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Resume and Linked In Profile Cliches – BE GONE!

March 4th, 2010

Avoid Resume and Profile Cliches

I am a highly motivated, dynamic self-starter, results-oriented, hard-working, dedicated, team-player with excellent multi-tasking and communications skills. I have 20+ years experience in fast-paced environments.

And I never met a cliché I didn’t like.

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing a profile at Linked In, Facebook or a resume. Worn-out phrases and clichés do not effectively communicate your value or your unique qualities. They do effectively prove that you are not original and cannot communicate extremely important concepts in memorable or meaningful ways.
We see two broad types of clichés. There are the worn-out phrases that are supposed to describe skills, and there are the very boring terms that express characteristics. Neither type of cliché helps promote your unique brand in the market – either job or professional. So why do we use clichés? I think they are crutches we use as substitutes for the hard thinking and difficult work involved with developing and communicating our brand.

What is easier? Saying that I have “excellent communication skills”? Or explaining exactly what that means. For instance, do my communications skills persuade? Inform? Motivate? Close deals? Educate? And if my communication skills do one or more of these important things, what type of results have I delivered?

So a more effective statement describing “excellent communication skills” might be:

I use verbal communication skills to persuade and influence colleagues and clients to take affirmative actions towards the resolution of strategic problems such as the development of marketing plans and sales team reorganizations.

This language sounds better and communicates more than, “I have excellent communication skills.”

Every cliché is some sort of shorthand. The trick to writing without relying upon clichés is to dig beyond the shorthand and identify the core of the message or concept. Then explain the core of the concept or idea in terms and language that fits you, your style and promotes your brand. The example I use for communication skills is just one possible way to effectively communicate a core concept about high-end communication skills.

So, as soon as you see yourself falling into cliché ridden writing – stop. Ask yourself, “What is at the core of this idea?” Then offer a more detailed statement around the core competency you are explaining and make sure you add a statement that helps the reader see you delivering value and results.

Here’s a quick list of some of my “favorite” clichés and a quick reference of some helpful questions to facilitate some more in-depth thinking around these “gems” of resume and profile drafting.

“Team Player”
Do you enjoy team oriented relationships?
Do you get a sense of satisfaction from sharing ideas?
Is serving in a well-defined role important to you?

“Self Starter”
Do you take initiative in ambiguous situations?
Are you willing to manage yourself?
Do you thrive in open-ended assignments with little to no direct supervision?

“Hands-On Leader”
Is this a description of your management/leadership style?
Do you lead by example?
Are you able to demonstrate and show team members or direct reports what is expected of them?

“Strategic Thinking”
Are you at your best when working on projects that require pulling together ideas and concepts from multiple sources?
Are you good at seeing and making connections between and among things that appear to others to not be related or connected?
Do enterprise-wide projects hold your interest and attention better than narrowly focused projects and assignments?

“Energetic”
Is this a description of your work style?
Are you most engaged when you have multiple projects to complete?
Do you thrive on lots of interpersonal contact and projects?

“Multi-Tasking Skills”
Do you meet deadlines?
Can you take several projects or assignments from start to completion simultaneously?
Can you lead some projects while contributing to other projects in different roles at the same time?

These are just a start. How many clichés can you add? Can you offer some advice on how to get to the core of the concept or idea contained within the cliché?

So – in closing:
I am an effective and enthusiastic writer using communication skills to drive results, in a hard-working and dependable manner. My 20+ years experience helps me multi-task so I can think out-of-the-box about being a terrific people person.

Or:
I am motivated to encourage my readers and clients to find creative and fun ways to express themselves in resume and profile writing. In general, my clients and readers discover that following some simple, but effective, tips and suggestions increases the readability and effectiveness of their resumes, and they usually see an increase in traffic across their social media profiles.

Post sponsored by, Cliché’ B-Gone! Your resume and profile development experts at BPI group.
Chris Osborn – a recovering “people person”!

Future of Resumes

January 13th, 2010

Word Cloud made at www.wordle.net

Let’s start with numbers. According to Linked In and Facebook respectively, there are 55 million & 350 million members at those two social networking sites. We are seeing more and more recruiters and hiring managers go to social media sites to view profiles before even ASKING for a “resume.” In this new job market reality, maybe it’s time for us to rethink how we define the term “resume.”

