I’m startled by the number of people who reach out wanting to transition to being an executive assistant from work in managerial positions, teaching and entrepreneurship because they think that being an executive assistant is a less stressful occupation. But an executive assistant is a professional with specific hard and soft skills, and it isn’t…
You want feedback on your new resume before starting your job search. But who gives the best resume advice? Who among your family, friends or colleagues should you turn to to get constructive feedback? Probably none of them. Occasionally when I’m working with a client, they report feedback from “my brother-in-law,” “my manager,” or “the…
When clients send me their resumes in a template that they downloaded from the Internet, I immediately copy and paste the information into a Word document, and work on the resume in Word. Sometimes, when we’re done with the content, the client asks when I’m going to make it look “nice,” or “more professional.” I’m…
You have to stop sending out meaningless resumes. Hard stop. What makes a resume meaningless? Listing responsibilities without context. A section devoted to keywords (I see you, ATS slaves) without context. Details so outdated that they do you more harm than good. Let me explain, one point at a time. Listing responsibilities without context. Perform…
If you’re like the majority of people on the site, there are two common mistakes you’re making with your LinkedIn profile. The first one involves your profile’s URL. When you open a LinkedIn account, the site appends random numbers and letters after your name. Savvy users know that customizing the URL to eliminate that appendage…
If you want to connect with your target employers, stop thinking of your resume as a history of your work life. It’s not. You are the product, the employer is the consumer, and your resume is how you market yourself. So when the occasional client is perplexed as to why I removed portions of her…
Your resume isn’t an autobiography of your career. Resumes are marketing tools intended to take job candidates to the next step in the hiring process, which is to get interviewed by the hiring manager. To market yourself strategically requires presenting potential employers with a value proposition that aligns with the position they need to fill.…
Don’t get me wrong; college degrees are wonderful for a variety of reasons, but college degrees aren’t good predictors of employee success. Your college degree tells employers absolutely nothing about how well you’ll do on the job. When I was running human resources in financial services, telecommunications and a SaaS company, I routinely skirted hiring…