Keeping your résumé real

The hardest portion for those struggling with their outdated résumés is delivering a concise message. Every résumé sends a message, whether intended or not. As I write this, I am looking at an upcoming project that arrived via email. The unfocused résumé appeared to be little more than a self-styled obituary. Prior to sending the two-page obit, the client groused to me over the phone about the lack of responses, and then briefly made reference to the jobseeker’s age.

It took all of five seconds to spot several deficiencies. Collectively, they revealed why the jobseeker was encountering difficulty. The blasé format dated back to the early 1980s, and followed a job-application layout. Nothing stood out or grabbed the reader—other than the individual’s name and the small type. So, what message was this jobseeker communicating?

If called upon to screen hundreds of outdated résumés, how much time would you devote to scrutinizing unfocused material? Would you even exert the effort to analyze the material to figure out want a jobseeker wanted to do? If you were busy, would you roll your eyes, toss the obits aside and move on?

The résumé in question lacked sophistication. It was neither dynamic nor interactive. It communicated the message that this was a vintage jobseeker. My mission would be to bring it to life and strive to keep it real and relevant. While such a task sounds easy, it requires some measure of skill and client support.

The one element that never ceases to amaze is the amount of umbrage jobseekers have toward change. Seriously. Employers are desperate for qualified employees, but you have to sell them on hiring you. Regardless of your career interest, all hiring decisions come down to one of three realistic elements:

Can you a) make them money, b) save them money or c) solve their problems?

If you can demonstrate one of those potential priorities, someone wants to hire you. All your résumé has to do is convey that message. If it does not, you are wasting their time and yours. (That’s today’s résumé reality.)

The days of grabbing warm young bodies off the street have past. Yes, age can be a factor. Age is not the sole criteria for which applicants get themselves eliminated. Living and think­ing in the past, however, can accomplishes that. Those who live in the past are enviably doomed to reside there.

For older jobseekers who find themselves living in the past, moving forward amounts to a scary journey. The options amount to learning what works in the job market, or finding someone who does. Both options require exercising due diligence, lest you fall victim to self-ignorance or unscrupulous operators.

The lines of separation between employment success and failure are remarkably thin. How one thinks and sees oneself often reflects itself in the individual’s résumé. Making repeated references to outdated information and technology sends a clear obituary message to potential employers. Keep your résumé fresh, relevant and real is where the rubber meets the road.

Copyrighted © 2015 by Robert James.

Job changing success versus being lost in Yonkers

When one works for others (pick your poison), two things routinely occur: either you enjoy what you do, or you find yourself going through the motions.

When you have a passion for what you do, the days pass quickly. Your performance usually reflects the quality of your efforts.

For those whose life’s mission amounts to earn­ing a steady paycheck, changing employment qualifies as a reluctant chore. Work performance rarely exceeds adequate and most workdays drag. For these jobseekers, changing employment usually amounts to falling off the side of building into a dark alley, while being lost in Yonkers.

With few exceptions, the job searching poses a challenge.† For most, it is damn-hard work. Anytime one undertakes a formidable task, the individual’s stress level sores. When that stress persists, other side effects surface. (Some jobseekers become downright irrational. Others become physically ill. A few might qualify for therapy.)

Recently, a stressed-out jobseeker contacted me. He informed me he had written several versions of résumé, and then proceeded to educate me about the résumé prep process. I was curious as to how many résumés he had prepared. Upon inquiring about his employment status, he revealed he had been unemployed more than a year.

A smile of incredulity came upon me: Being lectured by an unsuccessful jobseeker had a surrealistic effect, leaving the impression that one of us maybe divorced from reality. Nonethe­less, I listened with empathy as he provided instructions on how he wanted me to proceed in creating a functional résumé.

The caller nor his situation was unique. Such inquiries arrive weekly. Each needs help, but many do not know how to obtain assistance. In the alternative, they double-down and recycle previously failed efforts that might somehow return different results.

The gestalt of job-hunting success is greater than its individual parts. Those elements often include a written strategy, networking, perfecting interviewing skills, a decent résumé (or vita), eating habits and exercise, correcting credit reports and maintaining quality references. ¨

The ultimate challenge, however, comes down to appearing authentic—both on the résumé and in the interview. Being able to persevere to that decisive moment amounts to successfully integrating the entire process.

Most jobseekers entertain ambitious aspirations, yet hold a mixed understanding of what is required to reach their employment objective. Somewhere between one’s aspirations and the ability to marshal one’s collective resources lies true job-changing success.

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†  Those who acquire their employment status through marriage, friendship or inheritance qualify as exceptions.

¨  Each of these topics has been addressed in other articles.

Copyrighted (c) 2015 by Robert James

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Postpone Nothing

The two jobseekers shared striking visual similarities: They popped out like a pair of jack-n-the-boxes. Had it not been for the one-week separation, the parallels might have escaped notice. Both were of the same age, gender, height and weight—even their eyes and hair color matched.

