When giving advice to jobseekers, remember to keep an open mind

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If you are going to advise jobseekers on how to properly conduct a job search, please do them a favor; get over yourself. That’s right, remember it’s not about you; it’s about giving your listeners options and opening their minds to possibilities.

Occasionally I’m told about speakers my jobseekers hear at  networking events who speak from one point of view, their own. One speaker told the audience that he never reads cover letters. Because he’s an eloquent speaker, an accomplished recruiter, I’m willing to bet everyone in the room left thinking, phew, I don’t have to write cover letters anymore.

Recently I heard of a hiring authority who said she prefers one-page résumés. Now, I know she was speaking for herself, but immediately following the presentation, one of my jobseekers rushed to tell me she was changing her résumé to a one-pager. I spoke with her and we agreed that she had enough experience and accomplishments to warrant a two-page résumé. Further, we agreed that she should construct a one-page résumé. I don’t have anything against one-page résumés, but different situations call for different types of résumés.

A job coach once told me that he doesn’t think job candidates should go to interviews prepared; rather they should go in and wing it. Better to be relaxed than all hyped up, he reasoned. Screw the research, right? He also tells jobseekers that cover letters are a waste of time. He never got a job using a cover letter, so what’s the sense for all jobseekers to write them.

We tend to give advice based on our experience, sometimes forgetting there are other points of view, other ways of doing things. I’m guilty of doing the same. In my mind a cover letter is a compliment to one’s résumé—you write one that’s tailored to each job for which you apply. But I also get that that some recruiters don’t read them. To some, cover letters are fluffy narrative that aren’t worth the paper (or bytes) they’re written on. My advice is to send a cover letter unless specifically told not to.

I realize that one-page résumés are preferred by some hiring authorities. Hell, I’d rather read a résumé that tells it all in one page. But some people have significant accomplishments that simply can’t be covered in one page. Nonetheless, I show my Résumé Writing workshop attendees an example of an excellent one-page résumé that consists of one hundred percent quantified accomplishments. I have an open mind.

Some jobseekers can go to an interview having not researched the company or position for which they’re applying and do quite well. They’re loose and confident. They have the gift of gab. I have to admit that I’ve never suggested an alternative to preparing for interviews, but perhaps I should…nah…prepare your ass off.

I cut my jobseekers a little slack when I explain the ways they can write their LinkedIn profiles, particularly when it comes to the summary. I like one that’s lengthy, written in first person, and tells a story. Others suggest summaries written much like a résumé’s. Not for me, but who’s to say what works best in certain situations. I’m sure hiring managers in the technical fields like things short and sweet. I tend to be long-winded. Can’t you tell?

Look, your advice is probably sound, but there’s more than one way to skin a…bad analogy. Just present sound options and let the smart jobseeker decide what’s best given the situation. Let’s face it, if there were only one way to tell people how to find a job, we’d be rich people. Or we’d be out of work.

Make your résumé easy to read if you want to be considered for an interview

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I don’t know what’s worse, a résumé that is so dense that it looks like something James Joyce wrote, or so sparse that it looks like a Haiku.

Look, one of the golden rules of writing your résumé is that it has to be easy to read…yet sells you with accomplishments and relevancy. I know this is a tall order but it can be done.

You’ve been told over and over how your résumé is your marketing collateral. Consider reading a brochure that takes you longer than three minutes to complete during the busiest part of your workday. Consider reading a product flyer in a crowded retail store with your kids screaming to leave or wandering off. You only have 30 seconds to get the gist of the product before you decide to explore further.

This is how the employer feels when she reads a résumé to decide if you’ll be considered for an interview. On average an employer will take 15 to 45 seconds deciding whether to invite you in for an interview. The first phase of the résumé review is a quick scan, which means you must make the scanning process as easy as possible for her.

Capturing important information. Keep this general rule in mind when crafting your résumé: do not exceed 4-5 lines per word block. When possible include accomplishments that are quantified with dollars, numbers, and percentages. As quick scans go, these quantifiers will surely draw attention from the employer and entice her to read further. Just glance at the text below to see if it’s something that would be easy to digest in a 15-30 second scan.

