Begging isn’t my normal style, but I’m dropping to my knees today with a simple plea. For the love of your professional image, please don’t treat your resume like candy at a parade and toss it at crowds. Don’t go to networking events with a portfolio in hand and 50 copies of the latest version of your life’s history. Peppering connections at an event with your resume makes as much sense as tucking a copy of your resume under the windshield wipers of attendees’ cars in the parking lot. Resumes aren’t supposed to go to the masses. They are supposed to be tailored to the reader and opportunity.

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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Many job seekers miss the mark on selling their skills to an opportunity because they fail to step back and consider what a company is ultimately trying to accomplish with the position. Most times jobs lean one of three ways. Companies are trying to build, fix or maintain something. Yes, there are positions that mix all of those, but one usually dominates and it’s important for the candidate to establish which one that is so he can sell himself appropriately.

Interestingly enough, many candidates could be classified under the same category system. They may be capable of all three, but one seems more apparent. I’ve met those I see as innovators, those who are best suited to deal with problems and those who really just want to hang out and keep something that is working well going. The three really are quite different. Which of the three do you identify with most? Do you know? If you surveyed former employers and current networking contacts, what would their opinion be? It may be worth some time to find out.

Though I’m not a fan of labels, I do think job seekers can avoid frustration by targeting positions that are in the same category as themselves. A candidate who presents as an innovator is going to have a hard time selling himself to a role that is primarily about maintenance. The reverse is equally true.

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I’ve got bad news. You’re going to be mad. At least, you should be mad. Who you get mad at is still to be determined. Ready for my news? Someone with fewer qualifications and lower professional standards than you landed a job for more money than you’ve been brave enough to ask for today.  How do I know? Because it happens every day.

Though top notch skills and impeccable professionalism are great, they rarely land people jobs by themselves. Opportunity knocks for those able to make meaningful connections, generate buzz around themselves and summon the courage to risk hearing no in order to have a chance at the ultimate yes. Those three traits may have little to do with how the person will perform in a job, but they have everything to do with getting an interview and offer.

When we take a moment, most of us can think of individuals who got a shot at a profession/position they weren’t necessarily qualified for. Michael Jordan played baseball. Do you think there were better players he beat out? I hope so. Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California. Paris Hilton was paid to sing. The list goes on. These are well known names, but I assure you the same thing happens on a smaller scale in offices around America.

Some will say it isn’t fair others beat them out because of name recognition or connections. Tough. It’s how the world spins at times. You can be mad at human nature or you can be mad at yourself for not doing what you can to make it work in your favor.

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My Grandma, bless her heart, drives approximately 2,000 miles per year. No joke. When she decided it was time for her to sell her 10 year old car it had a grand total of 24,000 miles on it. Yep. There was no need to wonder if the odometer had simply rolled over. The seats still had their original poof, the floors were spotless and the pedals were barely scuffed. It was pretty obvious the car was in near showroom condition.

Care to guess how many people were jumping up and down to buy her low mileage car? She couldn’t even talk my sister or myself into taking it for free. The car’s lack of mileage turned out to be a huge problem. People were leery to take on a car that hadn’t been in action all that much. Cars parked in a garage deteriorate in ways that aren’t so obvious. Motors, tubing and such benefit from use. Cars in pristine condition can be just as problematic as those run into the ground. Most buyers, when dealing with something that isn’t new, like to see evidence of use coupled with timely attention to maintenance.

I bring up my Grandma’s car because it was part of a discussion in one of my job seeker groups today. See what you miss by not coming? Kidding. A participant made the point, if he were in a hiring manager’s position, he’d be hesitant to consider someone who hasn’t been keeping busy since losing his job. I agree with his take. Just like the concerns buyers can have of a car that’s been sitting in a garage, those who haven’t used their skills or left their home since losing their jobs leave potential hiring managers wondering what may have deteriorated over that time.

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A job seeker in my network told me a quick story last week about how he got a hiring manager’s attention. Get ready for this show stopping strategy! He used the man’s name. Ground breaking stuff. He saw the gentleman’s business card on the table he was standing beside for a job fair and actually called him by his name. The man was caught off guard and asked how Butch, my contact, knew who he was. Butch explained he saw the business card and assumed it belonged to him. The man smiled and a friendly conversation was born. Considering Butch addressing him by name threw him off, it stands to reason Butch was the only job seeker out of the 500 who attended the same event to show enough consideration to personalize his message.

