Sales Manager said presentation was best in five years.”

September is International Update Your Resume Month, so this is a great time to take care of the update so it doesn’t nag you all year.

Don’t have a resume?

Perhaps you’re a business owner, entrepreneur or other non-employed sort. You may still need a biography to send to people considering doing business with you. Remember, people generally don’t do business with businesses; they do business with people. You may need a biographical introduction for the times you speak to a group. Many times, financial institutions require a resume or biography for a commercial loan application. You may be using your LinkedIn or other online profile as your resume these days. We write and update all of these types of documents, and they’re all eligible for the Update Club as long as you’ve had us write an original.

It’s going to get busier around here very quickly, so contact us as soon as possible to sign up for the Update Club membership and put your update worries aside.

We love ideas!

Let us know what you think of the idea and if you have suggestions for other member benefits. Please write your comments below. Thanks!

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Benefits and jobs for returning veterans

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:55:24 +0000

Command Sgt. Maj. Dan Job (right) congratulates Spc. Leah N. Stoner, of Fargo, who recently returned from her second deployment with the North Dakota National Guard. Stoner and more than 300 other North Dakota Soldiers were honored Sept. 9, 2010, during the 231st Maneuver Task Force Freedom Salute. (Photo by Spc. Jess Raasch, 116th Public Affairs Detachment)

Dear Veterans,

First, thank you. Thank you for fighting for me when and where I could not. A middle-aged writer with a bad back and feet that have seen four surgeries wouldn’t get far in modern combat. You did.

Active military and National Guard members from our area in North Dakota and Minnesota have deployed to:

Kosovo with the 231^st Maneuver Task Force.

Congo with the 814th Army Support Medical Company

Iraq with Company C, 2nd Battalion 285th Aviation Regiment (C/2-285th AVN)

Iraq with 1st Brigade – 34th Infantry Division (Red Bulls)

Iraq with 1st Battalion, 188thAir Defense Artillery Regiment

Iraq with 34th Engineer Brigade

Multiple deployments with 119th Wing “Happy Hooligans”

And so many others.

I can only imagine what you faced then and what you face now. Please remember, particularly if you struggle to re-orient yourself to civilian and family life, that you are in my thoughts daily. My church congregation prays for you every Sunday. You are not alone.

I have heard that the hardships of returning to civilian life lead some soldiers to choose another tour. I don’t pretend to know what you’re going through. So, allow me, from the perspective of someone in a helping profession to list some choices available for situations I have heard of and witnessed.

Post-traumatic Stress: In whatever form this comes, nightmares, free-floating anxiety or anger, depression, violence toward others, and all of the other flavors of fear after an unthinkable experience, remember it can be treated very effectively.

Medical Issues and Health Care: The Department of Veterans Affairs offers medical benefits to eligible veterans. You may qualify. Find a Veterans Medical Center or Outpatient Clinic near you. Locally, the Community Violence and Intervention Center has much to offer for everyone in a domestic violence situation. There is probably a similar service where you live. If you are unaware of one, please use the link above. They are networked with other centers across the nation.

Financial Hardships: Especially for members of the National Guard who often make little during their deployments compared with their full-time civilian work, there are sites that offer links to benefits for Returning Service Members.

A Federal Career: If the job you held before deployment isn’t available or no longer fits your goal, the VA offers assistance for a new career, including a job at the VA. Another option is a position in one of the federal agencies on this list.

A Civilian Career: For those who prefer to return to civilian work, a career coach is an important ally. Employment conditions have changed drastically in the past two years. Many companies have frozen hiring or downsized. A promotion or transfer that looked like a sure thing a year or two ago may not be in the cards now. A career coach helps clients determine the type of work that fits them best now and think about the path they would like their career to take in the future. The coach is a great resource for strategies for the job search. Many write resumes or can refer you to a professional resume writer so that you have a marketing document that represents your best work and accomplishments. If you haven’t interviewed in awhile, consider asking for interview preparation, and depending on your skills, salary negotiations, as well. The coach is available during the search in case you have questions. It’s an investment that pays for itself in a matter of weeks, but the knowledge you gain lasts a lifetime. Don’t wait until you’re desperate. Contact us today to start the most successful job search of your life.

With heartfelt thanks,

Jeri

Readers, if you would like to add other units that have deployed, please list them in the comment space below. Also, please visit whitehouse.gov/salute and share your own salute to the returning troops.

Simplify your job search with these 10 tools

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:00:41 +0000

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mAqB6UyXHpxF9terUxxkpQ

Two savvy people crossed my path today, talking about the same thing. I generally take that as a sign it’s something to pay attention to.

Resume guru Julie Walraven showed me how to use Skype to collaborate on documents with my resume clients. It’s really simple.

