I am very excited about story-telling techniques I learned at a workshop in New York on Saturday. Stories have an unmatched power to convey meaning and connect with an audience and are the very best way for job candidates to communicate their uniqueness and value. What’s more, when you think about “universal” experiences – experiences …
Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m xx years old … and I look every day of it.” Nope, it’s always, “I’m xx years old … but I don’t look it!” I am never sure how to reply when my clients (virtually all senior executives in in their 40s, 50s, and 60s) make that statement. …
Resume-writing colleague Arnie Bolt shared findings from a recent ExecuNet meeting he hosted, in which a panel of executive recruiters was asked how they work, how they evaluate candidates, and what they look for in resumes and other communications. Universally, the recruiters wanted to see an entire work history on the resume, even if it …
Verizon (telephone company) should answer their phones when you call them. Whole Foods should use good environmental practices. Hairdressers should have great hair. If these things DON’T happen, you lose faith in that individual or company! The same is true for executives in a job search. Your resume content must match your elevator speech, your …
Love what Louise Fletcher has to say over at the Blue Sky blog: Calling Seth Godin on the carpet when he opines about job searching! I agree 100% – both with Louise’s admiration of Seth’s marketing expertise and her disagreement with his career advice. To sum it up: Looking for a job does not mean …
Had a great interview a few weeks ago with producer Elsie Nolan of WBZ-TV, the Boston area’s CBS affiliate, all about how to recognize an impending downsizing and what to do about it. Article and video clip here. The bottom line, from my perspective, is that you always need to be alert to what’s happening …
It’s not much fun reading the business pages of the newspaper today, or watching the nightly news or finance/business news shows. Page after page, story after story, it’s about layoffs, business closings, lack of capital, shrinkage of VC funding, and so forth. If you’re looking for a job, the future can seem bleak indeed! I …
If you’re unemployed, or even employed and actively looking for a new job, are you REALLY putting in the effort it takes to succeed? If you’re like most Americans and Europeans, the answer is “no.” Reported in Weddle’s excellent newsletter are the following statistics from a 2008 survey reported recently in The Economist:  Length of …
If you’re in career transition, your current business card might not be the best thing to hand out. And if you’re currently unemployed, you certainly don’t want to be circulating an outdated card with email and phone contact information that no longer works. The answer – in both cases – is a “contact card,” an …
Job hunting stinks. There’s almost nothing fun about it. Yet to be most successful it must be endured – in fact, embraced with fervor! How do you rev yourself up for a task you don’t enjoy? Maybe some or even all of these strategies will work for you: Visualize the end result. Every day, before …