Author: FPSelectJobsBlog

FPSelectJobs and Franklin Paterson Resumes, your one-stop career boutique!!! Professional Resume Writing and Cover Letters, for more interviews, and better job offers!

Updating your resume? Are you a Storyteller, Bottom-up, Scalper, or a Renovator?

Some people treat their resumes like career autobiographies, into which they keep adding more info over time. Some assume the longer the resume, the better, or they utilize the pay-by-the-word look, using the tiniest font in jumble-length paragraphs, all crammed into a single page.

Taking either of these approaches to your resume can result in an unbalanced picture of your work history. Neither of which is going to impress employers.

Jobseekers’ approach to writing their resume can be broadly broken down into three categories.

·       The  “storyteller,” i.e., the job seeker who never removes anything from their resume? They will add some information occasionally, but they never remove anything. This “improvement by addition technique” may be a sound approach to topping off your tank before a long road trip; but it is not a great approach to enhancing your resume.

·        The “bottom-up” resume writer? Do you start from your earliest jobs, about which you add lots of detail since those WERE the fun days, right? The resultant resume is bottom-heavy and weighted towards your early career and skill sets that may longer be as valuable as they once were.

·        Or are you a “scalper?” This resume writer ruthlessly removes anything on their resume that is not current and relevant. The trouble with this hard-nosed approach to past experiences is that it obscures the interviewers’ view of your overall career-building climb or your diversity of skills and achievements.

My recommended approach is the wholesome but strategic “Resume Renovator” upgrade tactic i.e., building your new resume and career profile by striking a balance between detailing recent experience and achievements while including valuable prior experiences.

The resume renovator will take this approach each time they prepare their resume. They will detail and acknowledge their long and fruitful career but may edit out some of the early jobs entirely. They also consider the types of jobs they are applying for and align their resume and experience to validate their suitability for the roles.

How do you approach updating your resume? Are you a Storyteller, Bottom-up, Scalper, or a Renovator? 

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Are you a Place Holder or a Outcome Guarantor?

Yesterday a client called to have a career assessment and to update their resume. Although successful and a recognized achiever, she is now career restless.

She believes that her company is now playing it safe and utilizing her as a guarantor of the vast sales figures she delivers. Her work is repetitive, redundant, predictable, and dull. She feels overlooked and undervalued. How can this be?

A year ago, she was on the fast track with her third promotion in just five years! And it is rare and challenging that a client seeks to change companies because they would like to face a challenge or possible failure, beat it, and grow, which takes confidence and bravery! YOU GO, GIRL!

After our call, I wondered whether she was now genuinely performing at a mediocre level as her current projects appeared. Then this article on the “The Gravitational Pull of Mediocrity,” published by Oliver Burkeman some six years ago, jogged into my mind.

Burkman said: “Being a second-rate performer is not simply the curse of being an over-promoted underachiever – it is the default state of the universe.” So it seems that if you do your job well, you may be rewarded with promotions until you reach the position where you become a guarantor of the necessary outcome.

And you do not need to be undervalued or bad at your job for this to occur. At many organizations, terrible ideas and solutions often crowd out good ones if they guarantee expected outcomes.

In many company cultures, “just stay on course” is enough. So please be careful about becoming a guarantor of an expected and needed outcome. The result may be to become a placeholder which is where you remain.

The tech investor Ben Horowitz once said: “As soon as someone on a given rung at a company gets as good as the worst person the next rung up, they may expect a promotion.” Consequently, the achievement guarantors and some of its talent will become restless.

To forestall that reality, companies need to shift the mediocre-performing employees they have created into positions to pursue new challenges, force them to keep growing or push them out.

Some professionals settle into an achievement plateau because the mediocrity acceptance level at their job is tolerable. So as long as their superiors are satisfied with them in their role and they deliver the desired results, they are rewarded until they are not!

Does this describe where you are in your career? Have you plateaued? Are you beginning to feel irrelevant?

Communications Set Backs at the Job Interview

We tend to obsess about our performance at interviews and believe we must impress the Interviewer. We have so many things to say that we decide to resize our conversation and speak only of our skills and accomplishments.

Candidates often fail to recognize that interviews must be goal-defined and specific. Under pressure, many candidates forget to pay attention to this interview strategy. They are often unaware as they ramble about their extensive experience that they have lost their audience.

We should stop and acknowledge when we are not connecting with the audience during the interview. At times, we try to communicate in a complex style, and we forget to ask thoughtful relevant questions that, demonstrate our potential as contributing team members.

