Had a Long Career? Here’s How to Show It And Inspire Confidence

by S. D. Farrell on May 8, 2012

Many people still believe you have to list each and every job you’ve ever had on a resume, either to impress interviewers or avoid “resume fraud.” As a professional resume writer, let me warn you: the worst thing you can do is include every job!

In most cases, your resume should focus closely on the most recent ten years. You follow these ten years in reverse chronological order, with your most recent position first, your next most recent next, and so on down the line — no matter if it’s one job or several.

Interviewers are always most interested in your last ten years of experience. What should you do when you’re done writing about those years? Here’s what we do in a resume writing service like Career Excellence Advisors:

  • Switch to Another Heading: When you change headings, it’s a signal that you’re dealing with a new topic. That means you can also switch to a new format. Go with something like “Previous Career Highlights,” and write the next entries similarly to the first ten years, but skip the dates.

  • Only Include Valuable Info: If the first half of your career covers the recent ten years, the next half should only cover five to ten more. Don’t include information about entry-level positions you held at the beginning of your career, since these have fewer achievements to talk about.

  • Don’t Worry About Including Everything: If you’re applying for a job where completeness is very important, like jobs where there’s a security clearance, then after you cover ten more years of “Previous Career Highlights,” simply go to a final heading where you list any jobs prior to those.

Career Change Resumes Can Be Different: Here’s How

If you are making a career change, then you want to plumb your experience for anything and everything that relates to the new job. That’s true even if the position that’s most closely related was ten years ago or more.

A career change resume is one of the few cases where it can be wise to break out of the traditional “reverse chronological” resume and use a resume that includes skills headings. The headings are based on the skills your new career values.

This is a challenging tactic to pull off successfully. If not done right, it can leave resume reviewers with the impression you’re trying to hide something. But if it’s handled carefully, you end up with everything relevant to your new career on page one, where reviewers are far more likely to read it!

There’s a lot more to think about when you’re planning a career transition resume — it’s very different from a regular resume. We’ll be talking more about it in a future article here on Career Excellence Advisors.

{ 0 comments }

Moms Beware: 4 Interview Discrimination Tricks

by S. D. Farrell on May 8, 2012

Everyone knows that here in America, employers can’t discriminate against candidates for things like age, sex, disability, race, and religious or ethnic background. Sadly, many HR professionals have found ways around these restrictions.

One of their prime targets is moms who are re-entering the workforce.

Interviewers and others in the hiring process often decline to name a specific reason why any candidate is not hired. The reason why? Often, it’s to cover unscrupulous behavior, such as carrying out a mandate from management not to hire women with children.

Since interviewers are not allowed to ask certain personal questions, they use other methods to carry out potentially discriminatory policies. Some of these are so dishonest that a well-prepared interviewee needs to prepare for them well in advance.

Workplace discrimination against mothers is supposedly “justified” by the extra care and attention that mothers may have to provide their children. In effect, employers want to be sure that they are #1 in your life not only while at work, but at all times.

Since it is not possible to find out which employers are discriminatory and which ones aren’t before you interview, it should not change your job application behavior. Instead, you should take precautions at all interviews: Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

To discriminate against you, an interviewer has to find out you’re a mother.

Here’s how they do it.

Four Ways Interviewers Set Moms Up to Fall

  • Small Talk: The first and most obvious way is simply through small talk. While it’s incredibly important to make the interviewer like you — it might be the most important factor in the interview — small talk can also be used to get you to volunteer information about yourself when questions can’t be asked directly.
  • Fake Family Photo: If an interview is taking place entirely in someone’s office, beware. Some interviewers, especially female ones, have taken to keeping family photos on their desk so you’ll notice and comment on them. The kids aren’t theirs — they came with the frame. The goal is to pry into your personal life.
  • “Let Me Walk You Back to Your Car“: What seems like common courtesy (and is very difficult to refuse) can actually be a way of scoping out your car. Interviewers take the time to look for baby seats and make other snap judgments, based on whether you have a “family” car and how pricey it looks.
  • The Resume: It’s very important not to volunteer personal information on your resume. Even if an interviewer has the purest of intentions, you can put him or her in a legally difficult spot by including personal information, including family status. Outside of top executive roles, most people skip hobbies, too.

