Looking for secrets of the career change job search and the career change resume? When you are contemplating a career change, you certainly need to know what job you want to do. But making a change can force you to know what you want your job to do for you. Look at yourself, your career, and your goals. Goals may change over the course of your career. You may have more of an eagerness to contribute to others. Or your pe...

“Why do I need a resume when I have a LinkedIn profile, a website, and multiple publications on my research into the moss that grows exclusively on rolling stones?” I field questions like this one All The Time. Some job seekers think that resumes are passé, outdated, outmoded, archaic, or have jumped the shark. After all, the thinking goes, there are so many easy ways to find out about a candidate’s...

Human resources and hiring managers like to see resumes where employment dates blend together and job duration reflects commitment to prior employers. Employment gaps and short-term experiences tend to be viewed as “red flags.” Questions such as “what caused this?”, “is there an issue of which we need to be aware?”, “why was there no job during this time?” become real concerns...

A question I’m frequently asked is, “What is personal branding, and why should I care?” My advice is the same regardless of career level or aspiration. Your brand is the experience that people have when they interact with you, whether that’s in person, on social media, or via your content. The number one goal of your professional life is to be the CEO of your career. To do so, you need to build a str...

You may have received training in any number of subjects, whether on-the-job training (OJT) or training through an offsite trade school, certification course, or college program. Job training usually helps you to achieve at least one of the following goals: Perform your job (for example, safely operating a forklift or using a new software) Prepare for a promotion (for example, leadership training) Improve the way...

Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or talent management system to organize and track résumés. Companies readily admit that many qualified candidates, as many as 70%, are screened out before their résumés are reviewed by a human. When you submit your résumé online, it is screened by a bot, if it can’t read the inform...

If job postings are windows into the working world, maybe somebody needs to clean the glass, because it can be awfully hard to know what you’re really seeing! That’s why the first letter in REAL stands for “Read between the lines” when you read job postings. In this post I’ll tell you how to do that, as well as how to Evaluate the fit, Apply with an advantage and Learn from the experience so...

The resume black hole. The abyss. The void. The applicant tracking system (ATS) creates all kinds of stress and irritation for job seekers. Candidates almost universally loathe the experience. The ATS requires them to copy and paste sections from their resume into tiny boxes and answer questions that could be easily discussed in a quick phone call, adding to what is already a user-unfriendly, often tedious experience. While...

Boards of Directors are always looking for strong candidates. Some Board positions, for local nonprofits, companies, or educational institutions may be by invitation or word of mouth. They may be easy to obtain because fewer people contend for a spot. But candidates for Board positions at major companies, institutions, or nonprofits must have a resume and must have a strong network because director positions are not adverti...

What’s a resume worth? It’s just a piece of paper, after all, with a minuscule amount of toner attached, and it can’t be worth more than a penny or so. Perhaps it’s worth two cents if the paper is fancy enough. In reality, though, a resume can be worth millions, even billions. This sheet of paper has extraordinary power. It’s analogous to the well-known calculation of a person’s ele...