Exactly how much contact information should a person should list on their résumé? Some say that human resource managers won't accept résumés that have no address listed because it could 'conceal' something. Others in the industry indicate that it is becoming more common to list only a contact number and name when posting a résumé on the Internet, in order to avoid identity fraud and safeguard personal privacy.
Interestingly enough, a colleague even mentioned this possibility: "Employers can even look up where you live and determine the value of your home through zillow.com or the local tax assessor. They can tell when the home was purchased, the annual taxes, and even if it's for sale. We certainly don't want our client's salary level determined on whether a candidate lives in a McMansion or a trailer park."
Wow. The world has changed, hasn't it?
How do you tackle this issue?
Firstly, when posting your information online, it is critical that you do take steps to protect your identity. You should only use your name or even just your first initial and last name, and provide a cell phone number to be reached, plus an email address that doesn't disclose much more information than already provided. Any time you are posting something even on sites like Monster.com or other related job boards, there are people who pose as 'employers' and pay the fee to access the site... and promptly go to work as identity crooks. Think about what you are posting... your name, occupation, employment dates, education, etc. It's a dream come true for an identity thief. If you've included your home location, one quick robbery later with just one piece of photo i.d., and suddenly, you are in for some unpleasant surprises very soon!
Additionally, caution should be used when you are reviewing job boards like craigslist.com - unfortunately, if that job posting sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Most reputable companies aren't afraid to be up front about their contact information or company name. If you really want to pursue that opportunity, be extremely cautious about any additional requests for information without any company data coming your way. It could be yet another scam to try and capture your personal information!
However, until definitive data comes from the hiring managers and human resource representatives themselves, it's probably best to include your contact information when sending résumés directly to reputable organizations. There are confidentiality laws and corporate policies/procedures in place to protect applicant data. However, if you ever suspect that they have been breached or abused, you need to notify the appropriate officials immediately.
Even so, here's a hair-raising example of how abuse can occur, even when the company was legitimate: Many years ago, I applied for a job at The Gap. I never heard from them about my application, but I got a phone call from a man a few weeks later, and he said he had heard I was looking for work, and that he had a telemarketing job he was hiring for at the time.
I didn't recall ever meeting him nor could establish a connection as to how he got my information. At that point, I asked him how he got my information. Stupidly (does this qualify as a 'dumb crook' story?) he told me that his girlfriend was the manager at The Gap, and she had brought home the applications for the people that they didn't end up hiring, and he was going through them. I felt so violated at the time, and immediately called The Gap and went up the ladder to talk to a supervisor, and promptly reported the incident. I didn't even think to call the police!! (Silly me)
Obviously, the manager had taken my personal information and transported off-site (and back in those days, you felt compelled to provide your SSN# on an application) - this guy had the whole nine yards!!! I don't know what happened in that instance to either the woman or the man, but since then, I have been acutely aware of what to put and what not to disclose and when.
Your credit, your financial standing and your reputation stand depend on it!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
What “Professional Development” Really Tells Employers
I was recently at a conference of meeting professionals providing a resume review workshop, and made a stunning discovery: Relatively few people listed the words, “Professional Development” on their resume under their EDUCATION header. The irony is that these are the people who plan the very conferences and educational seminars that we go to in order to earn ‘professional development’ credentials.
Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees!
Professional development is the terminology used to describe any additional educational training or background you’ve gained through attending conferences, conventions, seminars, workshops, trainings, continuing education classes, industry certifications or corporate universities. You should NOT use a section header saying, “Trainings” or "Seminars" or something along those lines… Instead use the words “Professional Development” – that is the correct term and descriptor for any education that extends beyond a formal, degree/certificate institutional level.
Professional development single-handedly tells employers this message: “Here’s what I’ve done to INCREASE my job knowledge, HONE my skills to be a better worker, and BE CURRENT on industry trends.”
If you don’t have anything to list in this section, you’d better start signing up for classes. This is a great section to help break away from the rest of the pack in this competitive marketplace. Having something under "Professional Development" is a good way to deliver a subliminal message to employers: I work hard, I care about my work and how I perform it, and I want to do a good job.
The good news for unemployed workers is that there are federal stimulus funds available to help pay for professional development and educational studies. You’d need to check with your local employment department to find out about qualification details.
Otherwise, if you are fortunate to have the resources either with your current employer or personally, then this is the time to start targeting those classes which will enhance your professional credentials. What kinds of skills can you add to your repertoire to make yourself even more indispensable? How can you make yourself a better resource to an employer?