{ 0 comments }

4 Ways of Building Your Resume Compared: Part 2

by S. D. Farrell on May 6, 2012

Continued from: 4 Ways of Building Your Resume Compared: Part 1

Professional Associations

Professional associations are the cheapest and easiest way to build your resume. By paying annual dues of a hundred dollars or so, you will have free or low-cost access to training materials, mailing lists, a network of your peers, and more. Even if you only plan to be a member and never make use of any resources, you should still do it — and add the association to your resume.

Why is that? Being a member of a professional association shows a true commitment to continuous improvement. Plus, you can reach out to other association members and make your professional network that much bigger. If you really do go “all out” and consume the training materials and other perks in your association, you can add a slew of new skills to your resume and show you are on the cutting edge.

To learn more, read The Fastest Way to Build Your Resume Might Require No Effort.

Cost: Cost can vary, and many associations raise their membership dues each and every year like clockwork. Some are very affordable, while some are punishing. Stick to a small portfolio of one to three organizations if cost is a factor.

Value: This depends on the organization. It can be extremely high or very, very low, and you’ll know what kind of association you’ve joined as soon as you’re in. Don’t be afraid to walk out on the ones that don’t justify their membership fees.

Time: Time investment can be zero. It’s totally up to you.

What to Watch Out For: Good professional associations tend to offer timely, valuable training materials, certifications, newsletters, and many other ways to learn what’s going on in your industry, plus networking services like mailing lists and annual meetings. Bad associations have bad training materials — a naked “money grab” for association leaders.

Professional Certifications

There is a huge variety of online certifications, usually offered by experienced experts in a field, that provide skills training for a particular job. Some of these are offered by professional associations. Others, as in the software industry, are provided directly by major companies in the industry. For example, no one is going to argue with a technician who has the right Microsoft and Cisco certifications.

Professional certifications often have a bad rap among the same naysayers who believe that a 4-year degree is the beginning and end of career preparation. But, in fact, if you don’t hold any certifications in your field offered by real practitioners, not just scholars, you’re shorting yourself on your odds of getting the job you want. Often, interviewers can measure and understand the value of your certifications more easily than your degree.

Cost: Costs tend to be low, but this can vary. Many certifications will require you to pay to be tested, then pay annually or semi-annually to be retested. Retesting tends to be less expensive than the original test, but there may be “ongoing education” requirements that can be expensive to fulfill.

Value: The value of a professional certification is higher than any other resume builder if the certification is good. How can you know in advance if it will be good? Look at the training materials. Do they challenge you and offer skills or knowledge you don’t have? Ask colleagues (maybe from a professional association) if they have the certification and whether it helps. Research the organization and make sure it’s full of credible pros.

Time: Time investment tends to be low — a few weeks of preparation followed by a test that usually takes only a few hours. Of course, there are exceptions: Some information technology pros take months to study for advanced certifications that require grueling, eight-hour practical exams. This is unusual, though.

What to Watch Out For: Certifications can be offered by unscrupulous people who are just trying to create a “cash cow.” Check off all the factors under “Value.” Then take a look at the website. Does it have any advertisements for outside services, like Google Ads? If so, it’s only intended to make money.

To double check, go to a WHOIS Record Finder online, such as the one hosted by Network Solutions. The WHOIS tool will tell you how long the certification website has existed on the web. If it is recent, you know that something might be amiss.

{ 0 comments }

4 Ways of Building Your Resume Compared: Part 1

by S. D. Farrell on May 6, 2012

A Master’s Degree

In today’s job market, a 4-year college degree is assumed as a matter of course for most jobs. Master’s degrees, on the other hand, can be very valuable — about as valuable as a bachelor’s degree used to be. However, in most cases, you don’t need a whole master’s degree (which can take two to three years!) to reap the career boosting benefits of some graduate study.

Cost: Extremely high, but public universities can be affordable and offer financial aid.

Value: Can be extremely high, but only when degree and career field match closely.

Time: Time investment is intensive, even when you are in an online masters program.

What to Watch For: Classes taught by professionals who have worked in the field rather than just as scholars. Classes that focus on relevant, recent developments in the field. A university that is reputable and properly accredited. A degree that does not specify “online” if you are going for an online option.

