JobTabs Job Search & Resume

June 17, 2011

Inventory Your Career With A Master Resume

Filed under: Resume Writing,Sell Yourself — Tags: , , , , , , , , — admin @ 12:22 am
Inventory your career when job searching.

Is this straight, baby?

When my wife and I got married, we moved out of our respective domiciles and into our new home.  It was a bear of a move.  I remember saying to myself, “I never knew I owned this much stuff!”

 

And so it is with your career.  It is absolutely amazing how much experience you can accumulate in a short amount of time.  If you were to look back on the last twelve months of your employment,

 

· How many different projects did you work on?
· How many audits/reviews did you prepare for?
· How many working relationships did you have to coddle?
· How many glitches did you have to delve into just to get things moving again?
· How many new people were you introduced to?
· What were your victories?  What were your defeats?

 

In the course of a year, it is amazing how much we have done.  Now do it for the last X years of your career.  You have done a lot more than you think you have.

 

All of this experience can be extremely valuable when you are job searching.  As I have told so many job seekers, the likelihood of any job seeker getting a job that exactly mirrors their experience to date is near zero.  It is highly likely that you will have to draw on the peripheral work you have done to get under the wire.  In this economy, this is doubly important yet, all too often, job seekers under sell themselves.  They have a few resumes and share the resume which most closely matches the position they are pursuing.  Here at JobTabs we call this, The Highway to Hell.

 

Taking a written inventory of your accomplishments is extremely important.  The best way to do this is to develop a master resume.  A master resume isn’t a resume that you would actually send to anybody.  It is used only to list everything you have ever done at any company.  It is your personal checklist to jog your memory to see what you can come up with to be as close of a fit as possible for any job listing in which you have an interest.  A master resume has no facilities you would use in a Functional Resume.  It is purely chronological and used purely for your reference.  There is no page limit; the longer the better.  Ultimately, you want to use your master resume to copy specific accomplishments for pasting into resumes you are tailoring for a specific job.  Remember, there is rarely – if ever – any job you are going to be applying to that mirrors exactly what you have been doing, so you have to be able to draw on all of your experience.

 

Describe each accomplishment in your master resume much as you would a regular resume.  You want to be able to copy and paste from your master resume into a resume that you would send to the employer.  If you do not put everything on your master resume, it is likely that you will forget what you accomplished and that hard earned work experience will be lost forever.

 

In addition to listing all all of your accomplishments, you may want to do the following.

 

Add tags.

If you have enough bullet points, it will be easier to add a tag to them to make them easier to find.  Consider adding tags for leadership skills, financial skills, team building skills, managerial, helping skills, technical skills, etc.  These could help you find specific experience more easily.

 

Add notes to yourself.

Add extra details about the specific accomplishment to include anything an interviewer might ask you.  If an interviewer asks you how you quantified a certain accomplishment you want to be confident as to how you came up with those figures.  Again, you are not going to include the calculations on the resume you send to the employer, but if asked in the interview you don’t want to appear unsure as to how you arrived at those figures.    Add notes about people involved in the project.  If there is someone who would be happy to attest to what you did, you could add their name and contact info if you need to use them as a reference.  Put these notes in a different font or color so that they stand out from the body of your resume.  You don’t want to risk pasting them into your real resume accidentally.

 

The experience that you have garnered over the course of your career is important.  To let your accomplishments slip into the ether because you didn’t remember doing it is foolhardy.  It can make the difference between getting the interview or getting passed over.  Take inventory of your career and you will be prepared for life.

 

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

 

 

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December 13, 2010

JobTabs Job Search & Resume 2011 is officially released.

JobTabs Job Search & Resume 2011 has been officially released.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume is blockbuster job search software that has done much to tip the scales to the job seekers advantage.  In 2005 job seekers had little in the way of computer software while recruiters and employers had a slew of powerful software applications to manage their applicants.  JobTabs changed all of that with the arrival of JobTabs 2005 and has been empowering job seekers ever since.  JobTabs enables job seekers to network better, qualify for a larger number of jobs, apply for a larger number of jobs and ultimately have an edge over other applicants.  JobTabs 2011 gives job seekers an even greater advantage than its predecessor with the following new features.

