A woman, a resume, and a balloon, Part I

Posted on November 22, 2011
Filed Under Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job | Leave a Comment

Perhaps it was the symbolism that drove Sherell Elangwe to use the power of helium balloon flight to deliver her resumes into the less than eager hands of employers. “Wait, what?” you may be asking. That’s right. A resident of North Carolina, Ms. Elangwe decided balloons were a safer method to deliver her resumes than that tiny “submit” button hanging around the bottom of every vacancy announcement. While her decision to use helium-filled balloons points to an uncomfortable irony, it helps to throw light on a barren job-scape, desperately in need of irrigation and seeding. It also suggests that job seekers faced with a similar predicament might be best served digging a hole in the ground and dropping their resume into it. The absurdity of Ms. Elangwe’s decision underscores an important point: despite economic gains, private sector hiring is still weak and job seekers must pull out all the stops when applying for positions. Read more

How your email address may be undermining your job search

Posted on November 1, 2011
Filed Under Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job | Leave a Comment

Like any piece of literature, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose words become those things they denote, a resume is more than an amalgam of individual words describing different facets of your personal and professional life. The words contained within your resume, like individual dots comprising a pointillist painting, combine to form a coherent vivid image in the mind of its reader. Although its language may not be as expressive as that contained within a novel or as colorful as what may appear on the canvas of one of Seurat’s paintings, each word has the potential to alter how your resume is received by recruiters. It could ultimately, like an uninviting blotch of brown and black interrupting a perfectly cheery painting of a summer afternoon in the park, undermine the entire enterprise. The upshot of this is that something that takes up valuable real estate on a resume, such as your email address, could dash any hopes you may have of finding work. Read more

Resume writing 2.0

Posted on October 24, 2011
Filed Under Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job | 1 Comment

It’s simple economics. When supply goes up, ceteris paribus, demand goes down and price, to put it simply, is tied to each of these things. While economic laws may seem sufficiently abstract in a discussion about resume writing, they can be used to demonstrate a simple principle no job seeker in the Information Age should forget: the Internet. The Internet enables 2,044,000,000 global users easy access to an incalculable number of job postings worldwide and has significantly expanded the pool of applicants against whom you must compete for a job. In fact, with so many job seekers vying for the same position, the number of both qualified and unqualified candidates will undoubtedly sharply increase, making it necessary to establish yourself not just as a qualified candidate, but one decisively different from all the rest. You must distinguish yourself from the existing supply to generate demand for your services. Read more

Dear Sir or Madam…

Posted on September 15, 2011
Filed Under Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job | Leave a Comment

Some advice I typically impart to students constructing cover letters is that their greeting should not only be congenial and exude professionalism, but it should also be addressed to the hiring manager who will be reviewing their application documents. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, a cover letter should act as an enticing welcome mat, drawing in its reader, prompting him or her to investigate what lies beyond. One of the best means of drawing someone into your cover letter is to make it personal. By addressing the particular hiring manager who will be assessing the strength of your application package in your cover letter, you personalize your message, giving the impression that you composed your cover letter with him or her in mind (of course, what follows your greeting must be compelling, as well). If this is the case, though, are names of hiring managers even possible to find? Read more

How to incorporate temporary work into your resume

Posted on September 12, 2011
Filed Under Career Change, Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job, Recession | 1 Comment

During breaks from college, like many students, I spent my time working miscellaneous short-term, seasonal jobs—one summer I helped remodel bathrooms and kitchens, the next summer I installed decks and hardwood floors, landscaped, and remodeled homes, and the next two summers I was a Summer Associate at a medical malpractice defense firm. Additionally, before and after each job ended, and even on days I had off from each job, I substitute taught for a local public school system. After I returned from studying for my graduate degree, I again sought out temporary jobs, which could sustain me throughout my job search. I worked at a local non-profit, remodeled basements, and contracted short-term work wherever I could find it. While it is no surprise that I have to choose which positions I list on my resume, deciding which experience is relevant can be difficult. Even more difficult, however, is deciding how or whether to list short-term temporary work, the listing of which could set off flags in a recruiter’s mind. Read more

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