Basic Resume Writing

• Do not write in 3rd person. Remember how we all learned that rule in High School? Stick with this basic grammar rule.
• Keep your detailed job descriptions to the last 10 years. After that, just list the company names, your title and dates of employment. Or if you prefer, you can do a one page resume with just the last 10 years.
• A two page resume is plenty of information about you. There is a reason why companies conduct interviews – to get to know more about you.
• If you list your Facebook/LinkedIn/MySpace, etc. addresses make sure what is on that site is appropriate for your future employer to view.
• Put your home address, email address, phone and cell on your resume.
• Keep your resume format simple and do not use Times Roman type face. It’s a great type face but everyone uses it. You want to look a bit different from everyone else. Once you've picked a type face use just one. You can bold, italicize, increase the font size in places but keep it all the same type face. Keep it simple.
• Make sure each page of your resume has a footer with your name, email address and phone number on it. Recruiters and HR people have occasionally been known to lose the first page of a resume and it’s usually the “perfect candidates” resume. Yes, oops, we occasionally have bad days.
• Always explain what industry your company is in.
• If you had 5 different titles under one employer put the employer, your current title and the total dates of employment at the top. Below the company name, preferably indented, break out the titles and the dates of each of your jobs.
• If you are comfortable listing some of your personal interests put something fun and true, for example - I’m a member of the Surf Rider Foundation, I’m a 20 year member of whatever sorority you belonged to, I coach football. It gives us, the interviewer, something different to talk to you about besides all the rank and file information. But keep in mind, if your interests are unusual, like you eat only bugs, please, keep that to yourself.
• Finally – no embellishments of your work record. List your accomplishments but do not indulge in any creative fictional accounts of your success.

Home Address?

No home addresses on resumes?

When you send your resume to a recruiter please put your full home address the resume. There is a trend currently to omit the address. What’s up, why the secrecy? Let me tell you why we need the address -

• To mail (yes, using the US Postal service) you a letter when you’ve changed your email address for the 10th time and we cannot reach you.
• To mail you a letter when your cell/home/work number has changed.
• To note what your commute would be. How many of you would go from downtown San Diego to downtown LA on a daily basis? We need your address information. Some of our candidates won’t even go past the El Toro Y. (Me, I don’t go outside my 5 mile radius except for a client or a vacation -- we all have our limits.)

Bottom line even with all the new tech out there we sometimes need to go back to basics and mail you a letter. So, please put your address back on your resume. Thanks.

Just Do It

Whew – I have been thinking about this for weeks now and it’s time to put pen to paper.

Shut up and just do it.

Please quit telling me how you are going to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise, or cut back on whatever bad thing you are doing right now. It’s time to just do it – go for it. Don’t wait until after Memorial Day to start that new diet, to walk a few blocks or put out the cigarette -- start NOW.

I read a great article in Oprah’s January edition of her magazine called Escape your Rat Race by Martha Beck. This article was all about making changes, even little ones, to make your life better. I highly recommend everyone getting a copy of the article. So, anyhow here goes my version: Think before you take another bite of that cookie, think, before you decide not to go to the gym, think, before you buy another pack of cigarettes or do anything else “naughty” THINK. Think about the positive choice and quit doing the thing you don’t want to do. Get it? THINK and then go with the good and with the change. In the end the good thing will make you feel better.

So, if you can’t just do it then please quit telling me what you are going to do but, sadly -- never do. I’m getting cranky listening to all endless chatter about all you’re planning on doing. 
ACTIONS do speak louder than WORDS. Think action and quit being so wordy. 

JUST DO IT.

Elevator Pitch

Today I interviewed a HR Director, Robert S. – he’s looking for a job if anyone needs a good HR Director. We started talking about all the ways we network - LinkedIn, Facebook, seminars at outplacement firms, alumni networks, and all the various groups affiliated with LinkedIn, like OCEAN. I just joined OCEAN so I had no opinion on it – yet. We talked about likes and dislikes of networking and the one thing he said he really missed is the elevator pitch.

I had to ask – elevator pitch? An analogy for -- “elevator pitch” -- it’s the 30 seconds you have in an elevator to pitch the Vice President you just happened to run into. It’s your commercial, your 15 minutes of fame in the world of finding a new job or getting a better job. So, Bob (we were on not so formal terms by now) gave me his pitch. It was a good one.

We all need a good “elevator pitch”. You need it for your Facebook page, LinkedIn page, for the 30 seconds standing in front of the networking group. Yes, even in this email/texting/instant messaging age we still sometimes have to talk to people. You need a stutter-free pitch that demonstrates who we are quickly without too much fluff. Have you refined your elevator pitch lately? Work on it and get it down pat, it’s a good thing to have.