Though I blogged about this ages ago, Butch’s story brought home the potential value in bringing the topic up again. Folks, the best way to show a genuine interest in and respect for someone is to use his name. Whether or not it’s appropriate to be familiar to the point of using his first name depends on the situation, but the point still stands people love to hear their names. On a conscious and subconscious level, people want the courtesy of being recognized as more than a body in a suit or a “to whom it may concern.”

Some will say names are hard to come by. Though I’ll concede there may be occasions when that’s the case, the internet age and the disappearance of the gate keeper receptionist has made that less likely. The problem tends to rest more with not bothering to care to address people politely. I get emails and calls frequently where my name is never mentioned. These are people who I know are aware of my name. Though it sounds nit picky, I’m here to tell you  it’s rude. I don’t get upset about it and I can’t say I specifically notice when someone neglects to use my name. What I do notice is when someone does because it’s outside the norm.

If the goal of the job seeker is truly to be viewed as a unique person and not just ink on a piece of paper, doesn’t it seem wise to lead by example and treat those whose attention is craved as the individuals they are? Butch shouldn’t have been the only one to use that hiring manager’s name that day. I wonder if he’s the only one the owner of the company invited to follow-up with him directly after the event? If we’re placing bets, I know where my dollar is going.

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Anyone else love the show “Chopped?” It’s a cooking show where chefs compete against each other to create meals from a base of 4-5 required ingredients. The ingredients don’t often logically go together, so it takes a creative approach to pull off a successful end product. One of the things the judges come down hard on is when a competing chef fails to use an ingredient in a noticeable way. Since the ingredient is required, there is an expectation the judges should be able to detect its use. If the flavor of that ingredient doesn’t come through, it’s hardly different than the ingredient not being there at all.

Job seekers need to keep this concept in mind when preparing their resumes. Employers often convey what they believe are key requirements for open positions. It’s all well and good that a job seeker meets those requirements, but if those ingredients are hidden or diluted by other features less important to the hiring manager, the judge, what’s the chance of them being noticed and counted? Slim.

At the end of the day, sprinkling your resume with relevant qualifications may not be enough. I’ve learned in my years of cooking the outcome is sometimes better when I double, and sometimes even triple, the spices. Throwing a little in at the beginning, middle and end may be what it takes for the flavor to come through and convince the judge you are indeed serving up what he asked for.

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An interesting article was featured on Yahoo News today. The story covered a group of 25 souls who were trapped together for over an hour in an elevator that was stuck. Throughout their ordeal everyone remained calm and committed to passing the time in a constructive and positive way. No one freaked out.

What if someone had given in to the very human urge to panic? Can you imagine how different the experience would have been for all involved? It’s unlikely those pent up in the stifling box with them would have been unaffected. There would have been those who followed suit and let their own anxiety out and others, motivated by the toxic energy, who throttled the negative nellies. I can tell you right now I would have been one of the throttlers.

The elevator situation made me think of what can happen from time-to-time with unemployed professionals. How often do we find ourselves trying to navigate today’s challenges while others freak out? Let’s face it, though the economy is larger than an elevator, we are all stuck in it together. All can agree we’d like to emerge from this current recession quickly and on solid ground. For that to happen, we’re all going to have to do what the people in that elevator did…remain calm and pass the time in a constructive and positive way.

When someone allows anxiety over the situation at hand to express itself in public settings, everyone suffers. Nothing is gained from a Chicken Little freak out. If the sky is indeed falling, panicking about it won’t change the outcome. Showing others you are more inclined to surrender to doom versus fight for a solution just makes things worse. Who wants to be around someone bent on reminding everyone all is lost?

This concept goes beyond how public panic attacks can make fellow job seekers feel. Think about how companies are feeling right now. They are in choppy waters and trying to stay afloat. Do you think they want to hire someone who, every time the boat tips, starts screaming we’re all going to die? Of course not. They want solutions oriented people with a tendency to focus on a way out of a problem, not people they’d just as soon toss overboard when the going gets tough.

The point of this post is to stress the importance of keeping it together during these difficult times. If you must indulge in a panic attack from time-to-time, go for it. It’s a human thing to do. Just be sure you do so in private, balling the sheets in the middle of the night like the rest of us. When the sun comes up and you are rolling through your day, panic attacks are off the agenda.

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An important aspect of job search strategy that’s rarely talked about is what those looking for work can do to ensure there are jobs to apply to in their community to begin with. It’s hard to experience success searching for something if it doesn’t exist, no matter how solid your resume & interview execution may be.