Hired to revamp marketing department and turn around declining revenue. Managed 4 employees, including marketing communications writer, graphic designer, and webmaster. Interfaced with members of the media, partners, and consumers; recognized by many for providing excellent customer service. Oversaw more than 10 tradeshows, both organization and attending. Increased number of media contacts from 30 to 6,000 at ABC company within only 4 months. Overall contacts exceeded 30,000. Garnered 20 awards in major trade journals, including “Data Storage Product of the Year,” (5 years in a row) “Product of the Year,” “Editor’s Choice,” and other honors from top trade publications. Placed more than 50 reviews and articles in trade magazines. Designed a 60-page Website and maintained it, while maintaining role of public relations; thus saving the company more than $25,000. Received “Outstanding Employee of the Year” for volunteering to take on this endeavor.

I recently critiqued a résumé that look similar to the above. Now read the same paragraph divided into short word blocks.

Hired to revamp marketing department and turn around declining revenue. Managed 4 employees, including marketing communications writer, graphic designer, and webmaster. Interfaced with members of the media, partners, and consumers; recognized by many for providing excellent customer service. Oversaw more than 10 tradeshows, both organization and attending.

Accomplishments

  • Increased number of media contacts from 30 to 6,000 at ABC company within only 4 months. Overall contacts exceeded 30,000.
  • Garnered 20 awards in major trade journals, including “Data Storage Product of the Year,” (5 years in a row) “Product of the Year,” “Editor’s Choice,” and other honors from top trade publications. Placed more than 50 reviews and articles in trade magazines.
  • Designed a 60-page Website and maintained it, while maintaining role of public relations; thus saving the company more than $25,000. Received “Outstanding Employee of the Year” for volunteering to take on this endeavor.

Do potential employers a favor when crafting your résumé; make it easier to read. Density is one reason employers may decide to place your résumé in the…circular file cabinet.

Get rid of the clutter on your résumé

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I hate clutter. If I could get rid of half the stuff in my house, it would take two dumpsters and five days of work. As I clean my house—the kids and my wife at the Fine Arts Museum in Boston—I’m throwing away every useless item I see on the floor.

All this clutter makes me think of the clutter some jobseekers have on their résumé. And I imagine the employers feel the way I’m feeling right now.

I met with a customer the other day to critique his résumé. It was four pages long; but that’s not what made critiquing it difficult—it was wading through the clutter on it. Here are some examples of duty statements, plus one accomplishment.

  • Managed a group of 25 sales people and 10 office staff. (And?)
  • Responsible for hiring and firing employees. (So what.)
  • Led meetings on a weekly basis. (And?)
  • Wrote articles for the company’s monthly newsletter. (So what.)
  • Spearheaded the company’s first pay-for-service program which increased sales 30% and earned the sales department an Award of Excellence. (Okay, now we’re talking.)

The first four duty statements were clutter; they added nothing to his résumé. The last statement, a quantified accomplishment, said something worth reading. It talked about his ability to lead, which effectively covered the first two bullet points.

I asked him about the newsletter to which he contributed articles. He told me it was initially sent via e-mail to 60 partners and customers, and in six months time the readership had grown to 12,000. As well, he wrote two, sometimes three articles a month for it; in which he talked about product releases, offered tips on data storage, and announced tradeshows. He often received favorable reviews from customers, OEMs and VARs.

I suggested that he keep the first duty and elaborated on his group’s productivity, stability, and endearing affection for him. He admitted that 10 of the 25 sales people and half of the office staff had to be let go because of downsizing. However, productivity wasn’t affected; rather the reduced team maintained and even surpassed projections set by upper management by 25%.

The bullet points on leading meetings and hiring and firing employees were clutter, much like the coffee cups sitting beside me on my office desk. Trash these, I told him. A bazillion managers lead meetings, and many are responsible for hiring and firing employees. So what.

He was fine with getting rid of the meetings’ duty statement but was reluctant to let go of hiring and firing employees. I asked him how many employees he had to fire, aside from the ones that were let go because of downsizing. He told me, a lot. “Well, doesn’t that mean you made poor hiring decisions,” I asked him? He didn’t respond.

What we had remaining of the original four duty statements and one accomplishment statement was:

  • Reduced sales force by 40% due to budget restraints, while surpassing productivity expectations by 25%.
  • Spearheaded the company’s first pay-for-service program which increased sales 30% and earned the sales department an Award of Excellence.
  • Authored articles for the company’s monthly newsletter, announcing product releases, providing tips on color management, and promoting tradeshows; increasing readership from 60 to 12,000 in just six months.

