Listing Travel On Your Resume

Q. I’ve travelled a lot for work and pleasure.  Does listing travel on my resume make me more marketable?

A. Anything you place on your resume should be professionally focused, so if you are considering listing an extended vacation to Santorini, think again.  However, speaking to professional travel and working with diverse audiences can be very powerful on a resume.

Here are some examples:

• Traveled to Beijing and South Africa to secure multi-year contracts worth a total of US$6M.

• Traveled to Bangalore, India to rally development team and ensure a key project was delivered ahead of an aggressive deadline.

You may also consider speaking to extensive personal travel (i.e. gap year, etc.) in your cover letter.  Even in that case, make sure to expressly outline how that experience bolsters your qualifications and makes you a strong fit for the role you are pursuing.

Resume or Marketing Document?

There are a lot of similarities between a resume and a client-marketing document, both are meant to establish your qualifications, pique readers interests and get you a chance to sell yourself in person. I work with a lot professionals who may be looking to secure a full-time position, but may also choose to look for new freelance clients. Even though the two documents may contain the same experience, there is a critical difference in how to approach those two groups.

A resume is employer focused. This means that you need to highlight ways in which you have made a positive impact on the organizations of which you have been a part. Often times that means speaking to “internal wins” – increased margins, PR successes and off-shoring services are just a few examples. Those are likely achievements that you would not want a customer to know about.

A client-marketing document is customer focused. You want that document to shine a spotlight on ways you will make a positive impact on your clients. These might include successes around delivery times, experience enhancements, value adds, etc. Make sure your accomplishments – even those that fall under previous organizations – are “external wins.”

Whether your creating a resume or a client-marketing document, you’ve got to know your audience. Remember, the document is about you, but it is for them. Communicating your potential impact and the value you offer is a winning strategy; just make sure you are focusing on what is appropriate for your readers.

Three Ways To Make Yourself Indispensable in 2013

The term "job security" is so quaint that it could practically be the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting.  In this new economy, if you want any semblance of job security, you’ve got to make yourself indispensable.  Here are three things you can start to do to move closer toward that goal. Stay cutting edge – It used to be that being “current” in your field was good enough.  Not anymore.  If you want to be indispensable, you’ve got to stay on the leading edge of your field.  Not only does this allow you to drive advancements within your organization (which is a very good resume builder), it also positions you as an expert.

Being on the cutting edge of your field has never been easier; leverage traditional and emerging techniques – trade journals, LinkedIn groups, industry conferences, social media, etc. – to build and maintain your expertise while you also develop your reputation as leader in your field.

Find your niche – In the new economy, generalists are a dime a dozen.  To be indispensible, you’ve got to specialize.  In my case, I maintain broad HR competencies (including an HR certification) but my specific areas of expertise (and my passion) are in Organizational Effectiveness and Career Development.  By bringing a level of expertise in a very specific area of my field, I set myself apart and make myself more competitive.

Identify areas within your field where you can specialize.  Make yourself indispensable by positioning yourself as the go-to expert in an in-demand, but unsaturated, area of focus.

Know your impact – Staying current and being a specialist will not make you indispensible if you aren’t aware of your impact.  All to often, I interview or work with professionals who – simply based on their area of focus – are indispensable (engineers, I’m talking to you).  All too often, these professionals aren’t fully aware of the impact they have on their clients / organizations.  And when they are aware, they often have a difficult time articulating that impact.

Regardless of your area of focus, the real key to being indispensable is to know – and be able to communicate – your impact.  One way to build this competency is to keep a "win" file.  Keep track of each achievement and the impact of that achievement (including metrics whenever possible).  Doing so will not only make it easier to speak to accomplishments, it will habituate recognition of your wins and shift your success orientation.

I understand that it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by these kinds of tips.  The key is to start moving in the direction of making yourself indispensable.  Build a career management plan that includes the above items; that alone will get you heading in the right direction.

If you need help, get in touch.

Getting on Track

Since it's the season of resolutions and fresh starts, this month's promotion has been extended and will run the entire quarter. Until the end of March, enjoy nice savings on my most popular career development assessment.

Here are all of the details.

Come on.... Make 2013 your year. The one you can look back on and say "I did it!"

No Thanks

I recently read an article that spoke to a candidate selection tactic that plays right into candidates’ fears. The writer promotes eliminating candidates who follow up. I’m not kidding.  I wish I were.

The “logic” behind this draconian approach is that applicants who follow up are taking more than their allotted amount of time and interviewer mind-share.  Essentially, this person believes that follow-ups are an attempt to game the system.  It’s the same confounding reasoning behind such harsh strategies as eliminating candidates for sending thank-you letters.

Here’s the thing... The idea – while totally ill advised – actually contains a kernel of truth.  All candidates deserve equal treatment.  I am huge proponent of fair interviewing practices.  For instance, I have written about behavioral interviewing, a tactic that addresses the need for equality in the interview process by providing a framework to ask all candidates the same questions.

Hiring managers: You shouldn’t punish people for common courtesy or following perfectly reasonable (and smart) practices.

You also can’t build-in policies to overcome deficiencies in your ability to select the most qualified candidate.  If a simple follow-up letter would compel you to hire someone over a more qualified candidate, frankly, you should not be in charge of hiring.

Job seekers: Keep following up. These are smart strategies. If you are eliminated for doing so, consider yourself quite fortunate to not be working for a manager or organization that would take such unrealistic measures.

Online Portfolios

Portfolios have been around for ages, but the ability for professionals across multiple industries to quickly direct interested parties toward actual examples of their work has never been easier.  In the interest of encouraging more professionals to play around with the idea of online portfolios, I am highlighting four popular sites: GitHub.com – The largest code host in the world and the de-facto place for software designers, programmers, etc. to share code and collaborate.

Behance.com – An online platform to showcase and discover creative work.

Coroflot.com – A portfolio site and creative job board.  Coroflot connects designers with career opportunities, provides companies with access to leading talent and brings exposure to design work.

LinkedIn.com – LinkedIn provides the ability to showcase things like projects and presentations.  So even if you don’t fall in a category of professionals that historically uses a portfolio, you can still display some of your work.

Those are just a few ideas for online portfolios.  Regardless of whether you use a site like one of those listed above or create your own online portfolio (web designers, I’m talking to you), the point is the same – providing potential employers with access to your work can have a significantly positive impact on your job search success.