New Leaf Resumes - A Profile

Your resume and cover letter have only seconds to impress an employer. Let me briefly introduce Stephanie Clark, a woman who followed her passion and started her own successful career development business, New Leaf Resumes.

I met Stephanie when she approached the college at which I was working about doing a workshop with my students - for free! Of course, a few students might become clients, as my partner later did. Of course, we accepted, and a small group of students was wowed by her insight and creativity. Saying you have to market yourself is one thing - to do it effectively is something else, and it takes analysis and real thoughtfulness to do it well!

Perhaps her knack for writing comes from her BA from U of T, heavy on English courses. Perhaps she developed during her time as a Human Resources administrator, observing and assisting coworkers with their career strategies. Maybe it was the time she gladly spent proofreading the documents of other staff who wanted to make sure their work was solid. Wherever it comes from, Stephanie is a stickler for detail and a keen strategist!

When she works with you on your marketing tools, she will ask you a great many questions, and more questions still if your answers are not detailed enough. She will ask you what you did well, what your reputation was, and how your work differed from your colleagues. As a Certified Resume Strategist, Stephanie knows better than anyone how to promote oneself and sell one's skills and abilities to an employer.

Try to advance your career? Changing careers, as most of us will do 4 to 5 times during our working lives? See a recent article on Job Boom (http://career.jobboom.com/workplace/challenges/2008/01/09/4760331-torsun.html) for Stephanie's advice.

For more information or how to contact Stephanie, please see http://www.newleafresumes.ca/ and http://www.newleafresumes.blogspot.com/ for some key ideas on writing effective resumes.

Hunting the Elusive Employer…

Or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Hunt!"

It’s easy to find job-hunting stressful – the research on employers, tracking down their HR department, composing a special cover letter and tweaking the resume, following up on the application… so much to do!

But it isn’t too hard if you’re organized about it. I recommend keeping a log in a word processor of what you have done for each employer you are going after. I also recommend putting your targets (and achievements!) on a calendar.

I also like to look at job hunting as a challenge. Can I get 1 interview per week? Can I send 10 really good applications in a week? (That means I have done the research on 10 places where I want to work, called and worked with their reception people to find out what’s happening at the company lately and get to HR, left a message or two with HR and wrote down the name on the voicemail to address my application to, ensured I have added keywords relevant to the employer in my resume, written a specific cover letter outlining my experience, proofread it, had a friend proofread it, proofread it again, dropped it off or sent it, and made a note on my calendar to follow up in a week.) Finding a job is a full-time job, and I always treat it as such.

The importance of proofreading can’t be stressed more. Most employers say that they will not forgive even one typo, and that one error means that your application ends up in “the circular file” (the garbage can). It’s also very important that you write a specific cover letter for the company, and tweak your resume to make it specific to the company.

Your resume must have places and especially dates (including months) associated with your work history. You should include achievements and results where you can, like:
WEAK: “supervised front counter staff, handled customer complaints”
STRONG: “supervised 10+ front counter staff and handled customer complaints with tact and diplomacy”

Your cover letter should include specific examples of things that you have done that are related to the kind of work you are trying to get at the company, like:
WEAK: “I have excellent customer service skills.”
STRONG: “I have used my excellent customer service skills to defuse tense conversations and to ensure that the client left feeling like they were treated well. Often these customers remained loyal to my company and I continued to serve them regularly.”

DO NOT RELY ON JOB POSTINGS ALONE. I can’t stress this enough. Most jobs just don’t get advertised. Why? It’s expensive! As a head of a company, would you spend hundreds of dollars to advertise a job to find a complete stranger, when you can just ask your current, reliable, trusted employees and business associates if they know anyone who might be suitable for the position? That’s free! This also means that you should tell everyone you meet that you are looking for work, and what kind of work you’re looking for. You never know – the women who lives across the hall might work for a company that’s hiring!

To make best use of your time, I strongly recommend attending any and all Career Fairs or Job Fairs in the region – like Job Fair 2008, happening February 6 at RIM Park in Waterloo! This Fair has consistently been one of the largest job fairs in Canada, and once again promises to be a not-to-be missed opportunity to network and meet face-to-face with employers from the Waterloo Region and across Canada. See www.partners4employment.ca for details!

A few other great big job fairs:
http://www.thenationaljobfair.com/visitors/ (Montreal and Toronto)
http://www.canadacareerweek.com (Canada)
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobfair1/Job_Fair_Directory.htm (USA and Canada resources)