All Career Advice Can Be Boiled Down to This
Filed under: job search, workplace | Tags: career advice, fundamentals, honesty, proactive, communication, work ethic, curiousity, life long learning
Comments (4) When it comes to career advice, I feel like say the same stuff, over and over again. I like to think I’m finding creative new ways to say it and explain it. Once in awhile I succeed at that but often, I fail.
I haven’t written anything here in awhile because of this. So I decided to write about how I have nothing to write about because it’s all been written about.
Basically, your career comes down to these things:
- Be honest
- Be proactive
- Communicate well
- Build relationships, help others and be kind
- Work hard
- Focus, but be flexible
- Be curious and keep learning
How these apply to a job search or career development may vary over time and depend on individual circumstances, but these are the fundamental pieces of successful career development.
Anything I missed?
How I Deal With Flu Season on Campus
Filed under: random, workplace | Tags: flu, H1N1, hand sanitizer
Leave a Comment 
New bff.
Photo by my awesome co-worker, Lois.
The Problem with Blog-Based Resume Advice
Filed under: college students, job search, resume writing, social media, workplace | Tags: blog advice, blogging, pet peeves
Leave a Comment I realize that this post is right above a post I previously wrote about resume advice.
But here’s the deal: There are some resume guidelines that generally apply to most job seekers (“Proofread your resume for errors”). There is a lot of blog-based resume advice that doesn’t.
When I read bloggers’ recommendations to add fancy graphics to a resume or to disregard the one-page length recommendation, I cringe. Those are individual and industry-specific suggestions. What might fly for a graphic designer will not work for a non-profit professional, and so on.
I read blogs written by those in social media, marketing and other creative or technology-related industries which claim resumes aren’t even necessary anymore because they’ve been replaced by online media. Yet, my office works with over 400 employers a year that say, yes, a resume is still absolutely necessary (for entry-level positions geared toward business majors, that is). Will resumes go away in the future? Probably. But we’re not quite there yet, at least, not in all industries, at all hiring levels. Many students I work with would be grossly under prepared without a resume and would probably not do well with a 3-page resume filled with fancy, colorful graphics, either.
The bottom line is, everything has context. Be sure to consider what perspective a blogger brings to their advice and the industry in which they have the most experience. That’s not to say someone who works in one industry can’t benefit from ideas presented by someone in a completely different industry. Weigh advice from others against what you know to be true about your industry and your own experiences – which, of course, you know best – and tailor those ideas for your specific situation.
Resume Checklist: Seven Things to Examine Now
Filed under: college students, job search, resume writing | Tags: resumes
Leave a Comment Crafting an effective resume is sometimes a tedious process and always never-ending. Once you have your basic info on paper, there are quick things you can do to make sure your information is presented in the best way. Since it’s fall on-campus recruiting season, I’ve seen a loads of resumes lately. The most common issues I see:
1. Too much or not enough white space. Hold your resume at arm’s length. Does your eye travel to a big, white, open space first? Then there is too much of it. On the flip side, if a reader cannot pick out your most recent 2-3 experiences and/or your educational information (for college students and recent grads) then the page has too much text, too few spaces or is just too messy. Use some white space to break things up.
2. Overformatting. Bold, italics, underlining, capital letters, etc. can all make the most important information on the page stand out. Few things on the resume need to be bolded, underlined, italicized AND capitalized. Use no more than two methods of emphasis at once. It works most effectively when used sparingly.
3. Gigantic name or teeny tiny name. Your name is important. It should be a few fonts sizes larger than the other items on the resume. But that’s it. Anything larger, even if it’s just with the best of intentions to help the reader remember who you are, makes you look like an egomaniac. Conversely, a name that is too small is difficult for a reader to find or remember. Never a good thing.
4. No results. It’s alright to list the tasks you’ve completed at your previous jobs/internships/extracurriculars but it’s better to include the result of your actions. What did you accomplish or achieve? How did what you did save money, make money or result in positive change for the company/organization?
5. Repeating verbatim the same skills/tasks. Each phrase or descriptive line on the resume should highlight a new skill or a new way in which the skill was used. One page isn’t much, so don’t waste space by repeating what you’ve already said in another section. Even if the task or skill being described is the same, the environment in which it was used is different and can at least be worded in a way that shows some diversity of experience.
6. Incomplete information. Every experience listed on the resume should include employer name, city/state, title and dates of employment. List all titles held at each company and the dates each position was held.
7. Using templates. You want your resume to stand out. To be unique. A template, by definition, is used to make things look the same. This is bad news if your goal is to stand out. Use a blank Word doc instead. Plus, templates turn into a hot mess when transmitted electronically.
Finally, get someone else to take a look at your finished resume to check for any errors. Sometimes a second set of eyes can catch things you might miss after looking at the document for hours on end.