A perfect example was a gentleman in one of the resume writing classes I taught recently. He had lost his job as a forklift driver, but didn’t let the moss grow. He kept reading trade/industry journals to keep track of trends, and that’s how he found out about a new generation of forklift that just came out. He had previously been trained/certified on the manual (hydraulic) lever-operated forklifts. The new model has a joystick to operate it- which required a different certification. So this gentleman took the steps to go get certified in the new model, which doubled his employability to prospective companies. Good thinking!
Keeping abreast of current industry trends, bringing new ideas back to the office and sharing information are all attributes of leaders who are valued members of an organization. Don't you want to be seen in that light?
Take the time to invest in your job knowledge. This clearly makes you stand out as a proactively engaged, inquisitive, and driven prospective employee to companies when they are reviewing resumes!
Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees!
Professional development is the terminology used to describe any additional educational training or background you’ve gained through attending conferences, conventions, seminars, workshops, trainings, continuing education classes, industry certifications or corporate universities. You should NOT use a section header saying, “Trainings” or "Seminars" or something along those lines… Instead use the words “Professional Development” – that is the correct term and descriptor for any education that extends beyond a formal, degree/certificate institutional level.
Professional development single-handedly tells employers this message: “Here’s what I’ve done to INCREASE my job knowledge, HONE my skills to be a better worker, and BE CURRENT on industry trends.”
If you don’t have anything to list in this section, you’d better start signing up for classes. This is a great section to help break away from the rest of the pack in this competitive marketplace. Having something under "Professional Development" is a good way to deliver a subliminal message to employers: I work hard, I care about my work and how I perform it, and I want to do a good job.
The good news for unemployed workers is that there are federal stimulus funds available to help pay for professional development and educational studies. You’d need to check with your local employment department to find out about qualification details.
Otherwise, if you are fortunate to have the resources either with your current employer or personally, then this is the time to start targeting those classes which will enhance your professional credentials. What kinds of skills can you add to your repertoire to make yourself even more indispensable? How can you make yourself a better resource to an employer?
A perfect example was a gentleman in one of the resume writing classes I taught recently. He had lost his job as a forklift driver, but didn’t let the moss grow. He kept reading trade/industry journals to keep track of trends, and that’s how he found out about a new generation of forklift that just came out. He had previously been trained/certified on the manual (hydraulic) lever-operated forklifts. The new model has a joystick to operate it- which required a different certification. So this gentleman took the steps to go get certified in the new model, which doubled his employability to prospective companies. Good thinking!
Keeping abreast of current industry trends, bringing new ideas back to the office and sharing information are all attributes of leaders who are valued members of an organization. Don't you want to be seen in that light?
Take the time to invest in your job knowledge. This clearly makes you stand out as a proactively engaged, inquisitive, and driven prospective employee to companies when they are reviewing resumes!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Job Search Measures
In a virtual ocean of fellow job applicants, at a time when 100, 200 and even up to 500 people are applying for the same job, making yourself stand out from the crowd seems about as likely as buying the winning lottery ticket.
Job seekers have had to step up their efforts to make themselves stand out in ways which would have been unthinkable five years ago.
Since 70% of people find jobs through someone they know, that immediately speaks to building personal networks consisting of social and professional contacts. Start building an Internet professional presence with social media networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Plaxo, to name a few. Using these tools can spin a larger networking web which can help snare a job through personal connections.
But many people are going far and beyond just the normal realm of networking efforts to garner attention from hiring managers.
Some job seekers are hiring public relations, advertising and marketing firms to promote themselves, building their own personal brand. Managing a consistent, packaged look and feel to an applicant can give a job searcher a highly polished edge, which can be novel enough to stand out from the pack.
Other applicants are hiring professional résumé writers to retool their career document. Most people who have tackled writing their résumé have found it is difficult to ‘find the forest despite the trees’, so having an objective ‘third party’ work on this important credential creates the opportunity to really drill down to specifics. While it can be a harsh process, it will also allow a clear distillation of the job seeker’s value to prospective employers.
I recently ran across this innovative tactic from a previous client: People are offering “finder’s fees” to whoever refers an opening to them, which results in the applicant getting a job. In this example, the client let her entire network know that if someone referred a viable job lead which resulted in her getting the position, she would write them a check for $500. Think of this way: It is a great incentive to the referrer, but at the same time, this is actually a small investment when considering the cost of a longer, more extensive job search.
People are also resorting to publicity stunts. Recently a woman created a website which asked employers to hire her husband, which, on a positive note, garnered him national positive media attention and multiple job offers.
In January 2009, Christopher Adams of Sacramento, CA dressed up in a suit and a tie, holding a “Hire Me” sign at a freeway off –ramp, handing out his résumé to anyone who wanted one, which got him on the local news.
A laid-off political reporter started a blog that covered different topics, which attracted the attention of a recruiter, who cited the blog as a clear demonstration of the job seeker’s communication skills.
