One of the things I hear the most from job seekers is how difficult it is to quantify results form their past work experience. Everyone agrees that doing so is helpful, if not critical, to the job search. However, most find it difficult to show a measurement for something they have done in the past. They didn’t keep track of the numbers, or they cant remember them now, or they “were just doing their job” and don’t really know what measurable impact their impact had on the end result. Or, and this is really most often the case, they are confused and scared as to how to do this important work.

If you are one of the people who has had trouble quantifying results, then I’d like to invite you to join me in this week’s challenge – “One CAR Statement per day.” Writing one a day will help you get past the fear and confusion to take a giant leap forward in your career search. Here’s how it works.

1) Go to the section on “Writing CARS” in Careers 2.0. Here’s a link (you will have to log in to Careers 2.0)
2) Work on one (just one) CAR Statement each day.
3) Post it here in the comments of this blog post to share with others and get their feedback.

You can use these on your resume, in your networking, as part of an interview, and in negotiating for a higher salary! It’s simple. I’ll start.

CONDITION: In the fall of 2001 five denominations were planning their joint summer camp curriculum for the next summer.

ACTIVITY: They brought a group of us together to brainstorm themes and activities based on a topic that would be used nationwide by more than 200 camp programs. I was assigned to write the curriculum for the older children (grades 4-6). I had to research both the topic and the learning styles/needs of this age group.

RESULT: I wrote a curriculum and it was well received. I turned in my curriculum on time. One Camp Director even said that it was the best in the series (in her opinion). Curriculum titled: “Under God’s Roof: Daily Discoveries for Older Children”, Summer Camp Curriculum, published by the Cooperative Publication Association, March 2002.

STATEMENT: Researched topic and learning needs and wrote a curriculum that was used by over 200 summer camp programs nationwide in 2002.

Will you join me in this week’s challenge? Post your CARS Statements in the comments and let us all know what you have accomplished.

Andy wrote an interesting and challenging response to our post on writing an effective resume (http://careeradvice4u.com/effective-resume/).  I LOVE it when a reader challenges us!  So in response to all of the Andy’s out there who are frustrated with your job search, here are some examples that have actually worked for clients of ours. Hopefully they are not too full of BS!

Example 1: HR Generalist I

Human Resource professional with progressive hands on experience in diverse organizations from start-ups to industry leader with revenues of $8 billion including multi-state U.S. and global locations.

Resourceful, organized team player able to provide business partnership and HR guidance to both management team and employees. Recognized for being ethical and approachable with a focus on the big picture. Strong hands-on approach, can manage diverse projects simultaneously and with excellent communication skills.

Experience working with HR and Business partners in Europe and Asia as well as multiple locations in the US.

Example 2: HR Generalist II

Broad knowledge of HR principles and services. Exceptional proficiency in Employee Relations and Leave/Workers’ Compensation coordination. Effective at building relationships with employees and managers at all levels within an organization to support the business strategy, resolve communications issues and motivate individuals to optimal performance. Conscientious and resourceful advisor with a reputation for sound judgment and achieving positive results.

Specialties include:

Employee Relations FMLA/OFLA/ADA Coordination OSHA/WC Management
Policy & Procedure Writing Building & Leading Teams Staff Planning & Recruitment

Example 3: Software Developer

Experienced Software Implementation Manager with 11 years of extensive enterprise resource planning implementation experience
• Successful implementations of PeopleSoft, SAP, Lawson and other applications at more than 14 public and private sector clients and corporations across a wide range of industries and locations
• 9 years of consulting experience with a major international consulting firm earning performance ratings consistently above my peers and an executive promotion to Senior Manager
• 8 years of project management and team lead experience with a PMP certification
• Solid reputation for meeting aggressive deadlines and providing high quality deliverables within budget
• Mature leadership and communication skills with an exceptional ability to plan and organize work efforts and excel in a team environment. Core competencies include:

Project Management Application Development Application Security
Configuration and Conversion Testing and Validation Implementation and Cutover
Production Support Sales and Business Development Software Selection

Example 4: Engineer/Engineering Manager

Demonstrated ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams of engineers delivering high performance, low cost product technologies from research to market on time and on budget. A leader in defining methodologies to use to turn more research elements into products faster. Strong technical design, modeling, and statistical background; excellent leadership vision, systematic planning, and two-way communication skills. Over 20 years of research and development experience, including 10 years progressively responsible management experience. Extensive experience managing international development teams/suppliers in Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, including 3 years working in Japan. Ph.D., M.S., Engineering Mechanics.