Online School / Graduate Certificates

If you already have a bachelor’s degree, you might be stunned by how little it has done for you. But: It opens the door to graduate certificates. These short courses of study, which you can often do completely online, are usually aimed at giving you more skill and specialization in your field.

Because they teach you new ways of dealing with workplace problems, a good one is just as valuable as a full degree. Plus, a graduate certificate can be very inexpensive. For example, several excellent certificates are available online from the University of California Irvine for as little as $510 a course for six courses in a “pay as you go” style.

Don’t choose just any school, though. The sad fact is that most online schools are scams.

Cost: Moderate to affordable. Most certificate programs are on a pay-as-you-go basis, meaning you pay for only the courses you’re taking, not the whole program. They also tend to be flexible enough for you to go at your own pace. Some certification

Value: Often extremely high. This is a great step to positioning yourself for a promotion or building on your current education.

Time: Time investment tends to be low. Some certificate programs can be completed in as little as a year. As soon as you have started a program, you should mention it on your resume and then list classes completed.

What to Watch For: Classes that offer skills, training, or tools that you can bring back to your career. Be wary of bloated, theory-heavy classes that claim to teach “critical thinking.” Reading Dickens does this just as well.

{ 0 comments }

The Most Important Step: Transforming Skills Into a Story of Achievement

by S. D. Farrell on May 6, 2012

Continued From: Decoding “Duties”: How to Match Your Skills to an Employer’s Dream Candidate.

If you’ve been following our series on professional resume writing tactics, you’ll notice that in the last two articles you spent a lot of time gathering information, comparing, and planning — but you haven’t actually started writing a resume yet.

That’s no mistake. As a professional resume writer, I devote hours to the process of coming up with a strategy for every project I take on. Not only do I look at the position posting, as I’ve advised you to do here, but also at the company website, industry publications, and many other sources of information.

I’m assuming that you don’t have time for all that and want a look behind the curtain at the “bare bones” process. So let’s move on to the next and most important part.

So far, we’ve talked about skills, which are individual things you can practice and get better at. And we’ve talked about duties, which are badly written, vague bundles of skills that get clumped together. Both of these are found in your job announcement.

By dissecting the duties in the job posting, we come up with all the skills that are pertinent to the job. Then, you can dive in to your career experience and find those skills, even if your duties were drastically different from the ones in the job you want.

But a resume isn’t just a list of skills that matches a position posting.

Transforming Skills into Achievements: Think Strategically to Get the Interview

After finally figuring out what skills the employer is looking for, I advised you to divide up each of the jobs you’ve held in the past ten years into headings. These headings each represent one skill: Budgeting, Sales, PR, or whatever.

You choose your headings based on what the job description tells you. If the most important skill for the job is programming, your first heading under each and every job should be Programming, unless you had a job where you didn’t use it whatsoever.

(If that’s the case, there are other tactics you can use, but we won’t discuss those here.)

But what do you put under those headings? Headings are just the outline. Skill is the central message you want to communicate — but saying you have a skill means nothing. You need concrete evidence, which means you need a story.

Tell a Story About a Skill to Show Achievements and Get Your Due

Stated simply, achievements are how you went above and beyond using your skills. Interviewing clients and finding achievement stories is one of the most important things that a professional resume writer does. Why?

Achievements are the evidence that you have the skills you say you do. If presented right, they’re also interesting: and this is vital. A resume may be thrown out based on the first impression. It lives or dies without the first three minutes to thirty seconds.

Although it’s not fair, it’s true: Your resume has to be interesting, to read well.

Within your entire resume, only achievements read well. Other stuff is frame work.

Achievements: A Precise Definition and Example

If you’re in sales, you have a quota. Let’s say your quota is $100,000 in brand new, stainless steel refrigerators every single month. Meeting quota is a duty. Sales is the skill you used. If you exceeded quota and sold $500,000 a month, that’s an achievement.

You can’t tell a story about having a $100,000 quota.

You can’t tell a story about “sales.” That’s far too vague.

But you can tell a story about the achievement of selling 500% over quota. That is the kind of information that forces a reader to sit up and take notice. And by including the right details about that achievement, you inspire them to call you.

