Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

Mind the Gap: 5 Ways to Address Resume Gaps in Your Job Search

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There are easier ways to fill a gap

If you’re concerned about how a resume gap will be perceived by employers, here’s some good news: you can usually reduce or eliminate the harm it can cause your job search. Plus, in many cases, the gap will not be viewed as a big deal to begin with. How much of a problem the gap poses depends on:

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How to Write a Compelling Executive Bio

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Woman looking back down from the top of the stairs
Tell a compelling career story

If you’re a candidate for C-suite, Partner, or Board roles, you’ll be asked for a bio as part of the process. For some roles reporting to the C-suite, you may need a bio as well. Employers evaluating your candidacy want to see how your career story will look to prospective investors, clients, and employees when shared publicly. For more junior roles, a bio is usually not worth prioritizing, except when your story is especially unusual or compelling.

To create a resonant bio,

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LinkedIn Profiles vs. Resumes: What You Need to Know

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They both have a lot in common

Great LinkedIn profiles and resumes have a lot in common, including highly targeted, keyword-rich and concise content, accomplishment-oriented bullets and a powerful summary section. Because of these similarities, copying your resume content right into your LinkedIn profile is often a good idea. Yet in some situations you’ll want to take a different approach to your profile.

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Nine Rules for Writing Emails and Cover Letters that Get Interviews

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Man typing on laptopPerhaps you’ve experienced the disappointment of carefully crafting an email or cover letter asking for a meeting only to get no response or turned down. In fact, all too often these messages are not even read, because the email subject line or the content doesn’t resonate or the message is too densely worded. Clients who have applied the following nine rules, however, have seen big improvements in their email response rates.

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A 7-Step Job Search Plan to Beat the Odds

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Businesswoman planning

Job searches go faster when job-seekers first take a step back to plan strategically. And careful planning has become even more important during these challenging economic times. Think of it this way; your “job” in a job search is to be a world-class consultative salesperson, for yourself. So do what the best salespeople do: plan carefully first, to get the highest return on your time investment. Here’s a seven step job search plan that has gotten results for my clients, and that any great salesperson would appreciate.

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Job Seekers: Be Careful Using LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” Feature

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Professional woman sitting on sidewalk holding job search signLinkedIn’s “Open to Work” feature to help you let employers, recruiters and your network know you’re looking for a job. You can share your open-to-work status by checking either “share with recruiters only” or “share with all LinkedIn members.” To access, click the “Add New Profile Section” button to the right of your profile picture and then click “Looking for a new job” in the Intro section at the top.

So should you use this feature, and if so, which option should you pick? My thoughts:

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Power Up Your Pitch to Land Job Interviews and Offers

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A powerful pitch, one that resonates with your target audience, can give your job search a big boost in this challenging economy. Employers and networking contacts will be impressed when you concisely and engagingly describe what differentiates you from your competitors. Plus the process of creating your pitch is, on its own, well worth your time; the deeply self-reflective thinking that’s required will help you to sell yourself. You’ll need two versions of your pitch:

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The Top 4 Resume Myths – Busted

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Myths

When clients first contact me for résumé help, they often say things like “I heard that you should never…” or “I was told to always…” Most of these rules are just plain wrong, because they contradict the one Golden Rule of Résumé Writing: your “why you should hire me” message needs to jump off the page in the 15 seconds or less that your résumé is being reviewed (one study says your résumé is looked at for only 7.4 seconds).

Keeping the Golden Rule in mind, let’s look at the top four résumé myths that I’ve come across in my work with clients.

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Unemployed? 3 Ways to Fill that Gap in Your Resume

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If you’ve been out of work for a while, you may face a well-documented bias against the unemployed in your job search. But fear not; there are ways to easily fill the gap, preempting any potential uneasiness about your unemployment while reassuring employers that you’re current in your field. Here are three of those ways, followed by what to say when asked about an employment gap in an interview.

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Odds Are You’ll Be Fired Before Retirement, So Build “Career Security”

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For those over 50 and gainfully employed, this study says you have a 56% chance that you’ll be let go before you’re ready to retire, risking substantial income loss. The study supports my own observations via client work that there is no real job security, only “career security.” In a sense employees are really all consultants.

But not to worry! Here’s a list of things you can do to both minimize the risk of an unwanted departure and set yourself up for a quick, positive transition if necessary.

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