Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Dear Katrina,

Might you be attempting to bite off more than you can chew here?

With your background there needs to be a logical step, a tangible
connection between where you are and were and where you’re going.

At the moment you are here: Web Coordinator.

Before that, in reverse order, you were:
an Accounting Director,
a Webmaster,
a Controller,
an Office Manager,
a Marketing Assistant,
and a Webmaster/Communications Assistant.

当你躺在受这样的字符串nant factors in your experience are Internet-based and finance-based. So make more of these positions and aim for similar ASSISTANT director roles.

Before you get all bent out of shape about this suggestion, consider this: an MBA is NOT a direct ticket to the fast track
and super stardom. Ten years ago, yes, it might have been.
但态度代为d higher education degrees that have little workplace experience and substance behind them are changing
and hardening.

And an MBA is one thing. But what you do with it and how you
use it to the betterment of your employer is another thing entirely.

As in sales, so it is in the job market: make your message relevant and make it not about you, but about your prospect or customer.

Sorry to shoot down your balloon here but given the scope of
the other jobs you’ve done potential employers MIGHT think that there’s little to connect you at previous assistant director level
with the loftier position you’re now looking for.

As your prospective employer I need to know what kind of assistant director you might make and what kind of potential director material you could turn into three years or so from now.

What you don’t say is what director roles are you looking for,
or what your MBA is in.

As your new boss, I want to know what you can offer me in
terms of skills and real world experience at assistant director
level.

To answer this question for me you need to consider matching your skills, experience, and background with my specific needs
as your potential
employer.

You’ve got an MBA? Good. But an MBA in what? To be of true value, your MBA needs to benefit your potential employer, not
just you.

You also need to be aware of the following: your cover letter
must kick some serious booty! It must get your application into
the “Yes!” pile.

According to Max Eggert of Transcareer (www.transcareer.com.au) your cover letter has one job: to get a recruiter to read your résumé and say “Yes!”.

Once it’s done that, it’s done its job.

Your résumé’s task is to get you an interview. This means that both documents must be tailored to meet SPECIFIC recruiter requirements.

One size of résumé does NOT fit all job application situations.

So craft each application to each role. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? To which the answer is yes. But then there’s the rub: how badly do you want a job?

I hope this helps.

Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

You need to stop thinking about what YOU want and shift to a perspective of what important benefit you can deliver for a prospective employer. Your goal should be to find a company whose most important unmet need is precisely what you can deliver ... not to get a director-level position or earn a bunch of money (to help pay for that MBA).

Toward that end, scrap the generic resume. When you find the right company, deep dive the research and learn all you can about them. Convince YOURSELF that they are the perfect place for you. Then develop a strategy for sharing that conviction with them.

It's hard work, but it will make sure you end up with a company that will truly appreciate you, and you will know what you're getting into. The shotgun approach just guarantees that you'll be looking for work again in a few years.

This is the underlying philosophy inThe Potato Chip Difference. The book's subtitle isHow to apply leading edge marketing strategies to landing the job you want.

You can get the book at major bookstores in the US, at Amazon.com, or from the publisher. (For the publisher, just click on the link above.) When you order from the publisher you also get a free booklet titled10 Stupid Things Job Seekers Do That Guarantee They'll Be Looking For Work Again Soon.

As others have said, you're trying to make a leap from one pond to another without a compelling strategy to do so. You're looking for a leadership role, but your resume doesn't describe how you've lead and the bottom-line differences you've made to the organizations. Can you describe what you did (are doing) in terms of ROI or leadership?

Dear Katrina,

Phrases such as "construct meaningful functionality" sound hollow and don't really do you any favours. Think about this for a moment. When someone waffles on about "leveraging core functionality through viral stereoscopic analysis techniques designed to compensate for sequence variables" readers and listeners fall asleep or give up the will to live.

为什么?

Because no one talks like that.

Tell people what you did for your current and past employers in plain, clear English. If you cannot communicate plainly and simply in your job applications a prospective employer might wonder if you're ever be able to communicate.

What's that old saying? Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation!

Consider one simple three to five line paragraph of text that clearly TELEGRAPHS what you did and what impact it had and on whom.

When you tell me:

"In my current role as web coordinator I manage the web services department for the entire organization."

You get attention. You tell me ins SIMPLE terms what the hell you do. Good. Now I'm interested in learning more about you, more so when you go on to tell me:

"I was previously the accounting director of a brokerage firm managing nearly 85 brokers our trading staff and accountants,
and prior to that managed a multimedia company."

Much better. But there's MORE:

"With my management experience and degree, (advancement to the position of director is) not as far a leap as one would think."

That's more like it! Now you're cutting through all that managerial claptrap and academic nonsense you've had shoehorned into your head while studying for your MBA. Welcome to the real world.

Might it be worth the risk of making your résumé similarly CONVERSATIONAL, if only slightly? It'll certainly stand out from every other bullet-pointed document. And after all, what do you have to lose?

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Your resume reads like a list of job descriptions. That tells me what you did but not necessarily whether you were any good at it and it doesn't tell me anything about you. Why not list under each job a few accomplishments. ex. created system to track accts receivable and decreased late pmts by x%, developed new website format that improved searchability by x% and brought 10,000 new visitors per week to our site. These things are tangible. And to be honest, if you are looking for a director position, you need not only to be able to motivate a team but you need to show that you focus on the right things and can prioritize based on corporate goals and initiatives. Directors are accountable to the C-level suite for P&L. Your resume doesn't currently show that.