Resume Writing Trends and Tips

Posted: March 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: LinkedIn, Resumes, Trends--New and Changing | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment »

The Career Thought Leaders white paper from the 2011 Global Career Brainstorming Day attended by many careers professionals (myself included) has so much information that I still need to re-read it a time or two to grasp it all. However, I found quite a few tidbits just on resume writing and cover letters that I thought you might find useful. (Note: The subtitle of the report is “Trends for the Now, the New & the Next in Careers.”) Quotes used are from the CTL white paper.

To keep this post from running really long, I’ll do a separate post next time on the subject of cover letter trends and tips.

It’s Not Too Late to “Catch the Wave” for Resumes

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the need to make your resume and cover letter present you as someone who stays on top of trends, you’re not alone. Technology makes it either harder or easier, depending on how you look at the situation. However, you can take some steps that at least move you in the “right” direction–that is, show you are aware of and making an effort to use approaches that are forward-looking rather than stuck in the past. In some cases, this might require you to move just a little outside your comfort zone; but it shouldn’t push you so far out of the zone that you feel totally overwhelmed and lost.

One guideline that might be helpful is to look at what’s being widely done now, what only appears occasionally and harks back to the past, and what seems to be emerging and gaining ground but isn’t yet fully adopted. That leaves the truly cutting-edge approach to both resumes and cover letters, which maybe only the most adventurous job seekers (or possibly those in the most creative fields) can justify using.

What’s New in Resumes?

The CTL report lists 6 new resume trends, which I’ll quote briefly:

  1. Strategies and tools for conquering Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are appearing and evolving. ATS have become more sophisticated and more choosy….In response, new technologies, tools, and strategies have emerged to help resumes rise to the top.
  2. Writing gets shorter. Not just for resumes, but for brand statements and all marketing communications. The “Twitter generation” knows how to pare messages to the minimum.
  3. What’s old is new. Think multimedia. In addition to emailing and online postings, candidates should consider mailing a perfect resume on high-quality paper along with a customized cover letter.
  4. Contact information gets an update. The emerging trend…is to include a website address/URL, online profile links, city and state only…, a single phone number…, and a single email address.
  5. Resumes are not always the leading career tool. In some searches, resumes are being replaced by online communications with the resume occasionally serving as the leave-behind document after LinkedIn and email exchanges have provided the initial information of interest.
  6. Creative styles are emerging to show dates and experience. Especially useful for contract employees, consultants, and freelancers, this strategy allows candidates to express experience in chunks of time… rather than using specific dates. (Note: This is not an approach I would recommend if you’re among the more general group of job-seeking individuals.)

Remember, if you need help bringing your resume into the 21st century and positioning yourself as a viable, up-to-date candidate for attractive job opportunities, that’s a service I offer and love to provide, so feel free to get in touch and let me know how I can help.

What Talent Communities Mean to Your Job Search & Career Management

Posted: March 2, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Career Management (General), Job Search, Trends--New and Changing | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Whether or not you’re involved in any online communities, you probably have an idea of what they are. Just as an example, communities could focus on a common love for the same breed of dog, a conviction that whitewater rafting is the greatest vacation adventure, or a passionate belief that chocolate is one of the basic food groups essential for life! Participants in online communities can become very devoted to the interests they share and engage in wide-ranging dialog on the subject.

Where Do Talent Communities Fit into This Picture?

You might wonder what talent communities could have to do with your job search campaigns and career management planning. A recent post on ERE.net (one of my favorite sites) gives some potentially valuable insights into this subject. The article by Raghav Singh, “Talent Communities: Come As You Are,” takes the view that talent communities can allow recruiters to engage in online conversations with potential candidates that give them an advantage in the recruitment process. However, he also believes that “recruiters and hiring managers make too much of people’s online posts and using them in a hiring process is fraught with problems.”

Singh further states that social media can facilitate the process of getting to know candidates well and the best way to accomplish that is through talent communities, adding that “people open up in communities if it’s a place where they believe that their views and opinions are respected and where they can have a dialog.” He takes the majority of recruiters to task for believing that a talent community “is a Facebook page where you post your jobs and collect likes…”

Look for and Evaluate Online Talent Communities

This might not be as simple as Googling “talent communities.” Doing that brings up a slew of hits about talent community(ies), but it doesn’t say, for example, “XYZ company has a great online talent community.” I suspect you might have better luck researching specific companies you’re interested in, whether or not they’re currently hiring in your field, and evaluating their candidate outreach setup. For instance, do they have a method that enables you to engage in a dialog with their company–preferably with some of its recruiters and/or hiring managers? If not, or if what they offer is at best a thinly disguised promo for their company (i.e., not a two-way communication street), you might want to look elsewhere.

Online Communication Etiquette

This might seem like an off-topic item, but it’s really not. We’ve all seen online posts and comments by people who should have their mouths washed out with soap, people whose online behavior would probably earn them a punch in the gut if they did it in person! By the same token, trashing a company on its talent community vehicle would deservedly turn you into toast in that company’s book. Actually, trashing a company anywhere online–even if you think it’s justified–could be highly toxic to your job search or career success.

“Moral” of the story: Conduct yourself in online talent communities–and elsewhere–as respectfully as you would like to be treated, and watch out for companies that don’t return the favor.

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