It’s interesting in that I get most of my ideas for this blog from other people who call me for advice.  Recently a career coach called me asking for advice on how a client should manage the education issue.  This particular professional had a very successful track record in her industry, 20+ years, but no formal degree.  It’s a common problem that requires a simple, creative, yet honest answer.  Here goes…

First, rather than putting the heading “Education” on the resume re-name the heading.  Using something like Professional Certifications and Training works fine or use Professional Development.  Undoubtedly, you have some kind of professional training whether formal or informal.

Within that heading include your professional certifications. 

Next, separate out your professional certifications from professional development or training.  If you have taken various seminars, Dale Carnegie courses, or any of the other national training programs, include that as “Professional Sales Training – Dale Carnegie Institute”.  Please only include the course name and length of time of the training if it’s something notable or recognizable.  Xerox or IBM corporate training is notable and recognized world-wide.

If the bulk of your professional development and training has been through in-house courses, short seminars, or hands-on training, you can still make this training sound impressive.  First, calculate the estimated number of training hours you had over the last several years.  Then make a list of what areas that training focused on.   Finally state it in the resume as:

Accumulated more than 120 in-service professional training hours over a five-year period in the areas of team management, problem solving, sales, and communication. 

THAT my friends, resolves an age-old problem.  As always, I hope this advice helps.

Thanks for reading,

Beth Colley

This latest post is from my friend and colleague Dawn Bugni in North Carolina who manages The Write Solution-Resume Writing and Career Advising.  The are obvious disadvantages to posting resumes to online job boards.  Below is some very good advice regarding why you shouldn’t arbitrarily post to a job board, but if you do, how to keep your information fresh.  Additionally it is becoming more of a trend to leave actual street addresses off of resumes and use just a phone number, email, and city,state for contact information.

Enjoy Dawn’s advice.

I tell my clients not to post their rez — period. In addition to loss of exclusivity, there’s also the safety issue. We’ve been discussing addresses, but I question the safety of putting any info out there on the on public boards for all the world to see. You can Google a phone number and if it’s a listed land line, you’ll have a name and address in about two seconds. If employed, you’ve told the world where you are from 9 to 5 everyday and that you’re not home, etc., etc.

Instead, I advise clients to use the job boards for targeted searches, check for new positions daily and respond to the posts that legitimately match what they seek. Many, many jobs on the boards are posted by recruiters. Responding to jobs within your skills set usually ensures you’ll find a recruiter with contacts in your industry.

I read (here I believe) the success rate for people landing jobs after posting to the Monster is 2%. Unless a client is willing to refresh his posting weekly, he’ll slip off into oblivion after about 10 days. And if he’s refreshing post so it always looks new, then he’s managing his Monster (or whatever board) posting — not his job search.

When I recruited, I narrowed my search criteria to only the most recently posted rezs (past 10 days to two weeks.) I figured if someone had their rez posted for awhile, they were already working with some other recruiter, had landed a position on their own or “something was wrong” if they had a solid rez and were still available. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but rather post and refresh, why not spend that time searching and responding.

I liken posting to the boards and waiting for the phone to ring with that perfect opportunity to sitting on the couch waiting for Prince Charming to ride up the driveway. Could happen … but doubtful!

Instead, I tell my clients it’s up to them to drive their career. Job hunting and career shaping is a job. It requires effort — lots and lots of effort. Use the boards as a networking tool. Use them to respond to specific postings. Don’t post and wait for a professional recruiters in your industry to find you. Go find them … by responding to their postings. If you have the skills they seek, they’ll be thrilled to have you pop up in their in-box.

… my take how to use the boards. )

Dawn

Kudos Dawn, I couldn’t have said it better myself.  Thanks for allowing me to post your advice!

Beth Colley, Chesapeake Resume Writing Service, Crownsville, MD

I received an interesting phone call from a client the other day.  Her request, could I just throw up her resume on every online job board out there so she could get some interviews.  I’m sure this is the sentiment of many job seekers who are new comers to today’s job market.  The mind-set is that the internet is this magic bullet and all job search is done via the internet.  “Hey, I know, I’ll post my resume onto ________.com, it’s the latest and greatest!”

All too often, I find this is how people truly think.  The only difference between this kind of job search and the job search that existed 15-20 years ago is that 15-20 years ago, the internet wasn’t the main place for companies to list jobs, it was the Sunday Classifieds.

I’ll admit, the internet has made it easier for job seekers to locate jobs, but it hasn’t necessarily made the job search any easier.  Looking for a job is a 40+ hour a week job and it typically doesn’t pay the bills.  Let’s face it…it stinks.  Here are a few tips to help open your eyes regarding job search.  Read to the end, and you will find some strong words of encouragement.   

1. Use the internet as a research and location resource, not the magic bullet:  The internet has some great resources; it also has some lousy resources.  Use the internet to locate companies of interest, research them, and get a feel for the company culture.  Then, network, whether it’s the “old-fashioned way” by calling friends or through online social networking like Linked-In.  It doesn’t matter, networking is still networking and it still has the same results.  Even though there are more and more recruiters pulling resumes from the internet, if you’re resume doesn’t fit the bill for exactly what they’re looking for, chances are, they still won’t contact you.
2. There are some great sites out there.  Some of my favorites are www.job-hunt.org, www.linkedin.com, and www.simplyhired.com. For executives you can also go to Execunet.com and the Ladders.com.  You’ve got to remember though that you still have to be marketable to employers.  Just because you’re applying for jobs through these sites doesn’t mean you’ll get a job.  It simply means that you’re only using about 1/16 of the available resources to you.
3. Don’t let go of common sense.  What do I mean?  I mean be realistic. Just because you’ve applied online to 22 jobs posted in your field doesn’t mean the phone will ring tomorrow.  If you’re primarily using job boards, you’ll need to apply to about 2200 jobs on line before you get a phone call.  Why so, because, you’re not the only job seeker out there applying to jobs through the internet; everyone is.
4. Recruiters aren’t as flexible as most active job seekers are.  They have a job to do and they’re not messing around.  Thousands of dollars plus their reputation are at stake.  If they are doing an internet search, they will often go to the passive job seeker first.  Yep, your friend who posted their resume online 4 years ago and found a job…guess who the recruiters are calling?  Your friend, not necessarily the 400,000 people who posted their resume 4 hours ago. 
5. The delete button has replaced the “circular file”.  Yes it’s true.  Most job announcements today say email resume or apply online through a company’s web site.  Guess what, if your resume isn’t interesting to the recruiter, with one key stroke…click you’re history.  Resumes are your personal marketing document.  They are your voice on paper.  The resume absolutely must be interesting enough and compelling enough to get someone to pick up the phone or send that first email.  They should be accomplishment-driven and have a career summary that someone can read and decide if it’s worth reading further.  Often times, job seekers just go right to the work history without a summary.  The response from the reader would be similar to that of an aggressive driver who just cut you off on the road.  What the heck is this guy thinking!? 
6. Get a plan together: Identify opportunities, research, network, follow up, send out a high-quality resume, identify more opportunities, research some more, network, and follow up some more, identify…Get the picture?  Stay on top of this.  Through this process, you’ll often go through various stages of self-discovery.  Those stages will encompass a variety of emotions and revelations, but it’s important to realize that throughout the job search you are learning. If you’re learning, then you’re getting smarter. If you’re getting smarter, you’re becoming more marketable.  If you’re becoming more marketable, you’re likely to get hired.