If you’re looking for work and your past employers have reference policies similar to what I’ve described above, there are things you can do.

1. Contact the human resource department of the company directly and ask if you can submit a letter granting the release of more detailed information and absolving the company of any liability for having done so.
2. Pull together any copies you have of performance reviews from your time with the company, make copies, and submit those with your reference list to the prospective employer.
3. If you did not keep copies of your performance reviews, contact your former employer and ask them for copies. They should be part of your personnel file.
4. Contact individuals no longer with the company who worked closely with you and can speak to your work responsibilities and performance. These individuals aren’t bound by the same restrictions as current employees.
5. Secure references from individuals from outside of the company who interacted with you regularly. Clients and vendors are often in a great position to speak to your professionalism, creativity, reliability, knowledge, etc.
6. Probe your professional network to identify mutual contacts between you and members of the prospective company. If a company has to make a hiring decision on you with scant information from a past employer, it’s less of a risk if you can show you aren’t a stranger to the organization. Showing you know some of the same people and having those contacts endorse you gives you insider appeal.

Now that we’ve covered things you can do in this situation, let me close by saying the one thing you should never do. A sure way to set off warning bells in the ears of prospective employers is to roll out this little nugget of information with an “oh well” shoulder shrug…”You can call that company, but they aren’t allowed to give out any information.” That may be a fact, but it gives the impression the candidate is hiding something. Instead, lead with something like, “The company’s reference policy limits what it releases to dates and titles. Since you need more details to make an informed decision on my candidacy, I’ve put together a list of individuals from outside the company who worked directly with me in the past. I also have signed copies of past performance reviews and job descriptions for your benefit.”

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Here are some simple questions to ask those charged with critiquing your resume:

• What is your immediate impression of my resume’s visual presentation? How do you feel about the font choices, the spacing of content, ease of at-a-glance navigation, etc?
• Based on the content in the top 1/4 of my resume, what is your understanding of what I’m looking to do and what I’ve got to offer that suggests I’m capable and talented?
• When reading my resume from start to finish, what areas do you feel yourself starting to lose interest, having a hard time sticking with the information or wanting to skip forward to new information?
• What statements on my resume strike you more as my opinion versus a proven fact?
• What information on my resume seems important? What information seems insignificant?
• What content in the bottom 3/4 of my resume interests you more than the content in the top 1/4 of my resume?
• After reading my resume from start to finish, how convinced are you I am qualified and potentially a good fit for the type of opportunity I’ve indicated I’m chasing? What information present makes the best case? What type of information (skills, experience, involvement) doesn’t appear to be present that a person hiring for this type of role might come to expect?
• What words did you spot on my resume that would likely be keywords a recruiter would use to search the resumes of those applying for this type of work? What keywords can you think of that aren’t on my resume, but should be?

There are certainly more angles you can cover. These questions will get your critique started on the right foot. Keep in mind, the value of the answers you get depends heavily on who you’ve asked to review your resume. The goal should be to solicit help from those likely to be in step with the types of decision makers who will be receiving your resume.

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Think about the interviews you’ve had. Did the interviewer ever grab a pen? Was your interviewer’s copy of your resume a graffiti exhibit at the conclusion of the meeting? If not, you’ve got some work to do.

If the interviewer was writing something down, what were you saying at the time? Was it something meaningful that the person might want to remember? Did you capitalize on their interest in that particular line of discussion? If it wasn’t really meaningful, was were you inspiring them to put pen to paper about? Was it drivel that moved the person to write “talks too much” or “remember to buy eggs at the store” during that particular moment?

The true indicator of how interested a potential employer is in you comes in the form of a job offer. Don’t discount the clues offered along the way, however. Think of what you do when you are hearing something interesting and meaningful to you and look for those same actions in those you meet with. If you’re not seeing signs of interest, like a pen in motion, you’ve got to rethink your approach.

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Imagine how different the card would need to be in the case of:

• A birthday card for a friend turning 50 vs for a nephew turning 5.
• A “congratulations” card for the arrival of a sister’s new baby vs a co-worker’s landing of a new job.
• A Father’s/Mother’s Day card for an involved parent vs one who was largely absent.
• A “thinking of you” card for a cousin diagnosed with a serious disease versus one for a neighbor who had a tree fall on his house.
• A December holiday card for a Christian family vs a Jewish family.