 

Resume Personal Information Removal

Unbeknown to many job seekers, MS Word can keep a record of all the editing changes of any resume.  This includes,

  • Comments.
  • Previous authors and editors.
  • User name.
  • Personal summary information.
  • Revision marks.
  • Versions.
  • VB Macros. Descriptions and comments are removed from the modules.
  • The ID number used to identify your resume/cover letter for the purpose of merging changes back into the original document.
  • Routing slips.
  • E-mail headers.
  • Scenario comments.

JobTabs removes all of this information from MS Word 2002 to MS Word 2010.  The built-in JobTabs word-processor does not store this personal information by design.

Powerful Calendaring

  • Easily identify priorities with color assigned events encompassing every facet of the job search process.
  • Minimize typing and scheduling by creating recurring events occurring over any number of time periods.
  • Never forget an interview/phone call/meeting by using built-in reminders.
  • Save time with one click access to a day view, 5 day view, 7 day view, Month view and a Timeline of all calendar events.
  • Multi-month calendar view for quick access to any day, week or month of your choosing.
  • Dual time zone facility to facilitate job searching in different countries, opposite coasts or across the globe.

Follow-up

  • Look like a real detail person by following up on job applications fastidiously.  Accessible from the apply wizard, calendar or the Job Applications grid.

Resumes

  • Submit resumes that are dated as if they haven’t been modified in weeks even though you just tailored it to the job requisition that morning!  JobTabs will automatically backdate the ‘Last Modified’ field for any resume emailed or uploaded from JobTabs.  This will allay any concerns by the hiring company that your resume – ideally suited to the needs of the firm – was modified to meet the job posting.
  • Added full resume preview of all pages for all resumes types.  Resumes in pdf format can now be previewed inside the JobTabs application.

Licensing

  • Updates were confined to the version you purchased.  Now all users get one year of free updates regardless of which version of JobTabs they purchased.
  • Customers are now licensed to install as many copies of JobTabs on as many machines as they want provided they use only the db they purchased.

General Enhancements

  • Rock solid stability is now even more solid.  JobTabs now runs virtually autonomously compared to its predecessor.  It has even weaned itself from many files supplied by the operating system.  Installs/uninstalls from other applications will have a near zero impact on its stability and performance.
  • Added user initiated real time, online support over the web!  If you invite us to your PC we can fix problems on the fly right there in front of you.  Best of all, we can only see your PC if you explicitly invite us to do so.
  • Enhanced the aesthetics of JobTabs across the board.  Color scheme is more consistent with Vista and Windows 7.
  • Added additional fields for grouping activities on the All Activities report.
  • Saved Jobs and Job Applications – One-click access to the original job posting!
  • Closer to multi-user!  Added an “Open Data File…” to the JobTabs menu so that more than one person can use their copy of JobTabs on the same machine.
  • Integrated a dedicated tab to common connections on LinkedIn for all employers.  Networking contacts are soon to follow.
  • Added a number of rulers with visible tab stops to improve layout across Resources, Activities and any number of editors.
  • Many, many other enhancements.

 

JobTabs Job Search & Resume is a free download and can be downloaded from the JobTabs, LLC  website at http://www.jobtabs.com.  It sells for $49.95.  While tax circumstances vary widely, if you can deduct the purchase of JobTabs, the real cost of purchasing JobTabs can be  as little as $20.

 

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 6, 2009

Unemployment 8.1% – Perspective

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation,Sell Yourself — Tags: , , , — admin @ 12:30 pm

Perspective on high unemployment during the job search or job hunt.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says February unemployment checks in at 8.1 percent.  That would be 651,000 jobs in the tank.

Ouch.  Breath in . . . . . breath out . . . . This is mind numbing news.  The kind of news when you just sit there in front of the tube in utter disbelief, kind of trying to drink in the impact of the news.  What have we done to ourselves? While this is hardly a 9/11, I can’t remember being immobilized in front of the TV at any point since 9/11.  On that fateful day, I sat in front of the TV in utter disbelief.  I didn’t call in to say I would be late to work.  I didn’t worry about what kind of reception I would get when I got there.  I staggered in at about 10:00 a.m. that morning and the office was deserted.  The only people there were sitting in front of their computers crying.  Again, 8.1% unemployment is no 9/11 but it is the kind of news that said things are going to be very different from now on.

As a mentor to job seekers my job is to put this news in perspective.