He was still a little bummed because he wanted to demonstrate that he had hired and terminated employees. Isn’t that what managers do, he asked me? Yeah, I wanted to say, but they don’t fire people because they made bad hiring decisions. So unlike the clutter that occupies my house, the clutter on my customer’s résumé was drastically reduced.

Make the effort; tailor your résumé

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Recently a jobseeker in my Résumé Writing workshop surprised me with an explosion of frustration. It bordered on anger. He certainly was incensed. I was talking about the importance of writing a tailored-made résumé for each job. He said, “You mean we have to write a separate résumé for every job? You can’t be serious.”

This was a moment for pause—pause is good when you want to make a point. “Why yes,” I said to him. “Because here’s the thing. Employer A has different needs than employer B, and employer C, and D, and E, and so on.” Your résumé needs to talk to the needs of each and every employer or it’s really doing you no good.

Whatever you to call it: “Cookie Cutter,” “Résumé in a Box,” “One-Fits-All,” this lack of concerted effort demonstrates to the employer that she’s not special. You fail to highlight the outstanding accomplishments related to the job she’s offering. Sure, you list some outstanding accomplishments, but you’re making her hunt for them, making her work.

Martin Yate says it nicely in his blog . “Have you ever looked at a Swiss army knife? It’s got knife blades, bottle openers, screwdrivers…it does practically everything. But companies aren’t hiring human Swiss army knives. They are hiring human lasers, with exceptional skills focused in a specific area.”

Some jobseekers believe that employers want to see everything they’ve done in their many years of work, when in fact employers are more interesting in knowing that you can meet their specific needs, address their specific problems.

The only way to offer them a human laser rather than a Swiss Army knife is by understanding the nature of the job and the nuances of the company. This will require thinking like the employer, who when writing the job ad has some very important requirements in mind for the next candidate she hires.” This will require you to carefully dissect the ad and decipher the accomplishments.

Make the effort. Yate states that your résumé is your most important financial document. It determines the rest of your life.

My nomination for Person of the Year

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Time just came out with their Person of the Year award and, as we all know, the winner is The Protesters, which I think is grand. A great deal of good came out of protests in the Middle East, and I won’t comment on the Occupiers in fear of offending one side of the political spectrum or the other. Time’s choice was…interesting.

Some thought Steve Jobs should have won Person of the Year. He didn’t even make the Short List. The leader of the Elite Six Navy Seals, William McRaven, made the short list; great choice. Kate Middleton made the short list as well? The fact is you’ll never get everyone to agree on the same person/people. But my Person of the Year should have at least made the Short List.

My person of the year is The Jobseeker. The Jobseeker carried him/herself with dignity and professionalism. He/she networked and paid it forward, wrote powerful résumés resulting in interviews, and finally (after more than a year, in some cases), landed a job.

But there were many Jobseekers who demonstrated true heroism throughout the entire year, simply by the way they handled themselves. Perhaps they didn’t land their job, but they never gave up in the face of adversity. And they’ll continue to put forth the same effort that make them honorable, in my mind. They:

  • Woke up every morning to put in a full day of hunting for work, leaving no stones unturned and considering every possibility.
  • Maintained that screw-the-economy-I-will-get-a-job attitude.
  • Knew that every day was a day when they might have run into a person who could hire them, or someone who knew a person who could have hired them; thus dressed ready for the moment, even in my workshops.
  • Took a break every once and awhile to recharge the batteries, but not too long of a break. A day or two at the most. They networked during the holidays.
  • Followed their career plan of revising the résumé, creating a list of companies they research and contacted, building a LinkedIn profile that meets today’s standards, and other best practices.
  • Attended workshops and took advantage of job-search pundits’ advice, learning that things have changed in the past ten years but, nonetheless, trudged on.
  • Accepted and embraced the Hidden Job Market, making penetrating it a priority in their job search plan.
  • Attended interview after interview until they hit a homerun with an employer smart enough to hire them. The Jobseeker never gave up, despite the challenges they encountered.
  • Never forgot the important things in life, like family and friends, and taking care of their health. They didn’t let the job search consume them.
  • Faced the despondency or depression they encountered with courage and perseverance.

These are just a few of the reasons why The Jobseeker gets my vote for Person of the Year. If you think of others, let us know by commenting on this article. I think I should send my reasons to Time and demand a recount.

5 habits to break during the job search

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If there were one habit I’d like to break, it would be drinking coffee in the morning, on the way to work, and when taking my kids to their events in the evenings; the family joke when we get in the car is, “Dad, do you have your coffee?” I’ve had this habit for so long that I can’t imagine a day without coffee.