Resume is traditionally and widely defined as a “written document” that serves as a “brief account” including “career qualifications” usually transmitted as part of a job application. This definition is clearly rooted in a view of the business world that might not be as accurate today as it was even a few short years ago. Traditional resumes are – indeed – written documents we’ve handed out to people either in face-to-face meetings or by e-mail. Just a few years ago, job boards, like Monster and Career Builder permitted us to post a resume for prospective employers to find and download. That move to on-line accessibility represented a huge step away from paper only resumes. But we haven’t moved our definition of resume much beyond a definition bound by the limitations of distributing one resume at a time to one person at a time.

Social media changes everything. Really – everything in the current job search world. So – let’s try this as a definition of a resume for 2010:

Resume – a description of an individual’s career that defines that person’s personal and professional brand, qualifications, skills and accomplishments. It should be accessible on demand and in real time by an interested party, such as networking contacts, prospective employers or prospective clients.

What we need to do is recognize an important marketing principle related to career transition. It’s about going where your target audience is. The key audience for job seekers is on-line at places like Linked In and Facebook. Remember those numbers – 55 million (Linked In) and 350 million (Facebook)? Not every one of those people will be helpful recruiters, hiring managers or contacts at targeted organizations. But, you can bet your bottom dollar that more helpful recruiters, potential employers and great networking leads are there and reachable than you can reach with a traditional, one-at-a-time approach to resume circulation.

Are resumes – the traditional ones – dead? No. We will need to develop and maintain a well-written old-fashioned resume for the foreseeable future. But you also need a well-written new version of resumes – social media profiles – in the emerging and future market place. I am not advocating a technology is the only answer approach here. What I’m saying is that it’s critical to recognize that successful searches today require an effective, well-written, web-based presence. For some of us, that might mean our own web-pages, a blog and multiple social media profiles such as Linked In, Facebook and Twitter. For others, Linked In alone might be effective.

But none of us can afford to be absent from social media any longer.

Chris Osborn, BPI group

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It’s All About Community – New Job, Social Media & Innovation

June 16th, 2009

It’s all about community. It’s true. It really is. Are you searching for a new position? If so, the answer lies in your community. Are you trying to build your business? That next great referral or lead will almost certainly come from your community. Are you looking for that next great idea? It’s out there. Just ask your community.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, reading, and research into three areas lately: job search (especially in this market), social media and innovation. Most of us get the connections between looking for a new job and social media. If you read the TIME cover story about Twitter http://tinyurl.com/nh3kky, you are aware of some of the ways social media is driving the development of some truly innovative communication and research tools. And I’ve written (and so have many others) about the need to be creative and innovative if you’re looking for work in this economy. (You can read more about that in a post here from May 13, 2009 – Networking for a Job – What to Do When Traditional “Networking” Fails http://tinyurl.com/qbeo7u)
There is a very clear thread that runs through all of these topics and ideas. It’s the value and importance of community.

