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What to say when you don’t have experience!
Recently, as I helped a client prep for an upcoming job interview, I asked him to tell me about his experience with one of the job’s requirements: the ability to use the software program Crystal Reports, a tool to create high-end documents. His answer, “I don’t have experience with that.” Until then, he’d provided impressive responses to every question, and this answer landed like a lead balloon. I feared it might kick him out of contention, so together we came up with this action plan which could be executed before the interview: Do his best to get some hands-on experience with the...
read moreFinding your focus – the key to a successful resume
This past week I led a resume workshop for a group of reading tutors with AmeriCorps. They’re wrapping up their year with the organization, and are prepping for next career steps. Writing a resume can feel like an intimidating experience: what to include? How long should it be? Which format is best? But I let them all in on a secret for simplifying the task: before you begin, have a career focus in mind. One of my favorite analogies related to this is that we all have a career-closet full of experiences: where we’ve worked, education we’ve received, and successes we’ve accomplished. But a...
read moreResume tips. From so-so to Wow!
My business writes more resumes at this time of year than at any other. My theory is that once the New Year starts, career-progress hopefuls attempt to update their own documents, yet after a few weeks of trying, decide that working with a professional may ultimately get them better results, despite the $100 to $750 fee. However these tips can help you get professional results for a fraction of the cost: Be clear on what you want your resume to accomplish. A successful resume is designed to help get you in the door for appealing opportunities. Having a defined career focus helps you...
read moreMaking your job your own. A job crafting success story.
You know that coworker who drives you nuts? How you wish you could cut out your interactions with her, or at least keep them to a minimum. And how wonderful it would be if you could spend more time working with the Customer Care team; they’re always so fun and professional. But alas, this is your job and you can’t always have things your way…or can you? Last week I wrote about the concept of job crafting, a theory coined by researchers at Yale University describing the process of sculpting your job to increase your satisfaction and productivity. There are a number of ways to make this...
read moreUsing Rock Star Success Stories To Land Your Next Job!
Lucky you, you’ve been selected to interview for what may be your dream job. But then you discover you’ll be up against nine other hopefuls, and you ask yourself, “How can I be the chosen one?” My favorite strategy for standing out to is arm yourself with a handful of rock-star success stories relevant to the position you’re targeting, and be ready to share them in the interview. For example, talking with a machinist on the hunt for a new job, I asked him to describe a time when he’d demonstrated his expertise in that specialty. Soon he was recounting a situation where he’d pushed purchasing...
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