Resume Advice Related Posts

• Writing An Effective Resume
• How To Write a Professional Summary Statement for Your Resume
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
• Why a GREAT Resume is Not as Important as a DECENT Network
• Resume Writing Tips

You will only have about 8 seconds to get the attention of the person reading your resume.  That’s nearly impossible, UNLESS you have a clear and concise Professional Summary Statement.  Here are some tips for writing that concise Professional Summary:

1. You Professional Summary needs to be built around your own personal brand.  What do people think about when they hear your name?  What do you WANT them to think?  Tom Peters has written the classic article on ‘Brand You’ — and you can find it at Fast Company (here).
2. Keep it short — 10-15 words is best.  At MOST it should be only 2 sentences.  You want the reader to know what you can do for them — without putting you in a box. Your goal for the Professional Summary is to get them to read the rest of the resume. Period.
3. Don’t put yourself in a box — don’t use a title unless you are applying for a specific job.  Think about what you do for a company.  What kind of ROI (Return on Investment) will their organization get from hiring you?  If you say, “Accountant” they will put you in the “Accountant” box in their mind.  If you say “Save a company money by organizing key financial data” they will actually want to read on.
4. Get them to read further and make EVERYTHING on the rest of the resume point to your Professional Summary.  If you have done things in your past that don’t relate to your summary, you probably want to leave them off.  The resume should be a FOCUSED document.
5. Remember that the point of the Resume is to get an interview.  The Professional Summary should get them to read the resume, so that they will want to interview you.

With only 8 seconds to grab the attention of your potential employer, you better have a clear Professional Summary.  A good Summary will help them see that you are a person they want to learn more about. . . and ultimately that’s what it takes to get the job!

Need more?  If you want some samples of professional resume summary’s please shoot me an email – info@orcms.com

Resume Advice Related Posts

• How Effective Is Your Resume?
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
• Why a GREAT Resume is Not as Important as a DECENT Network
• Resume Writing Tips

As a job seeker, you have a resume and you send it to every possible job opening you can find.  You make sure every recruiter in town has at least one copy on her desk. It’s posted in 6 places on Monster.com and 4 places on CareerBuilder.com. You hand it out like those guys hocking strip-show fliers on 5th Avenue in New York City.  You even sent one to your best friend’s mother, simply because she seems to know everybody!  But how effective is your resume, really?

Are you getting the results you want from it?  Are you getting enough interviews?  Do you even KNOW what “good results” would look like?

Have no fear, my friends, we are here to take the pain and confusion out of writing an effective resume.  Here’s the inside scoop on getting the most out of your resume:

1. Define expected results. The first thing you need to do is determine what purpose your resume will play in your job search efforts.  Do you want to use it to get a foot in the door?  Do you want it to help you “close the sale?”  Or, do you want your resume to simply be something that your prospective employer has in their hands to help them rest assured that they have made the right decision by hiring you?  Any of these are legitimate uses for a resume, but you need to know how yo intend to use this important document in order to be able to craft it to effectively achieve your goals.
2. Begin with a clear Professional Summary. If you are lucky you will get 8 seconds worth of attention from the person reading your resume.  You have got to grab their attention so they will read further.  A banal, boring, or uninteresting summary will send them on to the next person.  I see way too many resume’s that begin with some kind of “objective statement” to the effect, “desire a challenging career that utilizes my strengths.”  BFD.  I bet the hiring manager who reads this will get 500 or more with the same objective.  What in that statement will make you stand out from the others? More importantly, what do you have to offer a potential employer?  Your resume is a marketing tool similar to a newspaper ad.  If you want to grab the attention of the reader you’ve got to have a compelling headline.  Otherwise, they will move on to the next one without giving you a second thought.
3. Give proof. Once you have their attention you need to back up your statement with credible, verifiable results to prove that you are capable of doing what you say you can do.  Use CAR Statements in the body of your resume to demonstrate your capabilities. Don’t just state responsibilities.  Give specific examples of how your actions have helped previous employers make or save money.  For example, every Office Manager could put on their resume that they “order, organize and monitor office supply cabinet.”  Big deal.  Nothing in that statement would be enough to get you an interview.  Just think of what might happen if, instead, you put down something like: “saved previous employer $12,000 per year by developing a process to effectively order and manage office supplies.”  I can tell you what happened, because one of my clients put that on her resume and got several interviews because of it. Show “proof” and you will stand out from the competition.
4. Develop an effective follow up strategy. You probably have figured out that using a shotgun approach in your job search is not very effective.  It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but a narrowly focused, laser-beam strategy will produce much better results. If you don’t have a strategy for your job search you may want to check out the Careers 2.0 ARMS process.  It has helped hundreds of other job seekers find their perfect job in half the time, and Basic Membership is free!