Competition

There are less openings to go around, but there are still lots of openings. You cannot allow this to escape you.  An 8.1% unemployment rate is not going to bring this economy to a halt.  I’m not going to get all technical on you, but full employment is roughly around 4%.  Full employment means that there would be 4 out of every 100 people looking for a job even if the economy was running at full throttle.  So now we have a little more than 8 people out of a 100 looking for a job.  This means if 92 people out of 100 are working,  then there are 92 jobs that need to get done.   This is 92 jobs that companies will pay people to do and your job is to find one or get the company to create it on your behalf because you are so good at what you do.  Again, 92 out of every 100 people have jobs that are worth being paid for.

Income

Sophomore level economics states that price is the equilibrium point where supply equals demand.  Since there is a high supply of people looking for a job, prepare to take a good deal less than what you would normally accept.  Its a downer, but it is a stark reality of the economy.  Again, bite the bullet.  To illustrate, remember when you didn’t sell any stock two months ago because the price was too low?  What is the value of those stocks now?  Again, take it on the chin.  Accept the lesser income and you will be glad you did.  If you could have got more, you can take that up with your boss once you start adding value.

Gloves Off

Take the gloves off.  In a particularly competitive job market you need to milk every advantage you can get.  It does not matter if someone is better trained or has better experience than you do.  This is a stark reality of the job market.  Your ability to sell yourself as the person the company needs the most is the sole determinant of who gets the job. If you can morph your experience on your resume more easily than the next guy – more power to you.  If you have a tool that tracks your job search activity in the background while you focus on your job search that is a feather in your cap.  If you are able to employ a resource that allows you to reach wider and dig deeper than you have an advantage and nobody would knock you for leveraging that advantage.  Look at some of these solutions and see if you can find one you can use.

In closing, once you get over the jolt it is time to roll up your sleeves and get on with the business of life.  I welcome your comments below and encourage a dialog on this very alarming news.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 5, 2009

The Job Search Game Plan

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation,Networking — Tags: , , , — admin @ 12:36 am

Image of a football huddle.If your job search isn’t going anywhere, how can you change it if you never had a game plan in the first place?

Show me someone who advocates looking for a job by the seat of your pants and I will show you someone who is unemployed.  Gentle reader, a game plan doesn’t have to be a complicated flow chart or something constraining.  A simple agenda is all we are talking about.  The means which people use to find their next job will be as varied as the people themselves. What works for Bob may not work for Ann, however anything that helps both Bob and Ann keep their head on straight and objectively plan and implement their job search will work for both of them.

I work with a lot of job seekers and I often advise them to work with  job listings and recruiters first.  Most people are not used to writing or even looking for a job for that matter. This is the reason that I advise them to, initially, work the job boards. They have to get in the groove of selling themselves and that like many things this will take practice. While networking is touted as the best means of getting a job, it is better to make a mistake/faux pas on your job search in the anonymity of cyberspace than it is to make a mistake networking with your next door neighbor.

The recruiters will serve as pseudo-career coaches because when you meet with a recruiter, that recruiter can give you a lot of advice on honing your resume and helping you sell yourself. Granted, a cannot recruiter provide the comprehensive feedback that a career coach can provide. However, when you work with a recruiter you are, so to speak, their product, and they have a vested interest in helping you convince employers that you are the candidate of choice. Recruiters are battle hardened professionals and they have much to gain by helping you get a job offer.

After job seekers prep their skills with job boards and recruiters, I encourage them to start working their network. They will be much better at selling their qualifications after getting some exposure to recruiters and job boards. Planning/implementing your job search is important.  Write down, how many jobs you will apply to on the job boards.  Commit to sitting down face to face with recruiters in an effort to get their feedback on your marketability.  Beg them to shoot straight with you  if you have to – just get the facts. Come up with a plan that allows flexibility to create more resumes and tweak each one depending on the requirements solicited.  Schedule time to meet with your networking groups.  Finally – and this is so important – review the plan and change it.  You know, like wash, rinse, repeat.

Show me someone who advocates looking for a job by the seat of your pants and I will show you someone who is unemployed.

As job seekers work with different channels, their job search skills need to evolve and get stronger. They need to build upon a foundation and pay dividends. The job search for most job seekers is a crap shoot where you put your chips on the table and roll the dice. As the job search progresses they think they are becoming better job seekers, but in actuality they are just becoming better gamblers. It is still a losing game and is leading job seekers down a path of dejection and despondency. They can’t see that because they have no plan nor a record of a an implementation to give themselves or a mentor/career coach an objective view as to what they have been doing.   Write down your goals, write down your agenda, and stick to it until it is time to reevaluate it.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, as well as by phone at 404-255-0248.