Both held postgraduate degrees, and almost identical GPAs. Each had worked a similar length with their respective employers and had delivered stellar job performances. Ironically, while their résumés contained dissimilar content and each pursued different careers, they shared identical job-search fears. Both choired the same mantra: It’s a tough job market out there.

Aside from the one-week separation in preparing their résumés, there was another dis­similarity. Each would pursue an altered job-search strategy that could dramatically affect their results.

Candidate A commenced the job-search by pressing the gas pedal with a damn the torpedoes—full-speed-ahead attitude. Candidate B slammed on the brake pedal with a let’s-not-be-hasty approach. Candidate A was on second and third interviews before Candidate B submitted the first résumé.

Spotting the degrees of separation visually loomed. Rather than rely solely upon what jobseekers say or tell me, I focus on what the individual does. This harkens to the age-old adage: Actions speak louder than words.

Nothing bespeaks job-hunting success like taking action. While my armchair observation falls short of a clinical study, the collective years of observing jobseeker behaviors come into play. I have observed marginal candidates outperform their competition by self-determination and putting plans into motion.

Job changes rarely occur overnight. Some do, but more often, the groundwork was laid well in advance. How one begins determines the results. It is better to endure setbacks, than to fail because of inaction.

Fear of rejection weighs heavy for many jobseekers. Likewise, there exist countless related apprehensions, such as fear of interviewing, fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of being overqualified, and fear of failure to recap the common ones.

The best remedy for conquering burdensome fears is to confront them. If you fear being interrogated during interviews—master interviewing techniques. Naturally, that has to be part of one’s job-seeking strategy. It cannot be left to linger in the background hoping such fear will magically dissipate on its own.

In any job search, priorities need to be set. Aside from prepar­ing one’s résumé, references need to be contacted, companies need to be researched, responses to questions refined and rehearsed, wardrobes assembled, and grooming issues considered. Even eating habits need to be assessed in order to avoid mental fatigue and lethargic behavior.

None of these should be placed on the back burner. Hence, postpone nothing. The results of your efforts depend on what you do and the decisive actions you undertake.

Copyrighted © 2014 by Robert James

The Perfect Résumé

The Perfect Résumé

Pursuit of the perfect résumé amounts to a fool’s mission: In reality, it does not exist. None­theless, this does not preclude jobseekers from achieving great results, if they can avoid common pitfalls and navigate the interviewing process.

Résumés are like a Rubik’s Cube: Incredibly simple in design, yet poses a challenge when attempting to lineup the colors. No matter how scrambled a jobseeker’s background, the critical elements boil down to five twists. Once combined, this communicates the overall message.

Focus: This is where the process starts. What is it you can and want to do? Sidestepping or twisting around that issue in a vague effort to “remain open” will not work. It comes down to many trying, but few succeeding. Employers need to know the position you are seeking.

Relevance: Stated qualifications, experience and education need to be in harmony with the résumé focus. When this is out-of-sync, this too sends a message. Information deemed not relevant needs to be tossed, along with excuses, explanations, and outdated job history.

Readability: Many jobseekers believe employers are interested in minutia. Some are—most are not. Concise statements of fact generate maximum interest. Long-winded paragraphs of gray text, small type and excessive bullets are often ignored.

Believability: Every adverb and superlative used in a résumé detracts from credibility. Making verbose claims of success does not mean employers will swallow them like a seal gulping down fish. They ask themselves, if this candidate is so wonderful, why he/she on the job market?

The Message: When the forgoing elements are combined—effectively or otherwise—what remains is the résumé message. Sometimes the message is blatant: At other times, the message is subtle or a given. The following are messages jobseekers inadvertently communicate.

1.      A lengthy résumé communicates the message that the recipient’s time is of little value or of no importance. (Proceeding beyond two pages is deemed lengthy for most positions.)

2.      An incoherent résumé signals the recipient that the jobseeker lacks focus, is perhaps careless, or just another lost soul gawking for work.

3.      A résumé cluttered with adverbs and superlatives tells the recipient the jobseeker leans toward being full of himself. (While you do not want to sell yourself short, you need to avoid projecting the image of being a legend of your own mind.)

4.      A résumé lacking relevant experience and/or relevant education sends the message that the individual is probably unqualified.

5.      A résumé that contains too many tedious details, rationales or explanations is a known precursor the jobseeker is going to be a royal pain from neck-to-butt.

Traditionally, jobseekers do not read their own résumés the way employers interpret their twists and turns. Too often, they resort to explaining their situation, or providing informational over­load, hoping the recipient reader will appreciate their unique circumstances. –They won’t!

It is not that employers do not care. It is a matter of heavy workloads and not having time. In the corporate world, time is the valued commodity, and therein lies the rub. Indication in your otherwise perfect résumé that you are prone to wasting their time is just-cause for rejection.