If you aren’t seeing the results you want from your current resume, perhaps it’s time to try something different.  These 4 tips have been time tested and will definitely produce results, I guarantee it!

Resume Advice Related Posts

• How To Write a Professional Summary Statement for Your Resume
• 4 Examples of A Professional Summary Statement
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
• Why a GREAT Resume is Not as Important as a DECENT Network
• Resume Writing Tips

Remember the game your mom used to make you play on long road trips to keep you from whacking your little sister in the head the whole time?  It went something like, “I’m going on a trip, and I’m  taking with me …”  Then everyone would take a turn telling what you would bring along.  You had to pick something that used the next letter of the alphabet, but first you had to remember what everyone ahead of you said for their letter.

Hey, I know, let’s try it using only things you need for your job search.  I’ll go first.

“I’m going out to look for a job and I’m taking…

• Assessments (helps you figure out what you want to be when you grow up!)
• Business cards
• CARS statements
• Do something every day.  Don’t just wait for the phone to ring!
• Elevator pitch
• Fuzzy slippers (hey, sometimes you just gotta kick back and relax!)
• Good recommendations on LinkedIn
• Hand sanitizer (it’s flu season and you are going to be shaking LOTS of hands!)
• Interview sample questions
• Job search strategy
• Keep positive.  You are not a position.  You are worthy. You deserve a job. This is temporary.
• LinkedIn Profile
• Marketing materials
• Networking meetings because it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know.
• One well-designed strategic plan
• Professional head shot (photo)
• Qareer develop plan (shut up, it’s MY blog! I can spell it how I want to!:-)
• Resume
• Stamps for the thank you notes
• Thank you note cards
• USP (my Unique Selling Proposition – what makes me stand out from the rest of the crowd)
• Visual CV
• What do YOU feel is essential? (make your own list)
• X-tra contact cards (NEVER leave home without them!)
• Your personal brand
• Zebra

Want to know how to use these essential job search skills MOST effectively? Sign up now for a FREE Basic membership to Careers 2.0. Click here now.

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 8.  Tomorrow’s post: “The ABCs of Career Management”

Here’s a cool video on why and how to blog.  You will have to “translate” a little for your job search.  But you’re smart.  You can do that!

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 7.  Tomorrow’s post: “26 Job Search Essentials”

Interested in promoting yourself on the Internet without spending a ton of money? Want potential employers to know more about you? Looking for ways to get recruiters to show more interest in your Resume?  You need a blog.

Done well, a blog is an important tool for branding yourself.  Make sure your blog is done well, because done poorly a blog will hurt any chance you have of landing a job.

Blogging is a tool used to build community and develop relationships.  Thus the first thing you need to know about blogging is, “what does your audience want to read about?”  Content drives traffic, but more importantly, the content needs to be something other people want or need.  That’s one of the best things about blogs.  They offer a space for feedback through the “comments.”However, before you get comments you need to get traffic.  Yeah, it’s pretty much a “Catch 22.”  So how do you get past that?  Well, William Randal has an interesting take on how to do that.  He says, “Don’t walk around all day worrying how you can get to the top of Google. Worry how you can find your ideal customers right where they are. Because your business lives and dies with people, not computer tricks.” He goes on to urge blog writers to “tell their story.”  I like that. As a technique for building your personal brand, story telling is a great technique!

That takes us to your personal brand.  There are many stories we could tell about ourselves. When writing a blog to promote your unique value, you want to be sure the stories you tell match the brand you want to promote.  A blog is an extension of your resume and other marketing materials.  Potential employers can check you out without actually talking to you. . . and they will! Do you want a potential employer to know you are someone who is trustworthy?  Be sure you show trustworthiness in your blog. That means you don’t go around bashing others (especially current or former employers). Want to present yourself as someone who has a particular expertise in a certain area?  That should be the focus of your blog. . . NOT your camping trip to Lake Tahoe last summer.

A third thing everybody needs to know about blogging is that this is a commitment.  Lots of people start a blog, are fast and furious for a few weeks or months, and then drop off the face of the earth.  Heck, I’m guilty of that myself.  It takes time and energy to blog.  But here’s the problem with that. You take time to build a readership.  They come to expect that your blog adds value to their life.  Then, you run off and don’t post for several months.  Do you think they will ever come back?