Habits are hard to break. Taking steps to correct them take small victories, which eventually lead to winning the battle. Just as there are habits in life, there are also habits that develop in the job search. Here are five habits you as a jobseeker must break.

  1. Believing that a résumé is enough to land an interview. It’s not hard to understand why this habit is one tough cookie to crack. The message that your résumé is enough is prevalent in the job search, where misguided job experts say the first thing you need to do is write or update your résumé. And once you’ve accomplished this, a job is bound to come around.
  2. Shotgunning résumés. How you’ve been taught to deliver your résumé is old school. I’ve heard some jobseekers say with pride that they send out five résumés a day. This means two things: one, they aren’t tailoring their résumés to individual companies and two, they’re not leaving their computers and making contact. A few well-placed résumés are better than hundreds of unfocused résumés to no one in particular.
  3. Shyness. Another habit that’s hard to break for some jobseekers is following their shy self. Your shy self tells you “Don’t tell people you’re looking for a job, even your staunch supporters like your family and friends….Don’t network with other jobseekers or business people….Don’t ask your former supervisors and managers for a written recommendation for LinkedIn.” Your shy self has been with you while you’ve worked, so it’s hard to shake off.
  4. Using the Internet for the wrong reasons. This habit might be the hardest one to break: using the Internet for online shopping, playing Farm Land and Mafia Wars, Googling for the best deal on a vacation spot; essentially using the Internet for the wrong reasons now in your life. It’s a bad sign when I ask jobseekers if they’re using LinkedIn and even Twitter and Facebook for their job search, and they give me a deer-in-the-headlights look.
  5. Stopping a good thing once you’ve gotten a job: A story I like to tell about a former jobseeker is how when he started using LinkedIn, he wasn’t a true believer. Then he got a job and his activity picked up three-fold. I asked him if he was in the job hunt again. To this he replied that one should never stop networking, especially when one’s working. Some people tend to think all networking should cease while they’re working; they become complacent. Don’t fall into this trap.

Habits, like drinking coffee night and day, are difficult to conquer but not impossible. Once you turn your habits into productive ones, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and your job search will be more successful.

Make room for supporting skills on your résumé

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Guest article from Martin Yate, CPC, author, Knock ’em Dead Series.

If you want your résumé pulled from the databases and read with serious attention, it’s common knowledge that it needs to focus on the skills you bring to a single target job. However, employers still want to know about your supporting skills.

For example a colleague and hiring manager in the IT world says, “ I don’t just want to see evidence that someone is a hotshot in say, the .NET Framework; I also want to see that they can get around with other languages, so that I know (a) that they understand programming as distinct from just .NET, and (b) that if my company introduces a new programming language/development environment in the future, I have someone who will be able to handle that with ease.”

To satisfy these understandable needs, your resume must nevertheless

1. Be data-dense enough, with that data focused on the “must have” skills of the job to get your résumé ranked high enough in database searches. A recruiter will not read your résumé unless it ranks in the top 20 of that recruiter’s database search; because twenty résumé is about as deep as they ever go.

2. No one enjoys screening résumé, and the process is initially visual, in that recruiters scan a résumé for key content and will naturally favor those résumé where the layout enables a reader to rapidly access key information.

These factors contribute to the need for your résumé to have a laser focus on a target job: the résumé’s goal is to get you into conversation and if it speaks clearly and succinctly to capabilities as described in your analysis of Job Postings it will do so. This approach is proven and it is the default starting point for a productive résumé.

You can still get this important supporting skills information into your résumé, without taking up too much room, by using a Core Competencies section. This will come at the front of your résumé, after contact information, your Target Job Title and any Performance Profile or Summary.

The Core Competencies section is a simple list of all the skills that you bring to the job. You’ll start with those skills most important to your Target Job; but you can also add all those skills, that support your all-around professionalism.