With jobs harder to come by, job seekers must consider how their own spending habits contribute to the availability of work in their community. Most people want to work close to home. Long commutes and relocation aren’t a reasonable option. That being the case, every effort should be made to shop with local providers of goods and services. If local businesses don’t have customers, they don’t have jobs. It’s just that simple.

Most of the arguments people give for skipping over local companies revolve around convenience and price. Ordering something online from some mega-discounter at 10pm may seem convenient and frugal, but what about the inconvenience and expense of having to relocate because there aren’t any jobs nearby?

Others feel drawn to the bells and whistles franchises and chains have the resources to provide. Let’s face it, you aren’t going to get the likes of a Happy Meal from most locally owned restaurants. They don’t typically have easy access to cheap toys from China and can’t afford the usage fees for luring in kids with movie characters. The case is made that those chains are creating jobs for all of those Happy Meal handlers, but the economic benefit to the community is low compared to what a local restaurant contributes. Chains provide mostly entry to mid-level management positions. Executives with their big paychecks live, are taxed and spend their money in other communities.  A fraction of the chain’s revenue is subject to local taxes, with much of the revenue recognized and taxed where the headquarters is located. Add to that, local restaurants are much more likely to use web designers, insurance providers, law firms, ad agencies, etc., in their home community. Can you see the benefit in supporting businesses more likely to help other businesses in your community grow? I used restaurants as an example, but it’s true in all industries.

The small to mid-sized locally owned businesses are suffering right now. They are the backbone of our communities. Just like many job seekers, they have been left out of the recovery currently being enjoyed by Big Business and the ultra wealthy. They need our attention and support if they are to survive. We’ve been told all along hiring from small to mid-sized companies is key to financial recovery in our nation. They are where many hold high hopes for hiring. They can’t live up to that expectation if they don’t have customers, though. All the tax reform in the world won’t do for them what increased business from local consumers can.

I’m not advocating people spend their money with locally owned businesses exclusively. Sometimes what you want or need simply isn’t what a local provider is offering. All I’m suggesting is to put some thought into how you are spending your money and consider how out of balance consumer choices have become. If locally owned businesses are important to job creation in our communities, then everyone has to make a conscious effort to see they thrive.

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Politics. The word makes a lot of people cringe. I understand why. The drama and junk these days can be overwhelming. Those who are dealing with the stress of unemployment struggle with the toxicity of what our country has grown to believe is debate. Many have decided they’re better off tuning out the rhetoric coming from all directions. There is a conscious decision to ignore what’s happening to spare themselves from the depression and the nagging desire to take a shower that happens post exposure.

Here’s the thing, legislative action and inaction have a huge influence on business in our country. Changes in regulations, tax code, budget items, domestic policy, foreign policy, etc., play a significant role in what industries are likely to be growing and scaling back at any given time. Those who don’t stay on top of political developments are missing key information necessary to building an effective job search strategy. They can’t possibly anticipate who the corporate and industry winners are likely to be now and in the future.

If you don’t want to jump into the tangle of picking a political side, fine. Make the commitment to remain aware of the events that shape your future job prospects.

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The three A’s carry a lot of weight with hiring managers in the decision process: attitude, accuracy, appearance. To me, the above have been talked to death. A professional job seeker who has made even a pinkie finger’s worth of effort to educate himself on hiring trends knows you need an error free resume, a sunny disposition and a well kept appearance to achieve that positive first impression necessary for the employer to want to give you the time of day.

As blah, blah, blah as conversations on the three A’s have become, the message still hasn’t penetrated the brains of many job seekers. When I sit down to chat with employers the most common complaints I hear involve candidates falling short in one of the three A’s. The candidates involved aren’t limited to any profession, age group, religion, ethnicity, economic class, etc. It’s a problem across the board. Why?

There is no excuse these days for a candidate to greet an employer with breakfast on his shirt, manager spelled like manger on his resume and anger from past or present experiences seeping from his pores. Though I appreciate some are frustrated and financially strapped, conventional wisdom dictates job seekers stay on top of the three 3 A’s. The top goal is securing employment. It solves most problems. Ignoring the three A’s makes it darn near impossible to move forward with a company, no matter your experience. I had an employer tell me just last week he wasn’t interested in a candidate with stellar skills who had been referred to him because her attitude stunk. Top notch credentials couldn’t save her from the chopping block.

At the end of the day, a job search is about positive first impressions and lasting impressions. The catch is, to have a chance at making a positive lasting impression, you have to nail the first impression or the buck stops there.

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