JOB SEARCH

We know the single most effective tactic to locate and identify the best job leads comes through our contacts and connections. Some of us call the process of adding contacts making connections “networking.” [The negative connotations of that term could fill many blog posts, and I’ll save that for later.] I sense a lot of people in the job market are “networking” very effectively. They find people to talk with about opportunities, organizations, etc. But are these same people looking at this process in a broader and more permanent context?
I hope so, because meeting new people and having conversations with a single goal in mind (job lead, sale, consulting referral, etc.) is short sighted. I attended a terrific social media workshop in April. Another attendee said, “You need to build your network before you need your network.” I loved this simple and elegant way to state this idea.
Social media has clearly changed the job search playing field. TIME magazine’s cover article for the week of June 8, 2009 was about the huge impact Twitter is having. Other sites like Linked In and Facebook provide quick access to our contacts and connections like never before. But – the key to success using social media is to quit thinking about simply being “on” Linked In or Facebook. You have to be “in” Linked In and Facebook. In another article from the on-line version of TIME from June 8th, Barbara Kiviat tells a great story about Brian Ward. http://tinyurl.com/ndkak6 Brian lost his job, and using Facebook and Twitter, found a new job in a matter of days. But here’s a telling passage which includes a quote from Brian:
As the sole breadwinner for his wife and three kids, Ward knew that he had to get a new job quickly. He found himself unemployed at 5 in the afternoon; by 8 that night, he’d called four people he knew in Ohio who did the same sort of computer work he did, as well as his college buddy Lyell, down in North Carolina. “I’d been using Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, but in a very passive, extracurricular way,” says Ward. “I knew Lyell was big into the Twitter scene. He immediately began blasting information out to contacts he had, sending them back my way.” Over the weekend, Ward updated all of his online profiles. He uploaded a fresh résumé to LinkedIn, the professionals’ networking site, and sent out a message to all 200 of his Facebook friends, letting them know he was looking for work.
One of them, a pal from high school, wrote back Sunday night. He now worked for a tech company in Louisiana, and asked if Ward would be interested in being put in touch with the Web-development group. Ward eagerly agreed and had a phone interview the next day. “Here I was four hours into being unemployed and I already had a phone interview,” he recalls. “I was like, Wow, this is going to be impressive.”
Brian had obviously been maintaining a decent network on Facebook and Linked In, and he realized he really had to hit his connections to generate action. None of this would have possible if Brian decided he needed to sign-up at Linked In and Facebook the day he lost his job. While he describes his involvement as “passive”, he had 200 Facebook connections and at least a few of them were ready and willing to help him. It’s a great endorsement for the power of social media, and Brian’s story tells us why we need to stop thinking g about “networking” in terms of transactions – how many people, how many meetings, etc.
Looking for a new job – in this market for sure – is much easier if we are engaged with the communities around his – like Brian. So if networking is only about looking for a job, you are missing out on a great opportunity to become – on a permanent basis – a member of new communities where your involvement can make a difference.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I am not an early adopted of social media – far from it actually. I started this blog in late 2008, joined Linked In only after clients were asking me about it (Aug. – Sept. 2008), and set up a Twitter account (@cosbornsspbpi – just in case you want to follow me) a few short weeks ago. So – now I’m becoming a bit of an evangelist within my organization for the power of social media. How did this happen? In a word – I learned something very valuable.
Social media as a series of web-based applications standing alone doesn’t mean diddly-squat. But social media as a means to become part of a broader community is amazing. I admit freely that it’s taken me months to become aware of the communities to which I now belong. But now I do my best to be active, offer ideas, share information and add value to my colleagues, friends, followers, etc. here, at Linked In and Twitter. I also utilize my connections to assist clients and friends who I meet in my daily work –in some part by using social media.
Am I surprised that I now see myself as part of “communities” separate and apart from my physical communities? Well – yes. I am surprised. But I am truly part of newly emerging “communities.” Now if you go to a traditional definition of “community,” maybe these communities within social media venues aren’t really communities. After all, we’ve traditionally defined community as having a “place” and a physical component. But what if we defined the term “community” differently? Maybe community is a collection of people drawn and bound together by common interests, needs and commitments to be engaged. If this is a workable definition, then the groups to which I belong at Linked In, my networks at Facebook, my followers and the people I follow all constitute communities. I think – no – I know I am part of communities within these spaces. And that’s a very comforting realization.

INNOVATION

Read anything out there on Twitter, or social media more broadly and you will learn quickly just how much true innovation is emerging. One very visible example has been the information coming out of Iran after the disputed election of this week. The broad media couldn’t get anything out. But images, ideas and information were still available – on Twitter. I saw an article recently in Business Week that claimed American innovation was dead. http://tinyurl.com/oasorr Right. With all due respect to Michael Mandel, the thinking he exhibits in his article is exactly what CAN be wrong with organizations. But Mandel is focused on only one thing – money. What did innovation “earn” that we can benchmark and measure? Well – ironically – that’s hardly innovative or creative thinking.
Innovation can’t be forced, rushed, hurried, put into a box, kept neat and tidy or benchmarked. Americans are enormously innovative, but Mandel missed it all because he’s too busy looking for a traditional measurement that Wall Street might report about the Fortune 500. Instead, innovation has been bubbling up all around us. Just in the past 10 years or so, Americans introduced the world to “America Online, Netscape, Amazon, Google, Blogger, Wikipedia, Craigslist, TiVo, Netflix, eBay, the iPod and iPhone, Xbox, Facebook and Twitter itself.” Stephen Johnson, TIME, June 8, 2009. Innovation is here all right, it’s just not where traditionalists are looking.
But look at the list of amazing innovations cited by Johnson. Most of them – if not all of them – are about connections and community. These innovations are helping us see the world – as it happens – on our own terms. And these innovations are helping shape a whole new way of thinking about and being members of communities.

SUMMARY

Well – I certainly blew the 140 character limit at Twitter. Sorry. But I wanted to gather these ideas into something a little more cohesive than a series of short notes.
Communities matter and are enormously important, and it does NOT matter where we find them or even if they exist is a physical space. Communities exist because WE make them exist. We belong to them. We shape them , and we frame them. So for your job search or next career move, gather ideas, information and help from your communities. For your next research exercise, seek information and inspiration from your communities. And most of all – be “in” your community, not “on” one or simply “at” one.

Resume and Linked In Profile Cliches – BE GONE!

Future of Resumes

It’s All About Community – New Job, Social Media & Innovation

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