From the BullPen, Knakal & Crumply

Thank you, Robert Knakal of Knakal StreetWise and Charlie Crumpley of the LA Business Journal. You two speak truth. The Medias constant incessant whining about our bad economy needed a rebuttal. All we hear and see on the TV, the net, newspapers and on the radio is how the US is tanking, how horrible things have become, and oh my goodness -- they are going to get worse. What Knakal and Crumply point out is that we are nowhere close to the Great Depression. We currently have a National unemployment rate of 7.6% not 25% as it was in the Great Depression. We do not have mortgage rates of 18% like in the 1980’s. We are not at 11% inflation rate as we were in the 1970’s.

We acknowledge that people have lost jobs (check my blog post “Playground Layoffs”) but overall, a lot of Americans are working and they can pay their bills. We have faith that American ingenuity, hard work, courage and pure genius (we have some brilliant Americans!) will get us out of this down turn. So again, thank you Robert Knakal and Charlie Crumpley for speaking positively and stating FACTS. We do not need to see, hear or read about anymore “complete economic breakdowns”. Hey CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc. we challenge you to stop preaching fear and start reporting with hope and faith in the American people. How about trying in a headline, “The U.S. has over a 90% employment rate” or maybe that won’t sell? Aha…..


You can find Robert Knakal at http://www.knakalstreetwise.com and Charlie Crumpley at the Los Angeles Business Journal http://labj.com . His article was in the Feb. 23rd OC Journal issue on the back page – the Viewpoint section. In my opinion. it should have been on the front page. But I guess good news is not news.

Technology Appreciation

Yikes - yesterday my email inbox was corrupted, a few weeks ago we lost power, and a month ago I lost my cell phone. What a mess! Daily life can be very difficult when technology doesn’t work, gets lost, or has no power. The last few weeks my technology mishaps have made me change things up and learn a few lessons.

My corrupted inbox. How do you communicate with candidates, clients, friends, your kid’s teacher without email? I had the internet so, Facebook, helps with the friends. LinkedIn helps with the clients and candidates but the people in-between. The in-between people, the people who have sent me an email with a resume attached? I couldn't get to you. Lesson #1 – have patience with your IT guy and pick up the phone and talk to people they can always fax over a resume.

My lost cell phone. A few weeks ago I lost my cell phone and never found it. Within hours I was amazed at how much I actually use it and missed it – especially to text! Without my cell I lost a lot of my contacts. I had never put them into my computer. Ah – Lesson #2 back up your phone contacts, you just might need them. And now that I’ve lost my contacts in Outlook - back that up too.

The lights were out. A few weeks ago a Mylar balloon hit a power line and took out power in parts of Costa Mesa. I got home just as it was getting dark. We needed candles – lots of candles. We had a gas stove so we could cook but it was tough to see anything once it got dark – including the food we were eating. Trying to work from home that night was impossible because my battery on my old Dell computer only lasts for 30 min. and our cell phones – when there is no power to recharge your battery you conserve it. Lesson #3 – be better prepared for a emergency. We need more candles, a battery back up, water - the refrig filtered water doesn’t work when the power is out – and more fun easy to see games to play with the kids. When the last time you double checked your earthquake/emergency kit? Oh and Lesson #4 don’t buy Mylar balloons – they are bad for the environment and the electricity lines!

Now off I go to sort through all my emails. Yeah TAG’s IT guy!!! Thanks for fixing my computer. I truly appreciate when all my tech stuff works.

The Butterfly vs. The Mule

As always, I am trying to find ways to work with Dave. (Those of you who are new to my blog should know that Dave is my father and I work for him.) So, when I get frustrated, I often times email my friend, Kate, who has worked here and has known Dave for 20 years. Kate is funny with her advice and usually hits the problem dead-on with some hilarious analogy. As usual, she came through for me.

To set up the scene -- I've been trying to get Dave into this century. For example - getting him to use LinkedIn - remembering his password is an issue, using his cell phone besides when he’s in his car – it works at lunch too, and just changing a little bit - Dave just a little bit, please. Basically, the same old fight we've been having every year.

So as a company, we are moving out of a sole focus in the Real Estate industry and into other areas. I’m trying to drag him along but he’s kicking and screaming. So I emailed Kate and this is the response I got, “There is definitely work out there, you just have to be flexible, able to adjust on the fly and go after it. Uhhhh...well....that didn't really describe Dave at all these days, now did it? Sounds like the start of your first online blog argument with dear ol' dad! The butterfly vs. the mule! He can't actually kick you, but man he ain't goin' anywhere. He can carry a lot and you can see at the 20,000 foot level.”

So there we go. She summed it up. I’m running around at 20,000 ft. looking forward, moving forward and he’s still hanging out at the barn kickin’ and braying. Maybe we can get our mule working with the butterfly – any ideas?