I'll Get By With A Little Help From My Manager

I volunteered for a couple of hours at a job search fair yesterday. My job was to review the resumes of some of the people came to the fair. As I sat at the table with the other reviewers I felt myself getting uncomfortable, frustrated and even angry. I wasn’t angry with the people who came into the room; I was angry at the companies that let them go.

I understand what is going on in the economy because I am a statistic myself. I realize that as unfortunate as it is, small companies and large companies alike have to let people go. I get that. What irks me though, is that many of these places let their employee’s go without any reinforcement or direction. I don’t care what this lousy economy has done to your business. For Heaven's sake, take care of the people who worked for you. How hard is it to do about ten minutes of research and put together a list of local resources that you can enclose in the termination packet? The internet has an abundance of tools and links to assist the laid off worker. All it takes is a few minutes to type in a key word such as “resume”, “interviewing” or “job search” to connect to a variety of sources.

It is shocking enough to be terminated from your place of employment, whether you enjoyed your job or not. To be unprepared as to how to plan for and begin a job search is daunting and depressing. A little compassion and preparation on the part of the manager or HR department can show the displaced employees that even if you can’t offer outplacement assistance, you can give them some tools to get back onto their feet.

A few blogs ago I posted a list of free our low cost options for the job seeker. If you can't come up with any resources yourself, copy that list and tuck it into the separation packet. It may show the terminated employee (and those left behind) that you have some compassion.

The Resume - What Are Your Areas of Expertise?

If you are planning to stay in the same business with the same or similar type of job, an important part of your resume is the inclusion of the skill sets and terminology appropriate to your industry. If you have these skills, they should be stated up towards the top of your resume in an area called, “Areas of Expertise”. You should include about six of them and they should be orderly. Why? Simply because they stand out or “pop” and the person reading the resume won’t have to go digging through your resume to find them. It is easier for them (or their electronic counterparts) to see if your skills meet their needs.

Let me give you an example. I am a learning and development specialist, formerly called a training specialist. My job is to design, develop and deliver training programs. I also measure training, work with vendors, understand e-learning, create needs assessments and have a solid understanding of adult learning. Where did I get these words? Well, for one, if I didn’t know these words, I shouldn’t be doing what I do. Two, I visited the professional sites for people in my business and read about the newest terminology and technology. I also went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Handbook http://www.bls.gov/oco/ and looked up my profession. There, in a wonderful, easy to follow layout, were all the skills needed to do my job. Three, I looked at learning and development jobs in the on-line help wanted sites. Voila! There, in black and white were the skill sets that various organizations were looking for.

What next? After reading all these learning and development buzz words, I measured myself. I wrote them all down and asked myself where I excelled and where I could use some help. I then prioritized the skills where I shine (at least I think I shine and program evaluations and manager feedback helped validate this) and I chose the top 4 – 6 that I could confidently list as my “Areas of Expertise”. To these I added any other competencies that I felt were tops in my skill set. When I finished, it looked like this:

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Presentations and Facilitation
Vendor / Resource Management
Curriculum Design / Needs Assessment
Program Measurement
Leadership and Team Development
Coaching
On my resume these are listed in two columns - for some reason it is not showing properly on the Blog

Here is another tip. When you are looking for a job and note the skills necessary for the position and you match these skills (never pad your resume with untruths), make sure you add these skills, written in bullet form on your cover letter. Again, you are catching the eye of the reviewer right away. Good luck!

Using a Professional Resume Writer

As I have written in the past, I give Job Search Workshops. Topics include resume writing, interviewing skills, networking and job search tips for the older worker. I love giving these classes but it always amazes me that so many people are simply not prepared to start the job search. I guess that’s why they are attending the training. After every training session though, I have folks come up and ask me to review their resumes. I’d love to and I do but it can’t be done in the few short minutes before the location closes for the day or night. It’s pretty overwhelming to be handed banking, accounting, food service, teaching, management, landscaping, interior design or any other type of resume and asked if it’s any good. I just can’t answer that question in 30 seconds or less.

It is for this reason that I have added “Professional Resume Preparation” to my own resume/company description. Not only do I like to write the resumes but I find it so interesting and energizing to research various occupations and then interview the client for their hidden job talents, competencies and transferable job skills. Once the resume is prepared, my client’s can’t believe the skills they possess from their former or existing jobs and they are dumbfounded when they see their transferable job skills. I certainly don’t make these things up – I can’t. Once we start probing and get it on paper though, the client realizes that they are a very valuable commodity (I love this part of my job!)

If you are thinking about having a professional create your resume, start preparing. If you don’t have an existing resume, create something. Give them something to work with or else you may be charged for the extra leg work on the part of the resume writer. Here are some things to include in your preparation:

1. The position you are seeking (your career interest)
2. Your skills, knowledge and behaviors (see Job Competencies Blog article)
3. Your positions for the past 10 – 15 years. Include the full names and addresses of the companies. Include the dates (months and years) that you worked there.
4. Your transferable job skills (see Transferable Job Skills Blog article). Some of these activities can also be used in a community service category in your resume.
5. Your name, address, phone numbers and email addresses.
6. If you are a student or recent college graduate, list your course work, any special projects or task forces you were on in college and your summer jobs. (Those summer jobs and special projects may contain valuable transferable job skills.)

Good luck. It is difficult to put a resume together and sometimes a little push from a complete stranger will help you get it done.