job search

Job Basics: The Goal

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goal soccer ball

So, where does your career/job life start? Where does it all begin? With a Goal of what you want to do and what you want to be. Note this doesn’t have to be what you want to be when you grow up, since I’m not sure I’ve grown up yet. It just has to be something you’re reaching for now or in the near future.

Having a goal that you truly want, that you “get”, that you feel viscerally directs you. You know why you’re reaching for it. You have the drive to propel you. You develop an almost instinctive understanding of what you’re trying to achieve.

You start with where you want to end up and figure out what to do to get there – the first Job Basic is knowing where your want to go.

Here’s what that consists of.

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Job Basics: Welcome To The Careerodome

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Sunrise

“One might ask what is the point of repeating these banalities. The answer is that it is important to keep on repeating them, again and again, because these are banalities we often find it convenient to forget; and if we forget them, and they fall into oblivion, we will be condemning our culture, that is to say ourselves, to ultimate and irrevocable ruin.” – Leszek Kolakowski

Awhile ago I was coaching a friend on her job search. After giving her some advice she thanked me. I noted it was basic advice, and thus thanking me was no big deal, and she said it may be but no one told her.

That issue has haunted me – how can such basic advice be something people miss? How is it people don’t know even the basics of the job search and career? Excuse me, but who the hell is teaching them and ignoring the job basics?

The more I examined this, the more I saw such ignorance cutting across lines of gender, ethnicity, education and region. Wether we get no advice, or overspecialized advice, or bad advice, it seems far too many people just don’t know how the job search and the career works. This has a severe impact on what people can do – on top of all the other economic problems they face.

Who was teaching them? Apparently no one, or not the right people.

I’m now understanding why my ranting about “all these job books say the same thing” was ignorant. Those who write on job search advice have to repeat the basics since there’s a good chance people haven’t heard of the basics. Having written a few job books, I’m realizing this “repeating the basics” is a miserable truth of giving advice.

I feel like i owe some authors of books I haven’t read an apology. Sorry folks.

Anyway, my previous ranting aside, I realized what I had to do.

It’s time to talk the basics of the job search – getting ideas, career planning, searching, etc. I’m going to detail the essentials to help people, get them to think, give me something to show others, and do something.

Of course it’s skewed to the readers of this site – members of the geekosphere – but it fits most anyone.

It’s time let’s gear up over the days and weeks to come and talk basics. Let’s get your feedback as well, because I want to make something I can hand other people and help them out.

So I can write about something else. For now.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

50 Shades Of Resume #35: The Personal Touch

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Resume 35

Clifton Roberts would like to introduce himself – and that’s just what his resume does. In fact it opens up with a friendly greeting coming from a picture of himself. It’s a resume that starts right off with the personal touch – and there’s more when you look into it.

It’s a straightforward resume, but there’s little touches and quite a few lessons:

  • The introduction and his “speaking picture” is a great lead in. It makes a personal connection right off the bat.
  • There’s a good unified color scheme.
  • I like how he uses a all cap bold red font for “leads” for each paragraph. it gets attention and makes the resume more visually interesting.
  • Having art of himself (combined with an abstract picture is another way to show his skill.
  • He leads off with skills – but also does something different, working icons representing his software knowledge separately in the “portrait” piece. That’s a different approach, and might be something to consider for other resumes.
  • Skill section also shows a lot of detail.
  • He’s also put a lot of detail into his experience section by using a paragraph approach. Not always something I do, but it works well here.
  • Finally, it’s nicely restrained. It’s precise, not overdone, and effective.

Now a few things I might change:

  • The contact information is a bit dull. I think another speech balloon may be order.
  • He breaks with his red-then-black paragraph structure in his Personal information section. I’d go back to that.
  • The references are probably not needed.

Overall, a well-done resume. Personal, gives you the right information, and has an interesting way to “double display” skills.

Steve’s Summary: A good resume, the kind I’d be glad to see. Professional, clever, and effective, without overdoing it.

[“50 Shades of Resume” is an analysis of various interesting resumes to celebrate the launch of the second edition of my book “Fan To Pro” and to give our readers inspiration for their own unique creations.]

– Steven Savage