Here’s an example of a Core Competencies section from an operations management resume:

Professional Core Competencies

Strategic Business Planning Project Management Cross-Functional Team Building
IT/IS Human Resource Issues Employee Benefits
Risk Management Hiring, Training & Coaching Negotiations
Research & Analysis Financial Modeling Business Modeling
Portfolio Management Acquisitions & Divestitures Policies & Procedures

Adding a Core Competencies section to the front end of your résumé and then repeating those same words in the context of the jobs in which they were used has two major benefits

  • It’s a concise review of all the hard skills you bring to the table and is a real attention grabber to a recruiter
  • It multiplies the occurrence of keywords likely to be used by recruiters in the database searches and will dramatically improve your resume‘s ranking

You can learn much more about resumes in Knock em Dead Resumes & Templates on the book pages here at http://www.knockemdead.com
Courtesy, www.KnockEmDead,com

5 ways to position your career brand

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To my jobseekers I assert that career branding is a lot like business branding—the big difference, of course, is that they’re selling themselves to get a job, not to increase profit for a company. Nonetheless, the two are similar.

An article posted on MagneticLook.com by Silvia Pencak talks about business branding, e.g., Apple, Mercedes, and unique small businesses, but also brings to mind how jobseekers can brand themselves to employers. Ms. Pencak notes that there are ways to strategically brand a business but makes it clear that it’s not at the expense of trashing other companies. She writes:

But before I do it, it’s important to understand that the objective of brand positioning is not to bring your competitors down, but to outshine them by performing better and more efficiently cater to the needs of the industry’s customers.

Based on a business model, there are five ways that jobseekers can brand themselves.

  1. A low-cost leadership strategy. This is not to say that as a leader, you must present yourself as someone who will work for free or for a low salary. You will come across as someone whose leadership abilities will pay for itself over and over. You are a leader who crafted your subordinates into excellent workers, some of whom became leaders themselves.
  2. A broad differentiation strategy. You attract employers from many industries which produce many products or services. You are not limited in your talents and experience, and have accomplishments to back it up. You sell yourself as someone who “wears many hats,” while remaining extremely effective.
  3. A best-cost provider strategy. Your are someone who offers potential employers a multi-dimensional employee who brings with her not only excellent technical skills but transferable ones as well. A project manager or engineer who also demonstrates excellent presentation skills, offers employers two employees for the price of one.
  4. A focused strategy based on lower costs. You know the benefits of working for smaller companies but realize that salaries are generally smaller. The small start-up wants to reduce costs (salaries) but needs two employees, a project manager and inside sales rep. Both jobs are within your realm, so you propose to be hired to perform both tasks at 75% of what it would cost to hire two employees, thus saving the company a boatload of money and meeting your salary needs.
  5. A focused strategy based on differentiation. You have a strategy or plan not only for yourself but for the company or organization as well. You have career goals that are attainable and in synch with your future employer. You differentiate yourself from other jobseekers as someone who can meet your goals, which is not the case for your competitors.

These are five business strategies that you must use to beat the competition. You as a jobseekers must develop strategies that enable you to beat your competition and land the job. To be able to perform at the top of your field is not enough; you must be able to communicate it in your verbal and written communications…otherwise you’re talents and accomplishments will be unknown.

Is it possible to separate career branding and personal branding? Is there a fine line? Mary Appleton makes a valid point in an article she shared with me that personal branding is important in terms of highlighting your personality skills. She writes in her response to this article:

In addition though, I think it’s really important for job seekers to define their own personal brand, which comes down to personality and determines whether you’re the right cultural fit. The art of personal branding can be hard to master, particularly as it’s not easy for people to get into the habit of thinking of themselves as a ‘product’ they need to market.

How true!

3 Ways to improve your job search with LinkedIn Updates

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One of the things LinkedIn users might take for granted is the Updates feature which can be found on your home page and profile. In short, this is where jobseekers and business people can use LinkedIn to network and heighten their brand awareness.

Updates answers, among other questions: What have you been up to? What skills do you have to highlight?  How can you tell potential employers about your expertise and professional activities? How can you stay on recruiters’ and employers’ radars?

Laura Smith-Proulx, CCMC, CPRW, CIC, and executive director of An Expert Résumé, writes about three uses for updates in an article published by Examiner.com. I particularly like reason number 2:  Updates offer a glimpse of your professional interests and expertise. Here is a snippet from it:

Just like any other flow of information, your Update strategy is an integral part of your brand message—and it’s one that can strengthen your reputation as an expert in your field (and promote your credentials as a candidate).

Think about it: if you’re reading someone’s Profile (and admit it, you do), consider the impact of that Update at the top (the one that mentions how they’re finding a renowned industry book to be relevant in their work). You’ll easily be able to perceive this connection as staying on top of his or her field.