Consider for a moment how it comes off to the recipient if the giver doesn’t take the time to make sure the message is appropriate and valuable. That 50 year old friend who gets a card with Thomas the Train stickers inside is going to think the giver is either joking or 3 quarters shy of a dollar. It’s painfully clear that card was intended for a different audience.

Also consider how it comes off when the card is so generic it really doesn’t matter who the giver or recipient might be. Phoning it in isn’t a way to make a good impression. Any message that leaves a receiver wondering why the person even bothered is a failure.

You know what comes next, right? When putting together a resume for prospective employers, please think of this greeting card analogy. If you’re doing it right, the variations of your resume should fill up a few sections, not slots, in a greeting card aisle. Every job you apply to should create a new “card” in your inventory. Job seekers working with 2 or 3 versions of their resume have, more than likely, flopped in the delivery of the message and left recipients wondering if they truly understood the situation or even cared enough to get it right.

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How does one go about finding this kind of stuff out? Follow the lead of successful companies and put together your own focus group. Your focus group should include individuals from your target audience or who come close enough to be able to appreciate the perspective of that audience. Too many job seekers rely exclusively on advice of those who aren’t really part of their target audience. Why is that a problem? Imagine a restaurant turning to vegetarians for their take on a new burger. Imagine an automaker asking 18 year old drivers to evaluate a new mini van versus moms with kids. Doesn’t make sense, right? If the restaurant or automaker followed the suggestions of the vegetarians and 18 year old drivers, imagine how unappealing the end result could end up being to the target customer.

Having individuals with no real need for or understanding of what you do as your sole source of guidance in your job search is problematic. Sure, consult resume, interview and job search strategy professionals for overall concepts, but turn to your focus group for refinement. Ask former colleagues, fellow members of professional associations and decision makers in your networking circle from companies similar to those you are chasing for a moment of their time. Your search efforts will benefit.

By the way, thanks to my friend Dave Isbell of the Michigan State University Alumni Association for inspiring this post. Check out a post he wrote last week for a deeper discussion on the matter. You can find the post by clicking here.

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When I conduct practice interviews questions like the above tend to get people into trouble. The questions are used to measure three things. Being aware of what those three things are will help you tackle them effectively.

One, can the candidate identify a meaningful example on the spot. It’s easy to draw a blank on these types of questions. Not being prepared is a sure fire way to struggle here. Another reason is often that the person I’m interviewing is trying to come up with an example in the extreme. There is a need to share a huge problem or big personality clash. The truth is, not everyone has something extreme to share. In addition, sharing something controversial and dramatic could also add negative vibes to the interview. Examples don’t need to be outrageous. Picking something that is relevant, yet simple, works. If your a sales pro, speak of a time when what was promised to a customer couldn’t be delivered and how you made things better. If your an IT pro, share a situation when the network crashed during a key time and how you saved the day. For the examples of personality clashes, share an incident, not an ongoing saga, where there was a clash that you were able to work around. There is no need to invite the backstabbing jerk who is sleeping with the boss into your interview. Got it!

Two, can the candidate speak of less than ideal situations in a succinct way, without getting weighed down in the minutia of the negative, and move to solution mode quickly. Though these types of questions have two parts, it’s been my experience candidates tend to dedicate most of their time to discussing the problem, the person they didn’t get along with, etc., and then spend a fraction of a time on sharing the solution, if they even remember the question had two parts. Individuals who show an affinity to focus on the negative and who are more detailed when sharing obstacles than solutions don’t have “hire me” stamped on their foreheads.

Three, can the candidate demonstrate an aptitude to work through obstacles. At the end of the day, employers want to know the candidate can recognize things that aren’t working and figure out how to get a better outcome. That doesn’t mean you have to show you can go it alone. There is a time to handle things yourself and times to invite the appropriate level of management into the equation. Do you know when those times are? Are you one to act or to sit by and wait for someone else to solve something? Can you even tell when something is amiss?

In a nutshell, these questions don’t have to stress you out and don’t require you to weigh your interview down with stories of toxic situations.