Communication setbacks at the interview may not mean that you are necessarily failing to connect personally, but it can mean that you are failing to impress that you are the right fit for the position and that you will be an excellent addition to the team.

Many applicants who believe themselves to be good communicators are often blistered with confusion as to why they fail to connect with managers at interviews, be it one person or a panel interview.

This conundrum suggests that we should try to create advocates for our candidacy for the position, and this can be best remedied at the close of an interview.

Here are two stabilizing questions you can ask before the interview ends, and the Manager says, “we’ll be in touch!”

1.      “What have been the career paths of those who previously held this position?”

If the previous incumbents been promoted to more senior roles? That could be a sign that the company recognizes and rewards high achievers and promotes from within. If you are replacing someone who left to work elsewhere, that could indicate that internal career progression could be a concern.

2.      “What are some of the challenges can I expect to face in this role?”

Here is your opportunity to get beyond the surface stuff and understand what it may be like to work at this company, or for this Manager, and what kind of circumstances you may have to battle. How honest and straightforward the Manager is in responding to these types of questions will tell you whether you will thrive in this new position or at this company.

The Logic Bully

I heard from a former colleague recently who wanted to refer a friend. She said her friend was frustrated since he had attended twelve first interviews. But his interviews were not going well since quite a few ended early and abruptly. He felt no one allowed him to sell himself and sell his ideas. You don’t say!

On my exploratory call with the potential client, he explained his ongoing interviewing struggles and apparent failure to connect with interviewers and asked how I could help. After I explained our program. He volunteered that he had an excellent interview process and pronounced, “Here is how I would like you to approach my interview preparation training.”

He then told me how he would like his interview preparation sessions arranged and what topics should be covered. I listened to the entire schooling on how to coach job seekers of his level of experience. Then he ended with, “when are you available to help me practice?”

I reasoned that I should try to escape gracefully, as he was a referral. So I ventured that I did not think we would work well together since our approaches to coaching and communication styles differed quite a bit. Plus, since he was already using his process without success, I would hesitate to utilize his process and add more casualties.

Starting again, at some speed, he explained that he was a strong communicator with excellent people skills, areas of expertise, and achievements, etc. All the while sounding like the out-of-tune brass section of a marching band for whom noise is the thing.

We ended the call with the potential client offering me time to consider his proposal to coach him using HIS methods and a second meeting.

Sadly, in his effort to sell himself and his interviewing strategy, the client morphed into a “logic bully.” And in his self-centric drive to sell himself, he became a noisy communicator who deluges others with his processes, best practices, expertise, and riotous failure to stay on topic.

The colleague who referred him called a few days later, “Do you have any advice?” she asked. Then I remembered one of my mother’s pearls and offered: “Tell him to use the door handle. He doesn’t need to kick down every door.”  

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Here’s why Asking Process Questions at the end of an interview is so very important.

So you have sailed through what seems like an easy interview, now you are at the close, and the Interviewer asks: “Do you have any questions for me?” Your brain screams – “Say what!” And your mouth volunteers, “Not really.” Your eye contact with the Interviewer relays that you have missed the seal-the-deal, closing shot. Oops!

End-of-interview questions should focus on organizational issues rather than the project or technical questions you may have already discussed with the Interviewer. Asking open-ended questions will help you gauge whether this position is a good career fit for you at this point in your career.

Why is asking key process questions at the end of an interview is so very important?

Asking thoughtful process questions shows that you are interested and committed to success in the role. And this can set you apart from the other candidates.

It is also an excellent opportunity to learn about possible internal barriers to success and problems you may encounter as you seek success in the role BEFORE starting the job, especially if the job is in a different industry!

A good sample question: “What are the challenges someone hired into this role expect to face?” The Manager’s answer will show the following:

1.   Is the manager aware of what it takes to succeed in this role?

2.   Is this manager offering a career advancement opportunity, simply a job, or are you interviewing for a disposable role?

3.   Does the manager’s response highlight how they will work with you to ensure your success?

4.   Are there departmental or interdepartmental politics that you will have to battle against?

5.   Are there technical issues that may make it initially challenging to perform your role effectively?

6.   Are there actions in place to correct these deficiencies?

7.   How involved is the Manager in mentoring and developing their staff and department?

8.   Does the manager mention others who might help you integrate into the existing team? 

These open-ended questions will also help you gauge Manager’s interest in your candidacy for the position. It is their opportunity to sell you the role, the organization, and the management style.

These questions can show that you are interested in success in the role and not just landing a new job. Master these end-of-interview questions, and you may level the performance field if you fumbled a question during the earlier part of the interview.