Writing a blog can be a great tool for extending your personal brand on the Internet without spending a ton of money.  But blogging as branding needs to be done right, or it can tarnish your professional brand.  This month we will spend a lot of time thinking about blogging and personal branding and how to promote your unique value proposition.  Tomorrow’s post is a GREAT video that gives more fantastic insights on writing a blog. We’ll see you then!

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 6.  Tomorrow’s post: “Blogging In Plain English”

Welcome December!  This month I am participating in a 30 Day Blogging Challenge with some other bloggers.  As you know, this blog is all about helping people find a new job. Not just any new job, mind you, but rather, the perfect career. That’s why we write about acing the interview, cutting time off your job search, and using Internet job boards (like LinkedIn, Monster.com, and Twitter).

This 30 day blog challenge will allow me to develop some new material to use in the Careers 2.0 website.  That means two things for you: 1) you get the opportunity to add your 2 cents to the conversation, and 2) you get it for free before everyone else! This blog is all about offering free job advice, free job resources, free resume examples, and much more. We deal with topics such as networking, building a personal brand, working with recruiters, unemployment, interviewing and salary negotiation. What would YOU like to see us cover during the 30 day challenge? I hope you will participate by adding your thoughts to the conversation.  Actually, it won’t be much fun without you! Oh, and don’t forget to pass the links along to your fellow job seekers.

While the long term goal of this blog is to help everyone in America find the perfect career for this time in their life, my short term goals are a bit more attainable. Here are my goals for 30 day blog challenge:

1. create 5 posts on Personal Branding as it relates to the job search.
2. create 5 posts on interviewing and interviewing tips for job seekers.
3. add 50 followers to Facebook blog list.
4. add 200 people to newsletter mailing list.
5. get 3 posts to get picked up by a national venue.

Thank you for joining (and encouraging) me on this 30 day blogging journey.  And don’t forget, happy hunting!

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 1.  Tomorrow’s post: “Do You Have A Professional Photo?”

In my last post I recommended 5 things you can do over the holidays to help you find a job.  In this post I want to encourage you to volunteer as a way to find your perfect job.  That’s right, volunteer.  There are many ways to go about it, and lots of organizations need you – especially during the holiday season.  Here are some suggestions followed by reasons why this is great career advice! In fact, volunteering may be better than a great resume for getting your foot in the door.

Where to show up.

• Your local food bank.  This is a busy season for food banks. Lots of companies have food drives and people feel as strong compunction to give. Someone has to pick up all of those donations – why not YOU?!  It’s a natural way to get past the Receptionist firewall to see the inner workings of a company.

• Your professional organization. Are the Project Managers having a holiday gathering?  Do the Accountants of America get together for a holiday soirée? This could be the perfect place to meet people you will work with or for in the coming year.  Beside, many of these events allow you to get in for free if you volunteer to clean up or hand out tickets.

• Your house of worship.  ‘Tis the season!” How could you put your special skills to good use in your church, synagogue or mosque to help out with the high holy day festivities, while at the same time earning a referral from a trusted resource? This is also great if you need to get some specific work experience under your belt!

• The Salvation Army – become a bell ringer this Christmas! You would be doing good by collecting funds for an important cause.  All the while you will be in a VERY visible spot!

• Habitat for Humanity. You would be surprised who shows up at these builds.  You could even be swinging a hammer next to former President Jimmy Carter!

Important tips for volunteering.

BEFORE you run out to volunteer, there are some things you need to do to prepare yourself. These are the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of being a volunteer:

• DO go in with the right attitude. Remember, volunteering is NOT about you.
• DON’T use volunteering as a way to “sell” yourself.  Think of it more as a reconnaissance mission.
• DO have a 10 word statement about yourself ready to share when asked.  This is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
• DON’T talk about yourself unless asked!
• DO take plenty of contact cards.  They only need to include your name, phone number and email address.
• DON’T take your resume . . . under ANY circumstances!
• DO have fun!
• DON’T drink or get out of control in any way.  Behave in a professional manner.  This is NOT the time to have embarrassing photos of you being passed around the Internet!

Volunteering is a great way to jump start your career.  It’s fun, it’s helpful to others, and it will put you in the right place to meet some important people! Why not give it a shot?

Here is a tutorial on using Visual CV in Plain English. This is a GREAT idea for helping you stand out in the crowd from other job seekers. Check out the Visual CV website. This is better than free job advice! This is a free job resource!

So, what do you think? Should YOU have a video resume?

Resume Advice Related Posts

• How To Write a Professional Summary Statement for Your Resume
• How Effective Is Your Resume?
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
• Why a GREAT Resume is Not as Important as a DECENT Network
• Resume Writing Tips