Others have posted video résumés online at YouTube… with disastrous results including bad lighting, horrible production value and embarrassing revelations.
And finally, job seekers have resorted to going to Craigslist and posting a variety of pleas, threats and just plain pathetic attempts at cajoling employers into hiring them. Maybe not so effective approaches for those last few examples, right?
Others are persistent, with a creative edge. In Australia, an art designer masqueraded as a window cleaner and washed the creative director's windows on a ladder while he was in the room. The applicant started showing examples of creative work through the windows, until he finally got asked to come inside. The result: He landed the job.
The point here is that it’s time to pull out all the stops. But don’t go too far overboard: Creative fields might be fairly receptive to gimmicks and imaginative résumés, but most corporate cultures are much more conservative in nature, and not as receptive.
The other point is that if you actually do land an interview, be careful about not coming across as trying to bribe the interviewer by bringing pastry treats, cookies, coffee, or even flowers. A few years ago, a person I was interviewing showed up with Starbucks coffee and donuts… and it felt entirely too contrived and ‘suck-up’ to me; the situation didn’t sit too well as a result. And there is a definite line between being politely persistent and screaming ‘stalker’ with repeated (and rejected) attempts to contact the hiring manager.
Get creative, but know your audience so you don’t miss your mark by delivering a dud. Being polite, respectful but innovative can open doors. And that’s what gets you noticed!
Job seekers have had to step up their efforts to make themselves stand out in ways which would have been unthinkable five years ago.
Since 70% of people find jobs through someone they know, that immediately speaks to building personal networks consisting of social and professional contacts. Start building an Internet professional presence with social media networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Plaxo, to name a few. Using these tools can spin a larger networking web which can help snare a job through personal connections.
But many people are going far and beyond just the normal realm of networking efforts to garner attention from hiring managers.
Some job seekers are hiring public relations, advertising and marketing firms to promote themselves, building their own personal brand. Managing a consistent, packaged look and feel to an applicant can give a job searcher a highly polished edge, which can be novel enough to stand out from the pack.
Other applicants are hiring professional résumé writers to retool their career document. Most people who have tackled writing their résumé have found it is difficult to ‘find the forest despite the trees’, so having an objective ‘third party’ work on this important credential creates the opportunity to really drill down to specifics. While it can be a harsh process, it will also allow a clear distillation of the job seeker’s value to prospective employers.
I recently ran across this innovative tactic from a previous client: People are offering “finder’s fees” to whoever refers an opening to them, which results in the applicant getting a job. In this example, the client let her entire network know that if someone referred a viable job lead which resulted in her getting the position, she would write them a check for $500. Think of this way: It is a great incentive to the referrer, but at the same time, this is actually a small investment when considering the cost of a longer, more extensive job search.
People are also resorting to publicity stunts. Recently a woman created a website which asked employers to hire her husband, which, on a positive note, garnered him national positive media attention and multiple job offers.
In January 2009, Christopher Adams of Sacramento, CA dressed up in a suit and a tie, holding a “Hire Me” sign at a freeway off –ramp, handing out his résumé to anyone who wanted one, which got him on the local news.
A laid-off political reporter started a blog that covered different topics, which attracted the attention of a recruiter, who cited the blog as a clear demonstration of the job seeker’s communication skills.
Others have posted video résumés online at YouTube… with disastrous results including bad lighting, horrible production value and embarrassing revelations.
And finally, job seekers have resorted to going to Craigslist and posting a variety of pleas, threats and just plain pathetic attempts at cajoling employers into hiring them. Maybe not so effective approaches for those last few examples, right?
Others are persistent, with a creative edge. In Australia, an art designer masqueraded as a window cleaner and washed the creative director's windows on a ladder while he was in the room. The applicant started showing examples of creative work through the windows, until he finally got asked to come inside. The result: He landed the job.
The point here is that it’s time to pull out all the stops. But don’t go too far overboard: Creative fields might be fairly receptive to gimmicks and imaginative résumés, but most corporate cultures are much more conservative in nature, and not as receptive.
The other point is that if you actually do land an interview, be careful about not coming across as trying to bribe the interviewer by bringing pastry treats, cookies, coffee, or even flowers. A few years ago, a person I was interviewing showed up with Starbucks coffee and donuts… and it felt entirely too contrived and ‘suck-up’ to me; the situation didn’t sit too well as a result. And there is a definite line between being politely persistent and screaming ‘stalker’ with repeated (and rejected) attempts to contact the hiring manager.
Get creative, but know your audience so you don’t miss your mark by delivering a dud. Being polite, respectful but innovative can open doors. And that’s what gets you noticed!
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