Searching for a Job in a Difficult Market

By Nicole Spicer

October 2009

Career Change Techniques:

Burn Your Résumé

US Unemployment is at 9.8% Unemployment in California is at 12.1% Companies cost per new hire = $10k to

$5ok = reluctance to hireIt is a buyers market = Step up your game

& Step out of your boxIt is a new world = what worked before will

no longer work= today or into the future Join the new normal

Career Statistics 2009

We Tweet our movements instantaneously; we text in real time to anyone who wants to read and respond; we email dozens of important and not so important messages daily; we FaceBook and YouTube all our personal news worthy and not worthy to print…

So why are you still writing your father’s résumé ? One size does not fit

all! Burn that résumé!

The World Has Changed Systemically, Forever and Globally.

You have 30 seconds to capture the reader’s interest in you and your professional profile.

You are competing with hundreds of other qualified candidates.

Your profile should effectively and concisely promote your experience and skills.

Your profile will be seen by potential employers long before they meet you.

Is your profile marketing YOU as the best candidate for that specific job description.

How Will You Standout Amongst the Crowd?

Build your Professional Promotional Profile (PPP), one complete document mapping your entire career in detail.

All other career documents will flow from the PPP = specific to each situation.

Plan it out thoroughly, approach it as a project = concept, plan, organize and execute.

Instead of a Résumé write a Professional Promotional

Profile

Create a timeline, inclusive of your entire working history and all details.

Start a template of companies, dates, education, certifications, roles, & responsibilities. Budgets & projects managed Staff hired, monitored and mentored Achievements & failures Goals met & goals not met Leadership & participant roles Lessons & skills learned Presentations delivered & ideas championed Software applications used & mastered Vendor & client relationships Etc. etc…

A PPP Project Plan: CONCEPT

We spend a minimum of 2080 hours a year on the job, there is a lot of great content there.

Think back, conjure up as much detail as possible.Collect forgotten information from archived files.Look back at your old Rolodex, emails, contact lists.Speak with colleagues and friends who might help with

details.Include the fun stuff, volunteer jobs and off the grid tasks

you’ve done while on the job.Include breaks in employment history, making sure to

create a historic professional timeline.

A PPP Project Plan: PLAN

Take all the findings from the Concept and Plan stage and organize everything into your PPP

document.Write everything down; the more the better for the PPP.Organize your information into action statements of one

or two sentences = situation, action and results.Create specific and measureable statements, include

who, what, where, when, how and results whenever possible.

Craft your PPP to be interesting to the reader and graphically pleasing to the eye.

Make it easy to cut and paste elements into different documents as needed.

A PPP Project Plan: ORGANIZE

Your completed Professional Promotional Profile is your career bible.

All other career documents will flow from this one source. You will be able to easily construct specific and relevant documents for whatever is needed. Profiles, applications and cover letters specific to

each job description.Short executive bios and email introductions.Professional profiles for web; networking, social and

business sites.Highly detailed career profiles for applying to online

job boards and company databases.

A PPP Project Plan: EXECUTE

NEW WORLD = Old school résumés don’t work any longer = write a specific profile for each job description

NEW ECONOMY, SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES = New professional promotional profiles are required

STEP UP YOUR GAME = Know who you are professionally and how to promote it

STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE = Do whatever it takes

WRITE A PPP = On paper on purpose = all career documents will flow from it

RECAP

Nicole.Spicer@OARIP.com

1-888-471-8796

Nicole SpicerCEO

OARIP.com