Ideas Don’t Become Reality In Your Mind So Share Them With People Who Can Help You Out
Filed under: college students, networking, social media | Tags: career management, college students, leadership, sharing ideas, vision, young professionals
Leave a Comment Last week I served as a facilitator at the LeaderShape Institute. For seven days I was locked up in a pastoral center with over 60 college students who were thinking, breathing, living leadership for 16+ hours a day. It was ridiculously intense yet powerful.
Central to the program is the process of creating a vision and putting the vision into action. It was inspiring to see students’ ideas of what could be, but even more so, the way they instantly started sharing resources to get each other started. It shouldn’t come as a surprise – Gen Y loves to work with a team to get things done – but it was impressive, nonetheless. By the end of the leadership “bootcamp” students left with a refined vision that was stronger than when they started and campus resources, community organizations and business contacts that could help make their ideas a reality – all thanks to their peers.
At the same time, I was able to take a peek at some changes to one of my favorite sites, Brazen Careerist. For a long time, I’ve been a fan of the way the site brings together young professionals and creates a community around blogging. Today their new social networking site is launching, with improved features that allow users a more convenient way to share ideas and follow the ideas of others. At a glance, users can see what other community members are reading and thinking plus share their own thoughts on a profile page:
I like how it is similar to LinkedIn but instead of being mainly focused on users’ work experience, something college students and young professionals usually have little of, it capitalizes on ideas, the future and working together. Gen Y uses collaboration all the time: organizing a volleyball tournament, building a Habitat for Humanity house, planning a pub crawl, making their LeaderShape vision a reality. The same collaboration should be applied toward career development. Campus career advisors continually preach about the importance of networking. The new Brazen Careerist site makes relationship-building and collaboration among young professionals easy and allows college students to leverage two of the best resources they have: the desire to work with others to achieve goals and fresh, interesting ideas. Head on over to Brazen Careerist and check it out.
Vacation Days: I Like Them
Filed under: workplace | Tags: productivity, sharpen the saw, vacation time
Comments (1) I’ve got vacation time on the brain, since I’ve been off all week. Deciding to take a week’s vacation and leaving behind several important, in-progress projects was somewhat stressful. I still don’t know how and when I’ll get it all done. But I took a week off, anyway, and am doing my best to not worry about the fact that students return to campus in a month and I’m totally not ready.
So why take vacation if it stresses me out? Because if someone is going to pay me to watch The View, paint my bathroom and sleep in, like I did this week, I’ll take it. Plus, I truly believe some time away from the office to focus on other aspects of my life will make me a better employee. When I return to work on Monday, I’ll be a more productive, rested and motivated employee than I would have been without some time off. And while I work hard, I’m not so arrogant to think my office will fall apart in my absence. Few people are that important.
Not using earned vacation does not make someone more valuable than their co-workers, it makes for a burned out, resentful, grumpy co-worker who has trouble setting boundaries.
I’ve heard people argue that employees who are away from the office are “out of sight, out of mind” and at a higher risk for losing their job, especially during tough economic times. An employee that demonstrates their effectiveness and value on a daily basis will not be shown the door as a result of their absence. If they do get laid off, it was probably in the works before the vacation.
Apparently, if Google is any indication, unused vacation time was a hot topic back in the early-mid 2000s. I was in grad school at that time, so my life, in comparison to working full-time, was a vacation. (Sleeping in ‘til 10 on the weekdays? Summers off? Check and check.) What was going on in 2006 that made this such a hot topic? Have things changed since then? I don’t think so.
What do you think? Do you use all your vacation time? Is the concept of vacation changing? Did I totally cheat on my vacation by checking my work email about 34923098 times?
Assumptions are Dangerous and Why I Dislike Wedding DJs
Filed under: diversity, workplace | Tags: bouquet toss, diversity, feminism, heterosexism, inclusion, weddings
Comments (5) A few weeks ago I was at a wedding and was bullied into participating in the whole throw-the-bouquet-to-all-the-supposedly-desperate-single-ladies routine. The DJ went through the crowd badgering all the women about their marital status. When I said I wasn’t single, but couldn’t “prove it” with a diamond, he said my relationship didn’t count. (Because, apparently, this guy gets to decide who’s relationship counts. I’m guessing then, if you’re gay and live in a state that doesn’t allow gay marriage, your love and commitment doesn’t count, either). He went so far as to grab the chair of my brother’s date and literally drag her on to the dance floor. How is that acceptable? (Answer: it’s not).
I have issues with a lot of wedding traditions, but my main problem with this DJ (and most I’ve encountered) and this tradition in particular is that he made two huge assumptions about the ladies in attendance: 1) We’re all desperately hoping to get married and this is our top, if not only, priority in life, and 2) We’re all straight. For our humiliation playing into his assumptions, he rewarded one of us with the “ultimate” prize [insert eye roll here]: a dance with the lucky single guy who had the “honor” of catching the garter. How awkward a prize is that? Give me a real prize, like a work promotion or an all-expenses paid vacation, and then we’ll talk.