Perfect résumés, however, come with a price tag: You best know how to interview!

Copyrighted © 2014 by Robert James

What You Think - You Do

As a licensed educator who specialized in abnormal behaviors, I can speak with a measure of credibility on this topic. What an individual thinks, he or she will eventually say. What the individual says to others inevitably manifests itself into reality.

You won’t wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly start acting differently than you did today (unless by chance you wake up as a U.S. Marine on Parris Island). Before any miraculous behavioral change transpires, you give it thought. Then you talk about it with whomever you trust.

After you have thought and talked about it, only then will your behaviors manifest themselves. When this process occurs spontaneously, perhaps erratically or impulsively, that is when you encounter trouble. (Society tends to institutionalize those who gravitate toward behavioral extremes.)

What does this have to do with John and Suzy Q Jobseeker? For starters, everything —especially one’s mindset and the self-image they choose to embrace.

Chances run high that everything you perform (or fail to) commences with giving the topic mental deliberation or worrisome thought. When your efforts go no further than this, you postpone taking decisive action. (The individual usually resorts to occupying time with makeshift and busy work.)

Thus, in a job search, when the potential jobseeker’s mindset concludes that it would be a waste of time, money and effort—no proactive job search occurs.

This mindset accounts for why large segments of older individuals avoid entering the job market. They literally talk themselves out of it beforehand. By the time they reach that decision, they have formulated rational arguments and plausible explanations.

A classic example of this occurs when individuals think they are too old to seek employment. The individuals will invariably refer to themselves as old. Eventually, they begin acting old. The process went from thinking they were old, to referring to themselves as old, and then turning that mindset into their new reality.

At the opposite end of this, we have to proactive jobseekers. Their mindset is positive. They talk optimistically, and inevitably exhibit can-do behaviors. For them, a job search amounts to being laser focused with a detailed strategy. Moreover, they invest their time and assets in what they like doing.

On the other hand, if you already think you are too old to enter the job market, you are—regardless of age. That said, imagine someone telling Warren Buffett he’s too old to be working. There is a good chance he would pick up a baseball bat and chase the individual out of his workspace.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

The Hidden Danger in a Job Search

There exist myriad hidden dangers in job hunting: One outranks the others. When this danger is taken for granted, it is often the hidden job-offer killer.

 Most employers get downright serious in their selection process. When the position requires even a modicum of fiscal responsibility and/or trust, the first priority involves pulling the candidate’s detailed credit bureau reports.

Applicants who encounter no difficulty in making a major purchase routinely conclude they have flawless credit. Therefore, making the effort to inspect the minutia hidden in the details constitutes a waste of their time.

For those with perfect 860+ credit score, there is nothing to fear. To achieve that type of perfection, there are no red flags. That type of rating requires individuals to spend years overpaying accounts, and avoid attracting negative court attention. Less than 1% of the population has this type of credit-perfection, which means everyone else has flaws.

For the 99% balance, here are four important factors:

1.      Everything appearing in your credit reports is deemed 100% true and accurate.

2.      Every jobseeker has the right to obtain free copies of all credit bureau reports.

3.      Outdated information is supposed to be automatically expunged. In reality, however, not so much!

4.      You have the right—and by inference the duty—to correct errors. (Ergo, anything left unchallenged is deemed to be true.)

         The downside is that employers believe what appears on the credit reports over what appears in your résumé. If you stated you worked for Eaton Corporation from years X to Y, and your credit reports contradicts that, prospective employers believe the credit bureau—not you.

         I caution clients to pull copies of their credit bureau reports, but few heed the advice. Moreover, the task is delayed until after several interviews go south. (This amounts to learning life’s lessons the hard way.)

         While a jobseeker may not be able to correct every credit bureau flaw, glaring inconsistencies are easy to correct. The challenge will be getting the changes completed before commencing the job search.

Time and tide wait for no one. Do it today, rather than engage in foolishly playing credit-report roulette.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

Red-Flag Résumés

A half dozen times each year, various jobseekers will request a functional résumé—as opposed to the more conventional, reverse chronological method. The rationales behind those requests usually appear valid. Two common statements are, “My work history is a mess,” and “I have really diverse experience.” These pronouncements are followed with, “Therefore, I need a functional résumé.”

An engineer approached me to do a functional résumé. It soon became apparent why he had chosen this option. Twenty-five years earlier, fresh out of college, he landed a primo, to-die-for research position as a subcontractor with the federal government. He worked alongside well-known, top-notch scientists on cutting-edge technology. Within the span of five years, his income skyrocketed like the space project he worked on.

Then a new administration came into office; funding for his project became shelved. A month later, he was jobless. His new employer could not match his former income. To exacerbate matters, his highly specialized experience had become obsolete.