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March 3, 2009

Job Searching – Employ A Tool

Filed under: Job Searching,JobTabs,Motivation — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 12:32 am

Employ a tool when job searching.The job search can be a maddening experience for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is the organizational burden it imposes.  Consider all of the jobs you will eventually apply to.  Whether they are sourced from your professional network, the web, or the newspaper you are going to have to have to keep track of exactly which job you applied to.  Then we have the research that applies to each and every employer.  That needs to be collected, catalogued, and readily available should they decide to interview you.  Which resume did you send them?  And all of those cover letters that you crafted with pain staking detail.  Keeping those at the ready is just as important as managing your resumes.  With all of the paper work it can be extremely taxing for even very organized people to keep track of.  If it is tough for organized people to manage it all, what are normal people supposed to do?

Employ a tool when job searching. You can google “job search software” or go to download.com and type in “job search” to evaluate packages as there are lots of them out there.  We suggest keeping the following key points in mind when weighing the value of different packages.

MS Word. A first rate tool will be seamlessly integrated with MS Word or employ a word processor that will create MS Word documents.  In addition to making you look more professional, many employers prefer resumes in MS Word format.  You should make this a consideration a priority when looking for a tool.

Manage Resumes. As you pursue different opportunities, there will invariably be some shade of gray of the job requirements that you will need to include in your resume.  The likelihood of finding a job that mirrors your experience exactly will be few and far between.  A professional caliber tool will be able to manage all of the different resumes you have created to qualify yourself for different positions.  A tool that will keep a history of each resume as it changes over time will be an added plus.

Employ Templates. We firmly believe cover letters should be tailored to each and every job.  However, do you really want to type your salutation, address and closing paragraph every time?  The repetitive nature of the job search can sap job seekers of their motivation and you should consider a tool that will allow you to side step any work that smacks of repetition.

Jobs. Whether you find the job on the web or through your professional network you will need to capture every detail you possibly can – permanently.  If the employer gets enough resumes and they pull the job posting off of monster.com will you be able to remember the details of the listing?  Consider a tool that can capture listings and save them permanently.

Details. If you are serious about your job search, you will want to have a copy of every email you send anybody during the course of your job search.  This should include notes of every conversation you have as well.  You should be able to catalog all of your research on each employer and have it at the ready as well.

Automatic. This final consideration, we cannot emphasize enough.  Employ a tool that automates the job search as much as possible.  In other words, if you have to log every job search activity you do, aren’t you just working with a glorified spreadsheet?  Isn’t that what you were doing before?  If you send an email and you have to make a note of it aren’t you just adding to your burden?  If you change your resume and have to make a note of it aren’t you encumbering yourself unnecessarily?  We emphasize this, because most people are not prepared for the considerable amount of effort they are going to have to put forth to find the job that is going to bring them the happiness they are looking for.  Repetitive, mind numbing work is what so many people dread when looking for a job.  Employ a tool that can do it for you.  Unless you can nullify much of the administrative burden, you are going to be belaboring yourself unnecessarily.  To summarize,

  • When you find a job you want to pursue, there should be no cutting and pasting.  You should be able to save it automatically.
  • When you create a new resume from an existing resume, it should be added to your arsenal of resumes automatically.  When you change a resume, you should be able to continue your job search without having to record any changes you made to that resume.  Yet you should still have all of the details of the prior versions in case a prior recipient wants to review it with you.
  • When you want to edit your resume, it should open up in MS Word or a word processor of that caliber automatically and keep a record of the changes so you don’t have to.
  • Every time you send an email it should be logged automatically.  This will allow you to focus on your job search.
  • You should have a bird’s eye view of your status of every one of your job applications – based not on your ability to log events – but based on what you have accomplished in  your job search.

Above all else, you should not have to log a single thing, because to do so would be to tax yourself even more.  No doubt this is a tall order to fill, but these tools are out there and they can be had for less than $50.  Our favorite is JobTabs Job Search & Resume.  JobTabs fulfils all of these requirements and then some.  Alternatively, you can google “job search software” or go to download.com to search for options.   Liberate yourself from the administrative conundrum of the job search.  You will be able to apply to jobs more easily, gain more confidence, and ultimately get better job offers.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers.  JobTabs Job Search & Resume motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, as well as by phone at 404-255-0248.

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