1. Call your client or writer on Skype.
2. When you see the message field, click “share” below it and then “share full screen.”
3. Open the document you want to share and discuss or edit it together.

Julie’s written about the process in much more detail on her blog.

1. Skype tops a great list of 10 collaboration tools recommended by Zeke Camusio with TheOutsourcingCompany.com . He uses them to keep in touch with his traveling team, but they look to me like wonderful tools for your job search. Here is his list with my parenthetical comments:

2. BaseCamp , a project management tool. (There’s a 30-day free trial, which may be enough if your job search doesn’t last too long. If it does, or if you want to turn the app into your project manager, the basic version is $24 per month.

3. Twiddla, a whiteboard you can share online. (If you aren’t particularly linear and would rather have a sandbox/playground environment, this one is free.)

4.Google Docs shares working documents with your mentor, resume writer, board of directors, anyone who needs to see your document. (The link is to a demo that also has a link to sign up for a free account. I’ve used this for awhile. It’s good for working docs like time lines and checklists, but unfortunately, it won’t hold resume formatting, so it’s less valuable in that arena.)

5. Mint, a free money-management tool. (This looks like a perfect tool for someone who has just lost a job and needs to do major work on the household budget.)

6. LogMeIn , remotely controls a computer. (My accountant uses this to do my books, thank goodness.)

7. Google Calendar keeps your events and meetings organized and makes them available to others you choose. (This is one of my newest can’t-live-without-it tools. It’s replaced Outlook and given me sync-less access to my calendar via the browser on my Droid. I’m trying to talk my business partner/husband into using it, too, but he seems less than eager for me to know that much about his schedule. Maybe your colleagues are more amenable.)

8. BlueTie manages emails and contacts organized (a MUST during a job search). At $5 per month, BlueTie has a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) engine built in. (I use gmail for these functions, and I’m satisfied enough with it not to go looking elsewhere. Try out both and see which you like. Hint: gmail is free.)

9. PamFax sends and receives faxes very inexpensively from your computer. (I use eFax to receive faxes and FreeFax to send on those rare occasions I need to.)

10. EchoSign allows you to sign documents online quickly and easily. (This does sound simpler for the person on the other end of the contract, at $14.95 per month for you. I have Adobe Distiller, so I can sign PDFs without additional cost, but unless the other person has the same program, they still have to print/fax or print/scan/email.)

All of that said, no matter how many cool tools you amass, they don’t take the place of a genius resume and a well-planned and executed job search. Those we have. Contact us right away for a consultation appointment. Things are heating up with the advent of fall, so we’re requesting a week’s lead time for new customers.

Job search getting you down? Test your Positivity

Jeri Hird Dutcher — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 22:37:11 +0000

It’s hard to stay positive when looking for a job, but now, there’s a new way to test and track our own positivity level.

The first prospect of a job search can be exciting. A new start, fresh path, but when the novelty wears off that second week or so, it’s more appealing to catch up on work you brought home, play outside with the kids, or clean the oven. After the second month, particularly if they’re unemployed, some people start feeling a bit down or even depressed.

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson has researched positive and negative emotions and their effects on our everyday lives. Most of us would say, well, of course, if you’re happier, your life is better. Dr. Fredrickson has narrowed it down to the ratio required, about 3:1, that is 3 positive emotions for every 1 negative emotion will keep us relatively healthy emotionally.

Here is Dr. Fredrickson’s video on the subject, courtesy Youtube:

Dr. Fredrickson has also created a test and tracking system to help us watch the ups and downs of our days and weeks. I took Dr. Fredrickson’s Positivity test last week and scored an improbable 5:1.

Everyone who knows me understands that I’m a quivering mass of … well … yes … enthusiasm. I found myself admitting yesterday at coffee that I like rainy days. When my husband and others I know say they can’t stand one more day of clouds, I think about how my garden is lapping up the moisture and how the grass has turned green again.

I have had coaching clients ask if they could take me home because their confidence level soars during our coaching appointments. Eventually, they get that it’s more important for them to learn to turn around the overwhelming thoughts than to have me hanging around on the couch.

Today’s score, on the other hand was 0.29, and I’m not even looking for a job. We track almost everything else about a job search, or at least we need to. (Visit Jason Alba’s JibberJobber.com if you’re having trouble keeping up with how many resumes you’ve submitted, to whom, on what day, and whether you’ve received a reply. JibberJobber takes care of all of that and then turns into a nifty contact manager.) The only thing it doesn’t do is graph how you feel, and for most people, keeping a positive attitude is what will allow you to persevere through the rest of your job search.

Track your positivity with Dr. Fredrickson’s test and you may find a bit more sun for your job-hunting day.