Read the rest of Laura’s article. It explains why using the Updates feature is so important to your networking endeavors. I’m in the habit of telling my LinkedIn workshop attendees to update at least once a day, and if I’m feeling boisterous I tell them to up the ante to four times a day. Think of updating as having mini conversations with your network and, of course, a way to better brand yourself. Read my article on updating on LinkedIn.

Career Development: How to Create Your Career Development Plan in 3 Steps

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Guest post from Dorothy Tannahill-Moran – Your Career Change Agent

If you are pondering your career direction and how to get where you want to be, there are some simple steps you can take that will help you come up with a plan.  Let’s not be confused by the word “simple”.  Sometimes the simplest of concepts or steps can be tough to do, because they require some thinking and some effort.  Yet, your think time and effort are an investment in your future and happiness, which make it all very worthwhile.

Step 1:  Figure out your destination.  As with all efforts, you must be clear about your direction.  You don’t take a road trip without knowing where you want to end up.  You also don’t need to overly complicate this task.  I think the following questions are helpful in thinking out your destination.

Where do you want your career to be in 2 years?

  • I like this question because this window is close enough to your current reality that it is easy to visualize.

Where do you want your career to be in 5 years?

  • If you see that your 2-year goal is merely a step in an overall direction, then this question helps you define a longer term goal.  Sometimes it’s difficult to see that far out in time, as life and opportunities present themselves and can cause you to reset your plans.  That’s ok, but it’s good to be looking “2 steps ahead”.

What makes these targets resonant for you?

  • Don’t make a goal just for the sake of making one.  You need a goal that really rings your chimes and helps to motivate you into action.  If you’re making a goal based on what someone else wants, it also isn’t going to be that compelling for you.  Being clear on your direction means being clear that this direction is inspiring and motivational and knowing what is driving you to it.

Step 2:  Do a Gap Analysis.  A gap analysis is where you figure out the differences in the qualifications between where you are right now and your 2-year goal or next step.

Using a job posting or job description for the position you are aiming at is a good way to get specific information about the skills and experience that are expected.  I think it is good to get more than one job description (perhaps one with your company and one with a competitor) in order to ensure you aren’t missing any key items during your analysis.

Go through the job description line item by line item and rate your current state of skills, education or experience to what is listed.  Your rating system can be as simple as 1-10 with 10 a perfect match and 1 being completely missing.  As you rate, make notes about your thinking for future reference.

Once you have completed this exercise, identify all of the items where there is anywhere from a fair amount to a substantial amount of development that is needed.  Look for commonalities and clump those together as a category.  You will discover that there will be themes to your gaps.  Also, don’t get too compulsive about where you don’t think you’re a perfect match, but think you have fairly developed skills.  If they are mostly present, they will make you a competitive candidate and shouldn’t require too much development attention.

You now have a list of development items.

Step 3:  Create your development plan.  You are now fully armed with a clear 2-year goal and all the details of where and what you need to develop to get you where you want to go.  Your plan will be best if you can consult with your boss and/or a mentor to help you with ideas of how to get the skills you need to add.

There may need to be some logical order to a few of the items on your list.  Sometimes you need to do x before you can do y.  Make these among the highest priority items so you can accomplish these things and move on to others.

Usually there are multiple ways of accumulating the needed skills.  You may also want to have multiple ways of beefing up your skill set to add depth to it.  An example is if you want to move to a project management position, you may want to get certification and also to ask for project responsibilities.  Initially, these may be small, which are fine; they will give you an opportunity to grow and learn.

You may need to research various ways to get the skills you need.  Once done, it will give you ideas on how you can approach these items.

You need dates.  You need to keep yourself accountable to your plan; and the best way to do that is to give yourself a “start by” date.  You can’t predict how long or how much work you will have to do in order to develop the skill at the level you need, but you do have control over the action you take to get started.

Keep track.  You need to pay attention to your plan a minimum of twice per year.  This will allow you to stay focused on your progress and remind you of next steps.

Career development is the sort of thing that you can easily forget about until you wake up one day to realize you have gone nowhere and aren’t having fun.  You are responsible for where you go in your career.  With a little bit of planning you can accomplish great things.

For more career tips and advice claim your Free Instant Access to the Career Makeover Newsletter AND eWorkbook “Should I Stay or Should I Go” – both dedicated to Your career success, when you visit

http://CareerMakeoverToolKitShouldIstayorShouldIGo.com/  From Dorothy Tannahill-Moran – Your Career Change Agent from www.nextchapternewlife.com and www.mbahighway.com