In a resume, achievements should always come first. They should always say:

  • What you did, in hard numbers ($500,000 in sales per month)
  • How it differed from the norm ($100,000 monthly quota)
  • How you did it — what did you change or do differently?

Finding Achievements: “Buried Treasure” In Your Career History

Finding achievements isn’t easy. High achieving people often feel like their own remarkable work is “business as usual.” Those who’ve been in career situations that did not suit them may feel like they never had achievements.

This is another place where a professional resume writer brings you years of skill and expertise. Nobody expects you to be a master resume writer or to have knowledge of “secret” Human Resources information. Why should you?

In this series is a template for approaching resume writing problems the way I do. But if you’re not completely sure that you can put it all into action, I urge you to send me an email so we can discuss your situation one on one.

In my next article, I’ll put it together as a step-by-step guide.

{ 0 comments }

Decoding “Duties”: How to Match Your Skills to an Employer’s Dream Candidate

by S. D. Farrell on May 6, 2012

Continued From: How to Pick Skills for Your Resume Like a Professional Resume Writer

 

In our last post, we talked about the difference between “skills” and “duties” in a job posting. Refer back to that post to learn how a professional resume writer like me uses a job posting to figure out how to structure a candidate’s resume and get the interview.

Now we’re going to talk about the list of “duties” in the job posting. Unlike skills, duties can be very vague and are usually things that come with on the job experience. Here’s an example of a “duties” listing for a Production Artist, a graphic designer in a corporate setting.

“Follows established processes including, but not limited to, digital file organization (art files and stock photography), job movement and collecting files for external vendors. ”

Duties are usually written in long, convoluted sentences like that one. But when you read it carefully, you quickly realize that there are several different, unrelated thoughts here, all of which your resume has to cover:

  • Follows established processes
  • Organizes digital files
  • Remains aware of “job movement”
  • Collects files for external vendors

Of course, you probably haven’t performed the exact combination of duties that your job posting describes, unless you’re getting a job identical to one you’ve already had at a different employer. But once you see every “duty” as a bundle of skills, you can handle it.

STEP THREE: Break down every “duty” into its component “skills” and write these down. Remember that each duty is usually a list of skills hidden in a lot of “blah, blah, blah.” Cut the meaningless words out and find the verbs, the action words.

STEP FOUR: Put all of the skills in the job posting together under headings. For example, there could be a management heading, a budgeting heading, a sales heading, and many others. These headings will appear again in your resume.

Now Comes the Hard Part: Review Your Entire Career and Find Those Skills

You can’t find the right skills until you’ve broken down the job posting into skills, skills, skills. Otherwise, it’s impossible to compare your experience to what the employer wants. But now you dive into the difficult part — the part where a professional really helps.

First off, you have to be sure that when you look at a phrase like “job movement,” what you have in mind is exactly what the employer has in mind. That can be a challenge, since a lot of vague phrases like this can mean different things in different industries.

But the big challenge, the one where a second perspective is vital, is reviewing your career and finding places where your “skills” compare to the ones the employer wants. Then you describe them in terms of their similarities, no matter how different they are.

What?

This is something that’s easiest to understand by example:

An Example: How to Think About Your Achievements to Find Those Skills!

Let’s say that I’m in computer sales and now I want to be a corporate trainer.

At first, these jobs seem like they couldn’t be more radically different. But I take the job posting for a corporate trainer. I realize that the job has many duties relating to talking to other people, empathizing with them, discovering their problems and finding solutions.

  • First, I have to accept that I’ve never done this in the way the job posting wants.
  • Next, I have to realize that I’ve done similar things that might help get the job.

As a computer salesperson, I have:

  • Talked to people who are upset about their computer, helped them communicate.
  • Analyzed their problems in terms of both their needs and their budget constraints.
  • Learned about their skill levels and looked for appropriate technologies tactfully.

Maybe I’ve done other things, such as on-site installation that included teaching the customer about the computer. Perhaps I’ve even done things like work out a budget for their hardware and software or help them with financing.

