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July 2005 :: Resume Action Newsletter

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Aussie Résumés offer résumé writing services, a résumé critiquing service, cover letter editing and writing, job seeker software products and career coaching.

July 2005: Issue 34

Editor: Tara West

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In This Issue

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> Welcome
> Article: Get Inspired About Your Career!
> Quote
> Article: Industry specific advice for your résumé
> Subscribe / Unsubscribe Information
> Contact Information

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Welcome

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ARTICLE:

Get Inspired About Your Career
by: Richard Hanes

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Do you linger in bed long after your alarm goes off on work mornings? Do you dread Sunday nights because they lead to Monday mornings? Do you watch the clock and wonder if the day will ever end? Do you look outside your workplace and ask, “Is there more to life than just this job?”

If you suffer from any of these symptoms, it is time for you to create a new career! In her CD book, Advanced Energy Anatomy, Carolyn Myss, Ph.D. lays out a seven-step process for bringing an idea to physical creation. Here’s that seven-step process applied to creating a new career inspiration.

1. Get Inspired. Inspiration comes from the Latin words that mean, “to breathe in”. To infuse your career creation with life, passion, and excitement, ask yourself:

What would I do if money were not an object?
What did I love to do as a child but left behind?
What activity do I do so intently that I don’t notice time passing?
Am I interested in turning down the road not taken at a past career fork in the road?

Dig deeply, don’t censor your answers and write each inspiration on a separate piece of paper.

2. What Do You Think? Run each of your inspirations through your head! Ask,

Can I see myself doing this?
Does it make sense?
Do I think I can do it?
Am I willing to think about it?

Be honest in answering these questions, and record your answers on each idea’s page. Rule out the inspirations that don’t survive here.

3. What About Your Will? Run each of the surviving ideas through your will! Your will houses your mental capabilities for choosing, intending, wishing and desiring. Ask yourself,

Will I be able to do this?
Am I able to communicate it?
Am I able to make the right choices and decisions to do this?

Again, write down your answers for each idea. Narrow your list of ideas once more to the ones you believe you’ll be able to do, communicate or make the right choices for.

4. What Do You Feel? Run your survivors through your heart! Ask yourself,

How do I feel about this?
Does it feel right to me?
Can I follow my heart on these inspirations?

Write the answers to these questions for each idea; rule out the ones your heart isn’t into.

Here’s where the going gets tough. The first four steps are energetic. They’re ephemeral, they don’t affect your physical life, and they’re cheap and easy. The next three steps involve assessing your surviving career ideas in the physical world.

5. What Will Others Think? Run your surviving inspirations through your self-esteem. Ask yourself,

Can I endure criticism for this choice?
Will others think I’m foolish?
What if others laugh at me?

Write your answers for each of the surviving ideas and go to the next step.

6. Can I Afford It? Run your surviving inspirations through your financial life. Ask yourself,

What will it cost to change?
Can I live on what I could make in this new career?
Can I learn to live with less?

Record your answers and go to the next step.

7. Am I Willing to Deal With My Fears? What, you have no career ideas or inspirations that survived? Congratulations, you have met your fears!

Relax, you’re not alone!

It’s important that your mind, will and heart are all aligned, or you’ll run into problems.

Careers your mind likes but your heart doesn’t will be short-lived. Careers your heart might like don’t even get consideration if your mind allows its fears to stop you dead in your tracks.

Your will doesn’t have clear direction if your head and heart aren’t aligned.

Run each of your inspirations through your mind, will and heart. Release those inspirations that don’t have energy in all three of your mind, will and heart. You won’t have enough energy to try them effectively. Hold onto the inspirations for which your mind, will and heart are aligned.

Run those inspirations through your self-esteem. Ask yourself,

Do I have the guts to pull off this career change, even if others disapprove?
Can I grow up and not need others approval to change?
Am I willing to change my social group to pursue this new career?

Now that you’re feeling bold and independent, run the ideas that survived through your financial screen again. Weigh your desire for a career that satisfies you with your need to remain unchanged economically. Ask yourself these tough questions:

What economic changes must I make in order for this career to be feasible?
Would living more simply (read: less expensively) feel better if I felt better about my career?
What expenses that help me cope with my current career won’t be necessary if I change?
What’s more important -- feeling good about myself or having things?

Finally, take the hardy career inspirations that remain and ask,

Can I see myself putting this inspiration into practice?
Am I ready to birth this career inspiration into the world?
Am I ready to share the energy of my career idea with the world?

Shake the tree of your fertile imagination and see what career inspiration falls from it. Some ideas are ripe for picking; others need a bit more time on the tree to ripen. Hold onto those inspirations that didn’t survive – you’ll want to review them when you change careers next time!

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About The Author

Rick Hanes is a life and career coach, writer, outdoorsman, gardener and tireless advocate for living life with purpose and passion. He founded Fruition Coaching in 2004 to lead the fight against leading lives of quiet desperation. Check his website at http://www.fruitioncoaching.com to contact him about rekindling the fire of your life!

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QUOTE

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“Very often we are our own worst enemy as we foolishly build stumbling blocks on the path that leads to success and happiness.”

~ Louis Binstock ~

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ARTICLE:

Industry Specific Advice For Your Résumé

Over the next few issues we’re focusing on some industry specific advice relating to the content in your résumé. These same issues / questions crop up quite regularly, so we’re sure you’ll find the advice helpful. If you have any particular questions about your industry please drop us a line at advice at aussieresumes dot com

Sales Orientated Roles:

· Just as you sell products or services for your employer, so too you should be ‘selling’ yourself to a hiring manager.

· Consider yourself as a very unique product… analyse your strengths.

· When you’re selling a product or service you highlight the benefits… carefully think about how you would sell your benefits to a prospective customer.

· For instance, you know what your customer is seeking in a product or service. If you’re selling X Widgets which increase an organisation’s efficiency and productivity, the customer will want to know by how much – eg: X Widget increases efficiency and productivity by up to X% by doing Z.

· Quantify your strengths to the hiring manager – just in the same way you may do so when selling a product or service.

· For instance, if you have introduced XYZ products into the business, state what it has meant to the business – eg: by introducing XYZ products it has led to an increase in revenue by X%, and so forth.

· Your résumé needs to focus on achievements (if you can provide those achievements).

· Consider a Key Career Highlights (or Accomplishments) section – right on the first page.

· Position your achievements and key accountabilities in a positive manner – remove any negative connotations or passive voice.

· Your Profile and Key Strengths sections should be “gung-ho” even if you don’t like that type of thing. Shout! If you don’t, chances are the other applicant is. And let’s face it; if an employer wants you out there selling X amount of Widgets they will want you to be forthright, confident, and “out there”. Your résumé should be no different.

· If you haven’t been in sales-orientated roles throughout your whole career, then tone down prior employment history. It’s irrelevant so no need to highlight it. However, if you informally assisted with sales activities whilst in another position – or you helped out with a major proposal which clinched a massive deal worth X dollars over a 2-year period – then include it!

· And the last rule which should be applied in all instances – irrespective of one’s profession – is to target the cover letter and résumé for the job you’re applying for! This may mean altering the order of relevance in relation to some key accountabilities or highlighting certain achievements over others. There is no quick fix solution; thus, you can’t always use the same résumé for each and every job. You need to read each vacancy carefully and scrutinise your application – each and every time. Not taking the time to do so (or taking a “She’ll be right” attitude) will mean that you don’t impress the hiring manager as much as someone who did take the time.

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Contact Information

Editor: Tara West
Résumé Action published by Aussie Résumés, PO Box 3654, Mt Gambier, 5290
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