In related news, the Princeton Review recently released their list of the top party schools. Every year a big deal is made by media and university staff about this list. Administrators dread it. News outlets announce it as if it’s groundbreaking, hard-hitting news. Universities release statements about their efforts to address drinking issues on campus and promise worried parents they are doing everything they can. Student affairs pros condemn the list and talk about how it dangerously glamorizes binge drinking.

I don’t think the Target display nor the party school rankings are particularly helpful and it is disappointing to see companies try to maximize profit by playing on dangerous stereotypes about what college should be and/or assumed or proven ideas about college students’ drinking habits.

However, we can condemn the party school rankings and the beer pong displays as much as we want but that stuff really doesn’t matter. If the lists disappeared and Target took down their beer pong display, the binge drinking problems would still be there. Those are symptoms of the problem, not the problem itself.

Instead, universities need to focus efforts on two areas: 1) helping students make informed decisions about drinking and provide the appropriate resources to students dealing with alcohol issues, and 2) evaluating and making changes within the culture in which colleges and universities with a lot of drinking problems operate.

Here at University of Wisconsin-Madison we have students who engage in high-risk drinking because they grew up in Wisconsin, a state with a huge drinking culture (check this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series about it – it’s eye opening). Wisconsin leads the nation in percentage of the population that drinks, binge drinking, number of taverns, drunk driving offenses, etc. It’s no wonder Sconnies have issues with alcohol. Boycotting Target and blaming stupid lists from from companies trying to make a quick buck isn’t going to change that.  Our time can be better spent on other efforts to address binge drinking on our campuses.

What do you think? Am I totally off the mark? After all, I’m just a career services person who fixes resumes. I’m curious what those of you who that work in Dean of Students offices, judicial affairs, residence life and other departments that have to deal more directly with student drinking think about this.

Shoot, I don’t know.

But I do know this: it took me way to long to figure out how to opt out of the Open Graph Whatever It’s Called (even though I’m still not sure I should have) and the amount of time it took me to figure out why my profile information had suddenly disappeared tonight (I decided not to connect it with the pages) was ridiculous.

So my theory is this: If you are selling yourself as an easy, convenient way to keep in touch with friends, then your website needs to be EASY to navigate and CONVENIENT to use.

Is it too much to ask to have a super fast way to wish someone a happy birthday via wall post when I forget  A) to go to the store and get an actual card to send via (gasp) snail mail, or B) forget the birthday entirely, until Facebook reminds me?

At least I can take comfort in the fact that our collective annoyance may spark new, innovative alternatives.

It’s not really the privacy thing that bothers me, though. If partner websites want to know that I dig running so they can market their high-tech, brand new and shiny running shoes to me, then I don’t have a real problem with that. Nothing on my profile is really that private. If you’ve known me for a few hours or follow my (totally public) Twitter feed, you already know everything that’s on my Facebook profile.

What’s annoying is the amount of time and energy it takes to find and flip one simple privacy setting. Or the principle of it all – it’s not the lack of privacy, it’s the seemingly unapologetic attitude and disregard for user concern that gets me.

But maybe my annoyance with Facebook just makes me an old curmudgeon?

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?

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.

New bff.

Photo by my awesome co-worker, Lois.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.