Already, I have material for at least three headings: Training, Budgeting, and Problem-Solving. There are many other headings I could use, but I want to select headings that relate to the job posting and that I can fill with several achievements. Why? Because if these are the headings that are most important to my new job, then they should appear in every single job I’ve had along the way — no exceptions.

STEP FIVE: Looking at your last ten years of experience, organize your entire career so that it looks as similar as possible to the job you want. Even if the duties were different, the skills you used should be presented as very similar.

But That’s Not the Last Step

You might have all the skills, and make great comparisons between your experience and the “dream candidate.” But if you stop there, you still haven’t done everything you can to ensure a great match with the job you want.

Another secret of professional resume writing is going a step further — from “duties” and “skills” to achievements. Showcasing your top achievements on the job is what excites bosses and gets them to call you for interviews.

But most people don’t realize that they have achievements …

And they may not know how to find or express them like a pro.

See our next post for more information and the last step!

{ 0 comments }

How to Pick Skills For Your Resume Like a Professional Resume Writer

by S. D. Farrell on May 6, 2012

No matter what job you’re looking for, the first step in the process is always the same: Look at the job posting. When you look at the job listing, you should read it like a blueprint. If any aspect of the blueprint is missing, the final product you want — the job — won’t stand up. Luckily, unlike a construction project, we can make substitutions in a resume that will “shore up” parts where your skills aren’t quite where you want them.

(To be fair, let me point out that I would never recommend clients write their resume on their own. Outside perspective from a professional is what turns a job search of six months into one of six days. But even the most experienced resume writing pro will start from the same base — the job posting.)

What You Need to Look For In Your Job Posting

In virtually every job posting, there are two resources you can use:

  • A list of skills such as particular computer programs and other technical tools that are used in the job. If you’re not sure you’ll have all these skills, it’s a good idea to look at a job posting similar to the one you want six to ten months before you plan to apply for a job. Try to get some practice with these skills before you apply.
  • A list of “duties” describing exactly what it is you’ll do on a day to day basis. This usually ends with the phrase “and other duties as assigned,” which for our purposes is meaningless. While it’s hard to make up for skills you don’t have, “duty” lists will allow you to compare your experience to what’s required.

STEP ONE: Find the list of skills and the list of duties. Copy-paste each list into its own separate file. Using these two tools that every job posting provides, you can see quickly how you match up to the ideal employee — that is, the one the job posting describes.

Use The List of Skills to Self-Train For The Job

Anything you can sit down and practice, research, or study is usually covered here. Everything else comes out in your “duties.”

Remember that, sadly, there’s no reason for employers to select a candidate who does not have every skill on their ideal list. So if you have fewer than 50% of the skills, you might want to look for a similar position where different skills are considered important.

If you have more than 50% of the skills listed in a job posting, then you want to show that you are hard at work gaining the skills that are left over. For things like software, there are many inexpensive courses and certificates you might choose.

You don’t have to be done with this kind of training to say you have a “skill” — list the skill anyway, and note that you have a training course “in progress.”

Remember, employers care more about skills than they do about classroom hours. If you have evidence of a skill, such as projects, reports, proposals, illustrations, presentations, and so on, you can include them in a portfolio you submit with your resume.

STEP TWO: You absolutely must list each and every skill you have that matches what the job posting says. Do it in a table or list as close as possible to the top of page one on your resume.

The reason this is so important is this: It means you’ll get found in the computer system. If your words don’t match the job posting as exactly as possible, you won’t get found and your resume won’t get read. So, use the words of the posting in a list format.

“Duties” in a job posting are even more important. We’ll cover them in our next post.

Continued: Decoding “Duties”: How to Match Your Skills to an Employer’s Dream Candidate

{ 0 comments }

Are You an Expert in Your Field? Boost Your Cred With a Pro Blog

by S. D. Farrell on May 3, 2012

Not too long ago, blogging was for kids. Only youngsters were interested in posting the minutiae of their daily lives on an online forum for everyone to see. Besides, starting a website was complicated, and the pre-packaged communities out there weren’t friendly to business-related content. Now, all of that has changed.

Led by pioneers in the technology world, blogging has become respectable. Some people use it for citizen journalism. Blogs have helped shed a light on areas of the world in turmoil. And professionals like you use blogging to show their colleagues, friends, and even the boss that they are ready to take on big industry challenges.

