Posts filed under ‘Career Management’
Why You Need a Story-Based Resume: Famous Concert Violinist Joshua Bell Proves Excellence is Not Enough
The Washington Post did an experiment. The day after Joshua Bell, the famous violinist, and his 300-year-old Stradivarius had sold out Carnegie Hall, they put them in a DC subway. Bell dressed as a street performer. The violin allowed itself to get a bit dusty (just kidding).
The point is that very few people (just a handful out of the hundreds who passed him) even stopped to listen.
It is not enough to be the best. You have to train people to understand your genius.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he spent a great deal of time marveling at it out loud, comparing it to its lousy competitors. By the time he turned it on, people were primed to be amazed. The crowd let out an audible gasp. Had he just walked out and turned on the phone, it would have been difficult for the audience to immediately grasp its significance.
If your resume doesn’t tell a story, it is not helping you manage your career or find the perfect job.
To see what a story-based resume looks like, take a look at our samples.
To get help, contact us.
To see what the heck I’m talking about, watch below:
Follow your bliss!
Kim Mohiuddin, Chief Career Storyteller
From Ostrich to Eagle: Manage Your Career in Less Than an Hour a Week
This week’s article is inspired by Scott, who says:
When I look at everything I’m supposed to be doing in my job search, I get overwhelmed. Where do I start? How do I prioritize?
I’m so glad Scott asked this question, because the feeling of overwhelm hits everyone trying to manage a career and a life (and squeeze in some time for self care). This is a huge pitfall, because when most people feel overwhelmed by their job search they just end up sticking their head in the sand.
If you’re employed, the head-in-the-sand posture may mean just coming to work and “doing your job” without putting any effort into defining and broadcasting your brand within the company and beyond. You’re setting yourself up for career transitions that happen to you rather than those instigated by you.
Currently unemployed? Maybe it’s because you’re hiding behind a hastily prepared resume and massive job board submissions that don’t get you any results.
First, give yourself some love. After all, you’ve been doing the best you can, and that’s been pretty darned good. But let’s now move forward with a more effective way. Follow this advice and you’ll see big results, no matter how much time you have to spend on your career. For most people, an hour a week of effective career management generates better results than hours of ostrich-like behavior.
How can you identify the highest priorities for effective career management? The answer is deceptively simple. Figure out which part of the career management cycle you’re stuck at, and prioritize that.
Are your goals defined? If yes, then…
Based on those goals, have you identified your value/your brand? If yes, then…
Are your marketing materials (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, etc.) prepared in accordance with your goals and values? If yes, then…
Have you identified your target companies? If yes, then…
Do you have a thriving network and are you in touch with them about your goals and targets? If yes, then…
Do you have enough data to assess your progress based on results (feedback on resume; input on interview style; number of first, second, and third round interviews and/or offers)? If yes…
Use the new information to go through the cycle again, refining your goals, message, targets, network.
If you don’t have clear career goals, your resume cannot be effective. If you don’t have target companies, it will be very difficult for your network to help you.
Approaching the stages of career management one at a time will make you more effective and prevent overwhelm. I challenge you to figure out where you are in the cycle and do one thing in the next week that will move you forward. It doesn’t have to be time consuming. Just think of something that will have an impact and do it! Don’t hesitate to comment here or write with specific questions.
Anthony Robbins said, “Discipline equals freedom.” Take this to heart, and before you know it you’ll be soaring like an eagle!
How to Make Your Own Breaks: Use Chutzpah to Kill the Middleman
Today, I’m thinking about chutzpah. Just about everything I’ve accomplished has been the result of it. Chutzpah solves the old career catch-22: “How can I get experience if no one will give me a shot?”
You have to give yourself the shot.
- I backpacked alone across Thailand and India, meeting the love of my life who is now the father of my two children and a wonderful husband.
- I got representation for my first novel by pitching it to a famous poet whose wife was a budding literary agent. The chutzpah part here is that I was at their home giving them an estimate for relocating across the country.
- I landed the biggest sale ever for my employer, a residential moving company, by approaching commercial accounts—something I was clueless about until I immersed myself in the very different world of industrial transportation.
- I moved from transportation sales to driving an 18-wheel moving van across the country. I had to lie and tell the company financing my new truck that I had already a year of over-the-road experience. I also had to change companies because my employer told me that this intensely physical job, which also involved maneuvering a huge truck in small residential areas, was not one a woman could do well. At my new company I had the top safety record and the best customer service rating. I also got to spend two years being paid six figures to travel the country with my new husband.
- While driving truck, I hung out my shingle as a resume writer, building my business on my cell phone and via truck stop Wi-Fi connections. After two years, I went full time. I accepted the position of certification chair of the National Resume Writers’ Association, mentoring writers with much more experience than I had. Though I have no degree, I help people with MBAs and years of business experience to express themselves in writing.
Everyone I know who is successful has this kind of fake-it-till-you-make-it approach. And if you fake it, you’ll quickly come up to speed and be the real deal. If you are passionate enough to take a chance, you probably know more than you think. Perhaps it’s time to own that knowledge or special talent.
Though it’s been years since I moved to Los Angeles at the age of 20—another act of chutzpah—I still remember my tour of Universal Studios. The tour operator described how their relationship with Steven Spielberg began. He went on a tour just like the one I was enjoying, hopped off the tram, and set up shop in an empty office. By the time people realized he didn’t work there, they were so impressed that they let him stay.
Where could you apply a bit of hubris to make a leap in your career? To help you answer that question, I’d like to leave you with this quote from Seth Godin’s Poke the Box:
Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn’t do.
If you lived in that world, what would you do?
Go. Do that.