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When a job seeker shoves a resume at a business contact who hasn’t asked for one, and probably doesn’t feel the need to have one, it changes the dynamic of the relationship. Exchanging business cards has a peer-to-peer feel. The resume creates a distance in power. The playing field seems less even. Networking relationships are much more likely to be two-way if they have a peer-to-peer feel. Never mind the last thing most want to do at an event is mingle with a stack of papers to hold onto. I’m embarrassed to admit resumes that get handed to me at events have the potential of turning into a makeshift plate for cheese cubes as time passes.

Resumes should only be handed out in situations when a viable option is on the table and a decision maker needs it to determine if you meet the initial criteria to be considered. It should be delivered at a time and in a format that is convenient for the recipient. Job seekers may very well uncover solid leads for opportunities while at professional or social events, but they need not be prepared to whip a resume out on the spot. Exchanging contact information and committing to a plan for follow-up suffices.

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I’m not sure if it’s the mistaken belief that every detail matters to an interviewer or the thought a drawn out build up to information adds suspense and excitement, but I often find myself waiting in agony to hear the gem of substance that is supposedly on its way. Then once the ending arrives I’m underwhelmed and wondering why I had to be subjected to such a long lead up to nothing. At times it feels like the Heinz ketchup commercial where the person is waiting for the ketchup to finally flow. Thing is, the end result in interviews is rarely a flow of goodness. It’s often a drop in the middle of an empty plate. And before that drop got there, the interviewer was imagining churning a stick around in the person or thumping them on the back a few times in the hopes of getting something out faster. Hiring managers are busy and don’t have the time or patience for job seekers who aren’t faster than ketchup.

At the end of the day, there is no reason for any answer to a question to go on for more than a couple of minutes. Responses should be concise and on topic. Leave out the details only you care about. Though it’s possible for a topic to be on the table for a longer than a few minutes, it shouldn’t happen without the candidate coming up for air and yielding the floor to the interviewer on occasion. The best interviews are two way conversations full of valuable content, not rambling one-sided accounts of irrelevant details.

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For resumes, points come from content that speaks directly to the actual need of the organization. Information at the top of the resume that doesn’t sell how the candidate fits the job or would benefit the company fails to move the ball toward the goal line. If a company wants A, B & C, it makes no sense to lead with D, E & F…no matter how great D, E & F are.

To give an example, I’d like to share a story about Bill (not his real name). Bill is a great guy with a lot to offer. He applied to a payroll position that complimented experience he had from a few years back. He could easily do the job and was disappointed to not even get so much as a “no thank you” letter from the company. When we looked at his resume the word ‘payroll’ didn’t even appear until the bottom third of his resume. To make matters worse, it was a simple one line mention of processing payroll and benefits for company employees. Bill’s 10  years of payroll processing experience was a casual mention late in the game in a resume that should have been giving the reader something to cheer about early on. When I pointed this out to Bill he saw the problem right away. It was the classic case of Bill knowing he could do the job and failing to adequately make the case on paper to a person who can only judge his skills by the evidence in his resume.

Learn from Bill’s experience how important it is to hit key points early on in your resume. Candidates knowing they can do a job isn’t enough. Some will say, “if they’d just interview me I could explain my background better.” Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way. As I said above, hiring managers are fans drawn to clear winners. If you’re competing against others who have scored points early on, they are going to eat up an employer’s available interview time. Game over.

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Folks, I’m  here to tell you many people are struggling in their job search because they aren’t getting their fresh on. Their approach, responses, perspective, skills and attitude are stale. When one or all of the above come off to the employer as tired, overused or outdated, it makes the job seeker a boring and unappealing option.

For those of you wondering, this has nothing to do with age. Some may want to make it about calendar years on this planet, but I promise I’ve been underwhelmed by young and old. Think of all of the people you encounter in your life. A large percentage of humanity are no more than a blur in your vision field. They never stand out. They aren’t memorable. They are what you expect to see, they say what you expect to hear and they simply don’t wake your senses up enough for you to notice who they are.

Every now and then though someone crosses your path who is different and, ta-dah, you notice them. They are reFRESHing. They offer viewpoints you appreciate, but hadn’t considered before. They have ideas and strategies that give you the sense new and exciting things are possible. Their eye contact isn’t manufactured. Genuine interest is visible behind the retinas. Their ears are in the mix and they are registering your words and building responses around them.

My challenge to those looking for work is to take a step back and ask yourself where you might be stale. In all honesty, if you are tired of some of your answers and approaches, employers probably are too.

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