When you’re recognized as an expert, your opportunities for professional growth go well beyond the office. You have the chance to network with others and access the thousands of jobs that are never posted. You can parlay your expertise into other income, too: Speaking, writing, and much more. But while you’re employed, your company benefits from your image — as long as you are able to keep it clean and professional.

Starting a professional blog is most valuable for entrepreneurs. At the start of your business, you have complete control over your image. Over time, you will build a brand that comes to include customers’ expectations. But at the outset, you can influence those expectations by staking out a claim on a niche and demonstrating expertise. Here are some things to remember about a blog for your business.

Six Things to Remember When Writing a Blog for Expert Cred

  • It Isn’t About You: At the beginning of your blogging endeavor, you’ll have to figure out how much of your personality should drive your posts. Plenty of bloggers show their character in their posts — but just as many try to step out of the way and let their blog be the “voice” of their business. Either way, you should avoid posting funny photos of cats or talking about anything you wouldn’t want your colleagues and future clients to know.
  • It Is About Customers: Whether you’re an entrepreneur or currently employed, you have customers. In the latter case, your customers are your current industry contacts and future employers. Blogs are most valuable to the audience when they offer information that only the expert author can provide. Structure your posts around the latest issues in your industry and you’re more likely to get a readership.
  • It Is Hard to Get Readers: Promoting a blog is just as hard as promoting a regular website. To make your site more business-friendly, post about your latest updates through your LinkedIn account. Include your website address on your business cards and resume. And, perhaps most important, don’t stop at ordinary blog posts — build a portfolio of your work and successes, to the extent you’re allowed.
  • Stake Out a Professional Tone: If you’re currently employed, you’ll have to be aware of the rules surrounding disclosure and professional behavior at your company. While employees have gotten in trouble for blogging before, this was generally for unsavory behavior. However, you should take precautions on what you say about your own brand and its competitors. Harsh words can come back to haunt you.
  • Check Your Industry Pulse: If you’re in information technology, you’ll often have more leeway in what you post. That’s because blogs are being recognized as a legitimate professional development activity among technology innovators — part of building and sustaining the corporate brand. If your industry is more conservative, take that into account in the way you structure and promote your site.
  • Go For It: If your industry is on the conservative side and doesn’t include many bloggers, then you there may be an information gap there you can fill. By starting off slowly and building your efforts consistently over time, you can achieve a loyal following that might open doors for you as your career progresses.

{ 0 comments }

Nextworking: Turn Strangers Into Contacts With Your Business Card

by S. D. Farrell on May 3, 2012

If you are a professional, you probably have a business card. Maybe you have one on your desk where you can look at it right now. Take a look: I’ll wait. There’s one thing you should ask yourself about your business card before you hand it out again. “What is this card trying to achieve?” Most people have never posed this simple question. By understanding what a card is capable of, you can make it work for you again.

Most business cards share the same fate as most resumes — they’re on the way to the trash by the time the reader gets them! For resumes, the average shelf life is as little as one minute. For business cards, it’s half that.

There Are Only Two Responses a Business Card Can Get: Which One’s Yours?

It Can Do Nothing: The hope here is that people will keep the business card “on file” the next time they need you. Whether you’re an accountant, plumber, or mime, everyone has handed out business cards with this hope at one time or another. Unfortunately, this just isn’t how most cards work out. Fewer and fewer people have a rolodex full of cards.

It Can Do Something: A business card, like an advertisement, is much more likely to succeed if it provokes an immediate response. Your business card shouldn’t have an ad on it, of course — but it can be “targeted” to the event you’re at or the people you’re going to meet. This is a way to spring a great surprise on your next batch of contacts.

How Can You Make Your Business Card “Do” Something?

There are several ways, and they’re especially helpful if you want to make a terrific impression at a professional conference or meeting — the kind of event where everyone has something to offer everyone else, but you absolutely have to break the ice first. Preparing your business card as a tool to break that ice and move people along in the process of knowing you better is “nextworking.”