The DJ’s assumptions alienated those of us who didn’t feel the same way he does (and most of society, for that matter) about a (sexist and heterosexist) tradition. After I got over being angry (I’m over it, I swear. Obviously, right?), I realized that, for this guy, these assumptions and his behavior are usually accepted and normalized in his wedding-DJ-world. All of us have a worldview shaped by our lived experiences and the people to whom we’re exposed. This DJ has probably been exposed to a gazillion hetero weddings and lots of guests who are all too happy to comply with archaic traditions and the demands of the Chicken Dance.
But that doesn’t get this DJ off the hook. We all go to work with our unique filters, ways of making sense of the world and our idea of “normal”. So often, we impose these ideas on others without even noticing. The result? Workplaces in which employees in the minority, however defined, feel excluded and trust is lost.
How does this happen? It’s the co-workers who ask their colleague how he or she is going to celebrate Christmas, assuming that person is Christian. It’s asking a male colleague if his date last weekend had a nice rack because it’s assumed he’s straight (and that women should be judged based on how they look). It’s assuming a Black co-worker must know a lot about hip hop. It’s asking the newly married woman in your office when, not if, she plans to have kids.
Think before you speak. Be mindful of the impact of words and actions, not just the intent.
I’m a fan of workplace affinity groups and other efforts to retain diverse talent. When done well, they can provide support and advocacy for employees who identify with an underrepresented group(s). That’s not enough, though. To be good co-workers and more effective workplaces, we all have to examine our own biases and be conscious of when and how we might be inflicting our worldview on others. Don’t toss your bouquet to someone who’s going to let it hit them in the face.
Oops
Friends, I haven’t posted in forever. Sorry. Life has been busy with the end of the semester and the purchase of my first home.
Now I’m required to care about things like furnaces, water softeners, retaining walls and paint colors. Exciting stuff.
More to come… soon!
I Think I’ll Just Stay in College Forever
Filed under: career exploration, higher education, student affairs | Tags: careers, colleges, higher education, student affairs, student services, universities
Leave a Comment If you ask a student affairs professional how they ended up working in higher education, you’ll hear a lot of different stories, but most include something like, “I never thought about student services as something I could actually get PAID to do”. University administration is not a career most people decide upon purposefully or early on in life. Have you ever heard an 8-year old claim they want to be a residence hall director or an academic advisor when they grow up? Yeah, me neither.
My path to becoming a campus career advisor was equally winding. Now that I work in student affairs, however, I can’t imagine working in another field. The pros of working in higher ed? Glad you asked…
1. Lots of college campuses are exciting, energetic, dynamic places. There is never a shortage of things going on, issues to debate or thought leaders with interesting new research to share. It usually creates a great culture in which to work.
2. There is a shared mission among staff to contribute to the greater good and to help others. Unlike for-profit employers, our goal is not to make the company money (we’ll leave that for our friends working in the university development office). I work with extremely dedicated, friendly, altruistic and creative colleagues.
3. Though universities are not immune from economic downturns, relatively speaking, it’s a pretty stable industry. Especially since people tend to go back to school during tough economic times (even if some shouldn’t).
4. I am continually impressed by the students with whom I work. They are changing the world through social responsibility initiatives, running their own businesses, and conducting mind-boggling research. In contrast, when I was a college sophomore, I could often be found on my couch, watching Golden Girls re-runs with my roommates, eating EZ Cheez. Working with the students I see everyday gives me tremendous hope. (Though, I would argue Golden Girls helped shaped my personal growth and development in monumental ways, but that’s another post.)
5. College kids usually define what is “cool”, or are the first to find out about the next big thing. So, by association, I am instantly cooler.
Student affairs can include career and academic advising, student organizations and leadership programming, diversity and multicultural affairs, residence life, financial aid, international and study abroad programs, admissions, athletics and recreational sports and academic support services. With such a wide range of specialties, student affairs allows for a lot of different personalities and talents to find success.
Working in higher ed is not without its flaws. We are subject to office politics that can get in the way of helping students, our whole reason for being there in the first place. Few of us are getting rich, budget cuts are tough and opportunities for advancement are limited.
But, college was one of the best times of my life. As a first-generation college student, I felt privileged to even be there. Now that they let me in, I’m staying for good.
Blog Comments and Your Brand
Filed under: random, social media | Tags: blog comments, grammar, Grammar Girl, Sister Salad, You Tube
I was in the middle of writing a new post for the Student Branding blog when I stumbled across this post by Grammar Girl about writing a good blog comment. It’s filled with great tips, so check it out.
Included in the post is a video from Sister Salad. It made me laugh out loud:
The video is an important reminder that blog comments are a part of your personal brand, so make sure they represent you in the way you want! And, proofreading is your friend.