I’m about to offer probably the most abstract advice I’ve ever given, so if you’re reading this hoping to find something practical and mundane, like how many pages your resume should be, please go get another cup of coffee, get caffeinated up, and come on back.
Last week, in discussing things to think about over the next decade, one of the key points was about ideas dictating value. In fact, I used more space on that one thing than on any other of a dozen and a half points I thought were important enough to occupy your time. It’s not that I planned it being the most prominent; it’s just that, as it turned out, it was. And, in retrospect, it should have been.
When I went into this independent career coaching business a little more than 20 years ago, I benignly thought the extent of what I’d be doing would be writing resumes, prepping clients for interviews, structuring job search plans and other predictable things like that.
Here’s a typical scenario. A client comes into my office for an initial coaching session, more often than not because she or he is unemployed — sometimes not, but about to be — but one way or another, that’s about two-thirds of the initial meetings I have.
Within 15 minutes the other day, I received two identical phone calls, each of them from a 60+-year-old who had been laid off, was unemployed for a while and had just gotten the same turndown from two different companies into which they had been referred. They should have been slam dunks to be hired.
Funny thing about references. We all need them, we all have them, and very few of us really know how to use them. It’s kinda like me and power tools, but that’s a whole different story.
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” — Ernest Hemingway
How many versions of your resume do you have? How many versions of your resume are out there, either being circulated or are posted? How many times have you “tailored it to the position” for which you’re applying or restructured it because you were trying to make a career change into another industry, but kept both or all your versions?
Potential employers can smell desperation. They also can sense confidence. So present self-assurance and calm during an in-person or phone interview.
In June, after visiting Zierikzee, a small medieval town in southwest Holland, I wrote “Perspectives on Work: 4,000 miles away and 750 years ago” about seeking meaningfulness in your life’s work. Here’s the link: eliamdur.com/index.php/blog/page/3.
Over the past few years — with the solid, consistently improving job market creating a confidence level we haven’t seen since the ’90s — I’ve seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of people visiting my office, not for help in finding a job (although that never ends), but for help in starting a business.
What you wear to an interview speaks volumes before you even open your mouth. If in doubt as to what would be appropriate, always go for a conservative look.
