Career Management Alliance Blog

Checking my email one day this week, I found one that started in a way destined to make my heart sink: “I know we finalized this resume a while ago, but I showed it to a friend and he had some comments …” My heart doesn’t sink because of the extra work – I don’t mind that if the comments are helpful – but because I know that they probably won’t be. So I now have two choices. 1) Make changes that will be detrimental to the document I worked so hard on creating or 2) get into lengthy explanations about why my client’s friend is mistaken. (I always go for the second option because I can’t bear to do bad things to someone’s resume). Continue Reading »

 

When I was choosing my major I figured I should major in something that would help me land a job. I was pretty short-sighted and didn’t quite understand what that meant but I figured there were some majors that either didn’t get jobs or that got very low-paying jobs. I ultimately chose to get a degree in business with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems.  The only other alternative I seriously considered was an emphasis in accounting, but I had ZERO intention of going that route. Continue Reading »

 

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark. ~George Iles One of my movie favorites is Bridget Jones Diary. If you have not seen the film, it chronicles a 30-something’s journey (Bridget, a single woman living in London, played by Renee Zellweger) as she moves through career and personal angst, one day, one crisis and one joyful event at a time. And all the while, each time I watch the movie, it is her position of ‘hope’ and resolve to choose tomorrow that emboldens me, even now, a decade later. It’s the glimmering–and sometimes bursting–rays of hope that seem to sweetly shoulder her burdens of life. Amidst her fretting and commiserating, along with her trio of charming, equally angst-ridden and unconditionally supportive friends, she sings through her tears, sets goals in the thick of emotional pain and picks herself up (literally) when she stumbles. Continue Reading »

 

During a recent trip to New York City, I was excited to have a chance to get together with a colleague/new friend. We confirmed our meeting time and place. I got there early, stepped into the restroom to freshen up and then took a seat near the door, figuring my friend would be sure to see me when she came in. As has been my norm since I started using my Google phone, I took it out and busied myself — checking email, Twitter, Facebook – whatever caught my attention. I certainly wasn’t going to just sit and watch for my friend if I could be productive! I occasionally kept my eye on the door and the clock, and noticed that my friend was a little late, but it didn’t phase me. She and I had each been at different parties, so I figured she got held up. Continue Reading »

 

Earlier this year I attended a workshop on "Fearless Living" facilitated by author, speaker, and life coach Rhonda Britten. Every week one of the participants and I "meet" over the phone to work through Britten's book, also titled, "Fearless Living." We're doing the fearbuster exercises in each chapter, answering the study guide questions, and holding each other accountable to stretch and take risks. It's been a life-transforming experience! This month I've signed up for the teleclass, "Fearless Conversations" which will be led by Britten. I'm so excited! Not only will I learn new skills to help me in my personal life, I will learn skills that I can use to support and empower my clients on their journey moving from fear to freedom. Continue Reading »

 

I think it’s intriguing to learn about what recruiters talk, and learn, about.  Understanding what they are paying money for and what they are trying to incorporate into their business can help you understand how to better position yourself, whether you are in an active or passive job search. Here’s parts of an agenda (full agenda here) from a recruiter conference… do you see a consistent theme?  Browse through these and then I’ll make a conclusion at the end of the post: Continue Reading »

 

Close to two-thirds (62.7 percent) of employer respondents in the 2010 Orange County Resume Survey* said that when receiving resumes electronically (the most common delivery mode these days), they prefer them as a Word .doc. More than a third (36.1 percent) surveyed prefer PDF files, while 1.2 percent favor Rich Text (.rtf). Text-only (.txt) and online resumes in .html format received no support in the survey. Although a Wod .doc is usually a safe bet, it’s wise to check the employer’s Web site or contact the employer to determine the preferred file format for your resume. Continue Reading »

 

…and other assorted baggage. There is no Candidate Experience. Plato's search for a higher reality of 'ideal' forms was as ethereal as the eternity that staffing has spent (and will spend) searching and benchmarking the 'ideal' candidate experience… without return. It is time to grow up and let ‘them’ take responsibility for their own experience. Continue Reading »

 

In Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen's article, How Will You Measure Your Life?, he talks of the importance of having a clear purpose. At Oxford, as a Rhodes scholar in the midst of a very demanding academic program, he mad a life altering decision:

I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life. Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned.

 

Have you been thrust into an executive job search and finding that things have changed drastically since the last time you looked for a gig, even if it was only a few years ago? Suddenly the game plan looks and feels completely different, and no one told you about it. You don’t know what you need to do to get a handle on and accelerate your search – what to do first, what not to do, who to turn to for help, how to best invest your time and funds. Continue Reading »