As a result, the engineer settled for a lesser position, less pay and far less prestige. Within five years, his employer parceled the work offshore. In a hasty decision, he grabbed the first job that surfaced.

He vowed to keep looking, but like so many whimsical promises, he never got about to it. Ten years slipped by, and once again, he found himself on the job market. He took stopgap employment in an effort to make ends meet.

The pinnacle of his engineering career had slipped past him years earlier. Now, showing signs of age, mentally depressed and utterly discouraged, he sought me out to create a functional résumé. He yearned to return to those former days of glory.

The benefits of using a functional format continue to be touted. The biggest benefit is that a functional format opens the door to wild creativity. No longer restrained to date chronology, you have the freedom to gloss over those sticky-tricky obstacles—perhaps sidestep them entirely. Free at last—free at last!

But wait! There is a catch, and it is a biggie. Every jobseeker with something serious to camouflage uses a functional format—long unemployment being one. In the beginning, many employers were hoodwinked by engaging job adventure stories. Over time, most employers wised up to this nonlinear hocus-pocus and razzle-dazzle technique.

Lo, these many the years, I have discovered that the best résumé to wear to an interview is reality. If you show up wearing con artist attire—whether those clothes fit you or not—savvy employers will perceive you as one.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

Is Anyone Listening?

As you grow older, one of your greatest fears will be that no one is listening. Trust me on this one. Chances run high you’ll repeat yourself more than once. Most of the time, it is of small consequence. In job interviewing, repeating yourself can be a fatal faux pas.

We could chalk it up to bad TV commercials. After all, who listens to those anyway? In most cases, the background noise helps drown out the message. (I say, blessed are those who invented the mute button.)

There are various listening disorders. They come in all sizes, flavors and smells. There are passive listeners—they are the ones who politely head nod, but don’t hear a damn word you said. Then, there are selective listeners—the ones who hear what they want. Others qualify as incidental listeners: They listen as long as you’re saying something interesting. Start rambling, and they change the channel.

Most company interviewers fall somewhere between selective and incidental listeners. They tend to focus on responses they think they want to hear, and start losing interest when you recite scenarios they’ve already heard countless times.

Even when you consciously avoid rambling, if you recite commonly regurgitated responses that qualifies as repeating yourself. In other words, when five previous job candidates recite shop-worn responses and you show up spouting ditto, your voice may sound different but your words smell the same.

Experienced résumé writers routinely hear repetitive responses. In the beginning, everyone’s responses appear sincere and unique. Over time, say after four or five hundred interviewers, I consider myself (and the client) lucky if the individual tells me anything I haven’t heard a hundred times before.

Not unlike visiting a psychologist, résumé writers are paid to listen. We are on an informational gathering mission to solve or address a client’s dilemma. Thus, a person paid to listen tends to be more attentive than passive or selective listeners.

The process—that is to say listening to gather usable info—carries psychological overtones. Is what the jobseeker saying, fiction or fact? Are they attempting to blow smoke or placate the listener? Hear the same answer too often and interviewers conclude the job candidate is brain-dead.

While most jobseekers strive to be sincere and candid, more often than not, they are unaware of how others have responded to identical inquiries. They are unaware that those who interview hundreds (and possibly thousands), are not easily persuaded by spewing forth what others recite.

Whatever the cause, we have lost the art of listening. Since then, we are more into tuning out, than tuning in. When it comes to job interviewing, no one is listening unless paid to do so. Even then, the listener (or interviewer) wants to hear something fresh, exciting and interesting.  

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

Not Everything Carries Price Tags

Culturally speaking, we have come to believe that everything has a price, and that if you are willing to put up the dough, you can have whatever your heart desires. In most cases, that is true, but it is not an absolute. Job-hunting poses a prime example.

Once a résumé writer becomes well established, inquiries from across the employment spectrum arrive. Calls from jobseekers request résumé updates, modifications or something from scratch. The unspoken assumption is that for a price, the jobseeker will obtain what is wanted or needed.

In most cases—probably in the 80% range—that assumption is true. The remaining 20% of job seekers may encounter what amounts to a rude awakening. For that one-in-five, no amount of money will remedy there job hunting desires.

Here is a common scenario: Joe-jobseeker loses his position through no fault of his own. The individual may have been laid off, company may have downsized, or the position outsourced. Joe may have received a severance package or simply dumped on the open job market.

Bottom line: Joe’s gainfully employment status no longer exists. A buyout or having substantive cash reserves will cushion the blow, but for all intents, the individual no longer qualifies as being employed. The five stages of grief set in.

Not everyone processes stress in the same manner. Believe this or not, but some take an employment sabbatical, which occasionally result in a prolonged vacation that lasts until the individual qualifies for early retirement benefits! For others, the sabbatical lasts until six months after unemployment benefits expire. In either case, those individuals unintentionally fall into that 20% category.

On average, about one-in-five jobseekers flirt with unintended consequences. The reality is that the longer an individual avoids job-market reentry, the more challenging the quest for substantive employment becomes. Most jobseekers, however, make a bonafide effort to hit the job market running.

It is not difficult to spot passive jobseekers. While they may entertain the notion of being serious, in reality, they are merely wheel spinning. It takes no more than a few probing questions, like “What’s your situation?” and/or “Why have you waited so long to take action?” before the truth surfaces.

As a rule, no amount of money spent on a résumé will overcome a demonstrated lack of ambition. The first sign that you have reached the apex of your own demise is when an established résumé writer declines to accept your money.

Call it pride or ego, but most résumé writers want their clients to be successful. For that to occur, the jobseeker has to fall within that 80%. For those who wait three or five years to initiate a proactive job search, the individual has inadvertently created obstacles no amount of monetary remuneration can correct.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

The End Is Near

The Morning Joe broadcast had Kevin Williamson on who published a provocative book entitled The End is Near and it’s Going to be Awesome—presumably as in achieving nirvana. According to the interview, the nation is going broke—no surprise there. In turn, this will lead us into becoming a richer country.

Okay, I missed something. The connec­tion between going broke and ending up richer appears to jump the shark. At the very least, it requires a quantum leap in logic.

For those who missed the interview, the short version is that interest rates will rise. When they do, the government will spend its entire budget just to cover the interest on the debt, or it will be forced to change its wicked spending ways.

Without rendering an opinion, I brought this dichotomy to Rudy’s attention during our morning workout. (For those unfamiliar with my workout partner, Rudy is the epitome of ultraconservatism. He claims to be devoutly independent, but only votes for candidates who adhere to the doctrine of no restrictions on free enterprise.)

Not having read Williamson’s book, I was limited to what had aired. As I recapped what appeared be the book’s theme, Rudy seized the moment. He agreed with the author’s supposition that the nation is going bankrupt due to feel-good regulations.

“Take the Chinese: They got it right,” Rudy declared unapologetically. “Once we go belly up, we have a chance of becoming more like them.”

“How so?” I inquired.

"They don't worry about unions, OSHA and EPA regulations. They don't have them. Hell, they don't even worry about healthcare or none of that overregulated crap." Rudy paused before delivering his punch line: "They understand how business gets done. No government interference, plain and simple. If someone gets injured or sick, they just pull in the next warm body."

“Are you suggesting, the U.S. labor force become more like communists, pink-o socialists?” I fired back.

He returned a scowl. “You know what I meant. Only in terms of doing business.”

“And somehow, going broke will make us all happier?” I questioned. “I take it you agree with the author’s premise?”

“You’re damn right. Once we do away with regulations and restrictions, we’ll all be a whole lot happier. According Einstein —the simplest method is always the best method! It time to turn back the clock.”

Suddenly, it all became clearer as I envisioned America’s labor force gleefully toiling on the corporate plantations under the noonday sun, humming joyfully to our favorite Negro spirituals—all poorer but oh-so-much happier. Ain’t happening, I chuckled silently to myself.

While the nation’s debt problem is real —it is also a manufactured crisis. Looking forward to going broke amounts to lunacy. Pandering to the notion that being poorer can be awesome amounts to sheer nonsense.

Growing up, we lived a paycheck away from being on welfare. I can attest there is no direct link to awesomeness and being poor. Those having had a similar experience would agree.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

Fat Chance Interviewing

Even for marginal jobseekers, a dynamic résumé feng shui works wonders. Once the interview is scheduled, the remaining con­cerns boil down to interviewing dexterity and physical appearance. Both are important, however one sometimes trumps the other.

Like it or not, one’s physical condition influences hiring deci­sions. All things being equal—which they rarely are—the candidate who looks healthier has an edge. Projecting that image can amount to biting into hard cheese.

While it is indiscrete for employers to make blatant inquiry as to an applicant’s eat­ing rituals, a visual head-to-toe inventory during a face-to-face satisfies their curiosity. The dirty secret is that in a tight market, the leaner, sharper applicant has the presumptive edge.

Once you reach your age of majority, you have an inalienable right to dine on what­ever cuisine you desire. Health insurance providers take exception, however. Employers who routinely hire unhealthy workers are often penalized for that indiscretion.  

For some, eating is a religious experience we practice daily. Not until we show up to deliver that job-offer performance will we have to concern ourselves with our eating habits. By then, that last-minute event could come down to an oh-shit moment.

True believers ascribe to the doctrine that if you eat real food, you live longer, healthier and smarter than those who do not. Nonbelievers dismiss that as a bunch of hooey, but they may be functioning in denial. Those who evangelize extreme positions often waste their breath as if they were trying to persuade agnostics.

Food and eating extremists abound. At the far left, there are those into macrobiotics, and on the far right, there are the diehard fast-food addicts. Everyone else falls some­where in the middle. Odd as this may seem, no one falls smack-dab in the center. You tilt either to the left or to the right. (For example, you won’t find incongruities such as a food purist sipping a can of soda pop or a vegan eating raw meat.)

Presently, the majority of American jobseekers are overwhelmingly leaning to the right in their eating habits (or beliefs). If you doubt that, check the national obesity statis­tics. You will note that two-thirds favor processed foods and canned beverages over real food—a dubious distinction to be sure.

So, how do eating habits end up in the prescreening interview? As noted in several of my previous articles, whatever you eat and drink in private you wear to your interview. How indigestive and sobering is that?

If you are planning a fat-chance interview anytime in your upcoming future, you may want to take your eating beliefs into consideration. If you don’t, the next employer will! And somewhere between meals and inspiration you’ll find employment salvation.

Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James

No Guts Gambling

         Surely you've heard (or perhaps used) the expression No Guts: No Glory. Gentlemen sitting about the poker table often recite this ditty when gambling on hitting an inside straight. That same retort applies to employment gambling.

Finding suitable employment is a lot like trying to draw on an inside straight. The game books caution you not to do it, but what the hell—we do it anyway.

I have a client who was about to make such a longshot bet before he came to see me. He planned to leave a secure position (cut the deck), and place a wager before peeking at his hand. Is that gutsy, or what?

Every time we enter the job market, we are wagering a bet. Sometimes the odds are short, especially if you’ve been dealt a pat hand such as a full house or flush—as in the case where you are handed the family business on a silver platter. Usually, however, that is not the hand most jobseekers are dealt.

Also, if your position is secure and the benefits are adequate, you are not likely to gamble it away on a whim. You merely sit on the sidelines while others spend their money and emotional energies. On the other hand, seeking gainful employment is not a spectator sport. You have to have skin in the game, or you have a zero chance of winning new employment.

Should you desire to sit in on the action, you have to ante up. You have to either invest your time and energy or hire someone to draft your résumé. You have to either learn the game rules, or have someone show you the ropes. In either case, there is a time investment—either yours or someone else’s.

When the time arrives for you to sit down and place your bet (interview), you are either ready to gamble, or you are in the game with scared money. It is not prudent to play with scared money. The odds are simply too long, and the risk of losing what you have are too great.

Before making a no guts: no glory bet on new employment, it is recommended you have what is referred to as a come-to-Jesus moment. A few weeks back, I created a 25-question, self-evaluation sheet entitled: Do You Have An Employment Action Plan?

The questionnaire is designed to determine if you have enough skin in the game to risk making an employment bet. The winning odds start tipping in your favor when you score 68 out of 100 points. (Most of those taking the exercise have averaged in the low fifties.)

If you think you are up to enter the game, take the exercise by using the above link. The more issues you can resolve before you sit down to play, the better your odds. Go ahead, have some fun. Besides, this is a low-cost gamble, and requires only a few moments of your time.

Copyright © 2013 by Robert James

The Path of Least Resistance

Whenever a job-hunting effort goes nowhere, the individual has opted to take the crowded path of least resistance. Humans are notorious for developing routines—the majority of which are nonproductive. Some routines are downright self-destructive.

Job searches are not something we perform daily. For most, they rarely occur. When job searches do become necessary, they are not by design, but rather an unscheduled inconvenience.

As one’s routines become disrupted, previous habits takeover. The common ones include procrastination, overreaction, rationalization (or excuse making), and passive-aggression (or going through the motions of job-hunting for appearance sake). When you move toward the extremes, you encounter sociopathic behaviors. These can include hostile arrogance, pathological lying, manipulation, impulsiveness, and living a parasitic (or unmotivated) lifestyle.

Once a routine disruption occurs, there is a natural tendency, if not an overwhelming desire to have things return to normal. (We’ll define ‘normal’ as any prior routines—without passing judgment on whether those routines were good, bad or otherwise.) Any time humans encounter a disruption in their daily routines, a biological reaction occurs.

This chemical reaction manifests itself in various forms. You might feel depressed, irritable, frustrated, anxiety ridden, exhausted, belligerent, combative or physically ill. If you lose your job, you often encounter the five stages of the grief.

When the above occurs, a job search reduces itself to one of three options: (1) a new norm emerges, (2) you react to the symptoms, or (3) you initiate a proactive course correction.

By way of analogy, imagine seeking employment as being similar to hypertension. There are three ways to deal with it. You can choose to live with it, in which case your quality of life deteriorates. You can opt to treat the symptoms with drugs, in which case you usually encounter side effects hazardous to your health. Or, you may attempt to cure it through eating properly, which requires drastic changes in routines. 

Now let us view our three options from a job hunting perspective:

Option 1 – Passively allowing a new norm to be established: At first blush, this may appear to be a viable option, but it is not. A passive job search is not sustainable, yet many unemployed job seekers are predisposed to resigning their fate. Thus, by passive acceptance—be that long-term unemployment, or underemployment, this becomes the newly established norm.

Option 2 – Treating the job search symptoms: This condition exists whenever you attempt to reestablish whatever you had before. To accomplish that, you treat the symptoms. You might resort to applying for anything and everything in a frenzied effort to regain that feeling of normalcy. The downside is that this approach—sometimes referred to as the shotgun, wheel spinning or kneejerk approach—tends to produce minimal-to-poor results. Nonetheless, it just works often enough to qualify for the dumb-luck award.

Option 3 – Curing the problem: If you are up to the challenge, this is the option to choose. Eliminate obstacles. Correct the situation via a change in your job hunting habits. Fix whatever needs to be changed, be that a well-focused résumé, an upscale wardrobe, improved interviewing skills, quality job references, a systematic job-research strategy, and better eating habits to look healthier than your competition.

To paraphrase Matthew (7:13), take the narrow path for it lead to one’s salvation. Avoid taking the easy path, for that road is wide and crowded.

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Copyrighted © 2012 by Robert James. 

Fear of the Job Market

 Not everyone comes to a résumé writer for résumés. Sometimes job seekers feel overwhelmed, and need to confess their fears. In those situations, the writer has to change wardrobes to serve as “lay priest” or psychoanalyst.

    There is a long index of phobias floating around. The more popular ones include claustrophobia (fear of confined space), arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and laliophobia (fear of speaking). While the list of phobias stretches well into the hundreds, there does not appear to be a fear expressly linked to the job market.

    This fear may be a compilation of other phobias. These might include such fears as hypenglyophobia (the fear of responsibility), kainophobia (the fear of anything new) or perhaps xenophobia (the fear of strangers or the unknown), and kakorrhiophobia (the fear of failure).

    According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 5.3 million Americans suffer from some type of social phobias. I am lumping fear of the job market into mix. While I am not a licensed psychoanalyst, I will hazard a wild guess and declare it a combination of fears most closely aligned to the fear of failure and fear of the unknown.

    An individual who suffers from job market phobia is strikingly similar to a person rowing a boat with one oar in the water. Up close, it appears the individual is making a cogent effort to move the boat forward—in this case, a job search—but as you watch from a distance, you realize the boat is merely traveling in circles.

    Job market fear is not as uncommon as one might suspect. I have seen some of my finest résumés go unused. This usually becomes known when a client informs me nine months or two years into the employment voyage that the résumé was never put to use.

    Asking why rarely produces a candid response. The litany of answers range from, “I put my job search on hold due to (fill-in the blank),” “I’ve decided to make a career change,” and “The right opportunity hasn’t presented itself.”  There have been other responses, of course, but these are among the most common.

    Fear in any form ultimately imposes lifestyle restrictions, capable of robbing one of mental and physical peace. The perceived danger—usually imaginary, controls one’s otherwise proactive job search. Common symptoms of fear include elevated heart rate, excessive perspiration, trembling, anxiety attacks and breathing difficulty.

    Once fear of the job market becomes entrenched, a new routine becomes established to avoid these side effects. For the job seeker with only one oar in the water, traveling in circles becomes the new normal. As for the esoteric phobia involved—be that anything new, the unknown or failure, never needs to be addressed.

    To paraphrase FDR, the only thing job hunters have to fear is fear itself.

10 Laws of Job Hunting Physics

To paraphrase one of Isaac Newton’s Laws of Physics, and apply the theory to job-hunting, we can restate it as: A job search in motion tends to stay in motion, while a job search at rest tends to stay at rest.

Putting a job search in motion from an inert state demands a horrendous effort. Most job seekers are not up to the challenge. In the alternative, they saunter down the paths of least resistance.

Many might think that those who are unemployed will have more time available to devote to a comprehensive job search. Reality shouts otherwise. Hosts of other issues kick in, which in turn slow down job-hunting motion.

The top three motion-slowing issues include fear of failure, lack of networking and poor routines. Volumes have been written on the fear of failure. The synopsis version is that it can result in various stages of depression, panic attacks and irrational behaviors.

As for the lack of networking, that contributes to lost opportunities, as well as a wide assortment of poor strategic planning issues. The problems generated from poor networking are exhaustive.

Aside from networking, poor routines result in lack of organization, time management and ability to take decisive action. Taken individually, these issues might not spoil a job-search effort, but collectively, they contribute to failure.

Those gainfully employed tend to avoid these issues. Being employed tends to reduce the fear factor. It lowers—but does not necessarily eliminate—the possibility of being able to network effectively. A regimented routine minimizes the negative issues associated with it.

Those factors alone significantly account to why the vast majority of employers prefer hiring the employed rather than the unemployed.

To compensate for these motion-stopping issues, the unemployed job seeker needs to proceed fearlessly, better organized and highly regimented. That, however, is easier to say than implement.

Whether employed or unemployed, here is my short list.

1: Have a strategy! You need to incorporate networking into that plan. Upper management positions trend toward some degree of proactive networking. While networking carries slightly less importance as one proceeds farther down the ladder, it remains high on the list and cannot be overlooked or undervalued.

2: Health Issues affect both physical appearance, as well as internal inertia. Job-hunting is strenuous, time consuming and stressful. The ability to cope with job-seeking stress alone is a monumental challenge.

3: Job-hunting discipline includes maintaining regimented daily routine. Daily routines abruptly change the moment an individual becomes unemployment. New, productive routines need to be reestablished to avoid motion-slowing routines.

4: Reassess marketable experience. This poses a major challenge for those trying to create a résumé with little or no job experience. That said, even those with volumes of experience fail to properly assess and present what is salable in a changing market.

5: Develop marketing tools. This includes not only the résumé, but up-to-date references, thank-you notes and ongoing research. While a well-crafted, easy-to-read résumé tends to generate more interviews, far too much time is wasted on reinventing résumés. Clear and concise content continues to trump overly cluttered, busy and fancy layouts.

6: Poor eating habits plague the nation. With 40% of the population qualifying as obese, and with employers overwhelming desiring to reduce health and absentee costs, I rest my case. (As an aside, the average citizen consumes 55 gallons a year of poisonous sugar-loaded beverages. Hum—someone is drinking my share.)

7: Deficient job interviewing skills will torpedo even the most intriguing résumé. Unless you interview job candidates regularly, you may not know the statistics, but 80% of all job candidates interview poorly. Those who interview well can easily surpass those more qualified.

8: Your job interviewing wardrobe is usually the second impression, only proceeded by the quality and content of your résumé. Most job candidates dress appropriately. Some show up looking drop-dead gorgeous. A solid 10% show up for interviews as if the scheduled ordeal had inconveniently interrupted their afternoon gardening project.

9: Cover letters, while they remain important, it ranks lower today than they did a generation ago. If your résumé needs to be easy-to-read and concise, than it quadruples for covers. Therein lays the challenge. Ninety percent of covers are not read due to length. Think of your cover letter as a clever Tweet! If it’s long—it’s wrong.

10: Your public records can be a hidden deal killer. This encompasses a whole host of sins, ranging from your credit report and court documents to your LinkedIn account. The higher on the food chain you proceed, the greater the possibility this information will be scrutinized. 

Newton would not have applied his Laws of Physics in this manner, yet the concept applies nonetheless. To keep your job search in motion, one needs to have all the above in motion. Keep moving on all possibilities and venues. Seek counsel wisely and leave nothing to chance. 

Magical Thinking and Rebirth of Suspicion

The longer you live—assuming you’ve not taken leave of your mental faculties—the more you witness history repeating itself. Of course, there is always the possibility you are only fooling yourself, in which case, you’ve regressed and become a magical thinker.

Magical thinkers are not critical thinkers. They rely on primitive instincts and suspicions. They are not difficult to spot. Scientific facts, logical reasoning and critical thinking is a foreign to them as modern technology would be to the Dark Ages population.

You may recall from history lessons that during the Dark Ages, which spanned from the fall of the Roman Empire until roughly the turn of the first millennium, the majority of humans relied upon almost exclusively on mythology and suspicion.  

At no time since the days of the Dark Ages has a major segment of contemporary society yearned to return to its past. Shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire, it is not difficult to imagine people wanting desperately to return to a time when life was better.

Not unlike the Dark Ages, we have high unemployment. Depending upon how you want to jiggle the math, as much as 24 percent of the adult population is unemployed. Another huge chunk of the population is underemployed. That’s the bad news. The tragic news is that as many as three million domestic job openings go unfilled. American industries are screaming they don’t have qualified bodies to fill those openings.

The magical thinkers are quick to point fingers of blame in all directions. The government is too big, labor unions are too demanding, the teachers are not doing their job, and taxes are too high. These rank among their highest suspicions.

In reality, of course, none of these—or any combination of these factors is to blame. You cannot tell this to a magical thinker, however. Again, scientific facts, logical reasoning and critical thinking are foreign to their post-modern suspicions.

Magical thinkers fixate on returning to the past—strikingly similar to those living in the Dark Ages wanting to turn back the cosmic calendar to the glory days of the Roman Empire. Anyone promising to perform that magical feat will earn a magical thinker’s admiration and devotion.

Folks, it ain’t happening. You do not have to be a Darwinist to conclude that those who fail to adapt to their changing employment environment will not survive. If you find yourself struggling in the job market while three million jobs to begging, you either adapt and embrace change, or face the reality of being left behind.

Future historians may well look back upon this era as the re-advent of the Dark Ages, but I assure you it will pass. Progressive and creative thinkers will inevitably break the bondage that links us to our primitive mentality. Welcome: The brave new world has already arrived.