Here are two ideas:

  • Make Your Card Your Portfolio: Have you seen those big square barcodes on products and billboards? They’re called Quick Response codes, and just about anyone with a smart phone can scan them. You can generate a QR code for free online and have it printed on your business card so that when it’s scanned, it leads directly to your website. Even better if you have a complete portfolio of your achievements and a personal greeting.
  • Make Your Card a Social Event: Nothing tells people that you are an expert like maintaining a website on the latest industry news and events. If you are at a conference, you can break the ice by inviting your fellow attendees to share their impressions and experiences after the conference — just make sure your QR-enabled business card links them to your blog. This is the high tech way to say “meet me after the party.”

With either of these methods, you become the curator of the relationships you create. You give people an incentive to move into your territory, associate you with the event, and even be thankful for your invitation if they happen to meet more contacts after logging onto your blog or site. This is a great way to get introverts, who don’t enjoy the scripted rituals of professional networking, to open up and offer to help.

Last Word: Nextworking Blasts Through Boring Networking

When you think of networking, think of “nextworking.” The spirit of nextworking is to take the boring stuff — like business cards — and turn it into a highly social extension of your relationship. That makes everyone more comfortable discussing what they have to offer, and gives you a chance to be “top of mind” among the kind of people who go the extra mile to get the most out of industry events.

{ 0 comments }

The New Way to Network: Use Mobile Technology to Distribute Your Resume

by S. D. Farrell on May 2, 2012

Professional networking isn’t always easy in IT. There’s often a sense of invading space or butting in when you try to expand your network with someone you’ve just met. But there’s one way to go about it that just about everyone, even the biggest tech world introvert, accepts: the business card. But up until now, it hasn’t been possible to use your card as a real promotional tool, like your resume. Most cards don’t make an impact.

Mobile technology changes all that. You can now upgrade your business card to lead directly to your resume online using Quick Response technology. You can even encode it so that only people who’ve gotten a hold of your business card are able to see it — keeping it nice and safe as a way of building your contact pool without alienating your current employer.

What You Need to Get Started With the New Networking

  • A Business Card: A standard-sized business card is more than enough for a Quick Response code. Include your usual contact data, such as name and email address, but let the QR code stand on its own and tempt the user into giving it a scan.
  • An Online Resume or Portfolio: This part will take the most work. The average user’s resume is ugly and hard to read, descended from the Microsoft Word resume template. If you’re going to pull contacts online to look at what you have to offer, you should aim for a multimedia presentation. That means, at least, your resume should be reformatted for the web. Separately, consider a whole portfolio including samples of your work, your (business-friendly) social media accounts, and a video greeting.
  • A Quick Response Code: Once you have your webpage set up, it’s easy to get a QR code online through a variety of free websites. The site can generate the code, and you can get your local print shop to include it on your business card. Anyone who owns a smartphone or any other mobile device will be able to scan your business card to access your portfolio. (Encode your online data with a password written on your card to make it look more exclusive and keep it off the public ‘net.)

How It Works and Why — Making Your Resume Sticky

In information technology, everyone you meet will have at least one mobile device — many will have two or three, including tech toys from work. That makes it fast and easy to tempt someone to scan your QR code. After someone takes the average business card, they usually never look at it again. A QR code gives them some incentive to pull your card out of their wallet or pocket and spend more time with it rather than throwing it out.

Even though QR codes represent older technology, you’ll look savvy and smart when you use them to breathe new life into boring business cards. If you can pull together a really impressive multimedia presentation — one that’s optimized for mobile and communicates what you have to offer — you can get people to keep you in the loop or contact you for future job opportunities. Why? Because most people will never think of using this kind of technology in this way!

Doing this shows creativity and innovation. Those are traits that are valuable in every industry, not just the tech sector.

There’s no guarantee that your QR enabled business card will make waves the first time you use it. But if you’re visiting a conference or media event, spreading it around can only help. Plus, you can capture email addresses from potential clients, get new friends on your blog roll, and make all your networking efforts a little more social.

Want More Ways to Network Faster and Better?

You might be interested in Use Industry Conferences to Gear Up for a Promotion in IT: 5 Tactics. If you haven’t been getting low-cost, career boosting resources from the professional associations in your industry, visit The Fastest Way to Build Your Resume Might Require No Effort From You.

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries