The 21st Century Resume

In a world in which access to knowledge is democratized and elite universities are exposed as little more than factories for social network currency and expensive badges, how should we be reading resumes? (Assuming, that is, that we should be reading them at all.)

While it depends on what exactly you are looking for, I’d bet that most 21st century jobs value:

Capacity for learning over knowledge.

Ability to build and provide value to networks over credentials and badges.

Expanding disciplines of responsibility over contained functional expertise.

Facility navigating multiple cultures over being able to thrive within one culture (note: culture is not the same thing as nationality. Not even close.)

Sustained and deep effort that result in exceptional skill in an area of interest.

GPAs, going to a fancy school and job titles with incrementally more seniority are terrible proxies for these sorts of capabilities. Which is why I’d rather see a resume that:

Tells me the latest skill you mastered and what you’re working on.

Describes a knowledge gap you had in your latest job and how you filled it.

Identifies the networks you’re a part of or have created, and what you’ve done to strengthen them.

Helps me see that these networks bring together all sorts of different people with a shared purpose.

And highlights a few areas in your life where you’ve been putting in the hours for a decade or more, even if it has nothing to do with “your job.”

We can do so much better than a listing of schools, job titles and “accomplishments.”

And what better way to stand out from the crowd than to have a resume that actually stands out?

It’s true, most people reading it won’t like your new resume. That’s good news, because your 21st Century Resume will serve as an automatic filter to help you identify the kind of people you want to be working with in today’s fast-changing world.

Which skills are you practicing?

Maybe today, right now, you’re in a prestigious job (or one that promises to be).  It challenges you but it really isn’t your life’s work.

What do you do?  It’s especially hard to get out, because the pay is probably good, the whole undertaking is well-recognized by friends, peers, and family, and you’re continuing to grow and learn.

So you say to yourself: there’s no real risk in staying put.  I’ll be just as qualified (more qualified) to get that job I really want a few years from now as I am today.

But there is a risk, and it comes from confusing the ability to get the next job and the ability to do the next job.

To get really good at something requires very specific skills.  Selling isn’t the same thing as marketing isn’t the same thing as investing isn’t the same thing as advising isn’t the same thing as building a team isn’t the same thing as really understanding what happens when your suppliers give you crappy payment terms and you run out of cash.

So the risk is this: putting off (for years, maybe) starting to become really good at that thing you’re meant to be doing.

Sure this is fine, but what are you waiting for?

Commencement job blues

Graduation is in the air, and I can’t help but think about students finishing  their degrees and marching off to their new jobs.  It’s a stressful enough time, and I suspect that even though the economy is no longer in a free fall that jobs are still hard to come by.  Which makes it all the harder for students to stick it out for the jobs they really want instead of the jobs they can get.

It’s easy to pretend that the first job you take is just that, and that it’s not a first step down a path.  The truth is, it is a move in one direction.  It’s not an irrevocable one, but this step will make it easier to continue in one direction, harder to turn to another one.

While I was at business school, I had an offer for a job that was exactly the kind of job you go to business school to get: prestigious, it would get me a set of skills I thought I wanted, it paid well, the works.

The only thing was, I didn’t want the job.  The people weren’t right, the culture wasn’t right, my motivations for considering the job weren’t right.   Just thinking about accepting the job physically made my stomach tighten up.  But I knew it would be a stepping stone to other things.  And I knew my classmates would say I was crazy (or worse) for turning it down.

A close friend gave me some advice I’ll never forget.

She said, “A few months from now, it’s just going to be you showing up at that office.  None of your classmates, none of the people who are going to tell you you’re crazy for turning it down, no one but you is going to be there.  And then what?”

It’s true.  It’s you, it’s your job, it’s your path, it’s your life.

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The SYTYCD Job Market

I barely watch TV, let alone reality / contest shows, but I must admit to being a rabid fan of “So You Think You Can Dance” (which is NOT the same show as “Dancing With the Stars.”)  It’s really high-quality dance (for example, this year, Alex Wong, principal dancer in the Miami Ballet would have had a spot if they’d let him out of his contract); it’s well-produced; it showcases dance styles from around the world; and thanks to TiVO I can get through the 2-3 hours of weekly programming in about 45 minutes.  Plus there is something magical about being wowed by a hip-hop dancer knocking the cover off the ball doing a Russian Trepak (video below).

Watching contestants killing themselves to get on this show, I couldn’t help but be reminded of today’s job market.  Where the funnel is wide – getting from thousands of dancers to hundreds – it’s obvious who’s serious and who’s not; and even getting from 150 to 50 dancers, the differences in skill are obvious enough that even an untrained viewer could make a reasonably well-informed selection.

But getting on the show is about making the very last cut, and what becomes obvious is that there’s no such thing as “the best” dancer just like there’s no such thing as “the best” job candidate.  The show’s judges and producers are looking for fit, for the right mix of people on the show, for who will play well on television.

(This couldn’t have been more clear this season: two brothers, Evan and Ryan Kasprzak, made it to the very final cut, and in the end were brought out together.  The judges told them that they were both great, but since they both dance similar styles only one of them could make it onto the show.)

This is worth remembering because as you go through your job search, it’s hard to keep picking yourself up after repeated rejections – and there are a lot of rejections in a market where 80% of college grads don’t yet have jobs.  What’s toughest is getting really close to your dream job and coming up short: you run the risk of thinking the reason you didn’t get the job is because you weren’t the best candidate.

There’s no such thing as the best candidate, just like there’s no such thing as the best dancer.  There’s just the candidate they were looking for; the candidate they happened to pick.  So go a little easier on yourself, and keep at it.

(Here’s the amazing Russian Trepak from last year, by Joshua and Twitch, two hip-hop dancers)

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How do you know if a job will be “perfect”

I’ve been thinking a lot about Jennifer’s comment on last Friday’s post about The Perfect Job:  “the perfect job” doesn’t exist for 90% of the population.”  According to CareerBuilder, 1 in 5 people love their jobs and about half are satisfied.  So it seems that most people aren’t miserable, but it still begs the question of how to find a job that you’ll love.

A little more than a decade ago, I was living in Spain, slogging through my third year of working 80+ hour weeks as a management consultant.  Late one night, my face bathed in the cool glow of a spreadsheet on my laptop’s screen, I noticed that I was spending much more time with my work colleagues than I did with my someday-to-be-spouse (let alone non-work friends).  Looking forward to the many decades of my career still to come, I realized that if I was going to spend so much time and energy at work, I should do everything within my power to find not just a good job but a great one.

But deciding to do this and getting it done are two very different thing.  Landing the right job takes a combination of determination (to find what you’re looking for), skill, luck and a whole lot of good timing.

But occasionally, when everything lines up, you get that chance.  And then it’s worth asking: how do you know if this job is the one?

Here’s a thought:  in each interview, ask the interviewer, when it’s time for Q&A, “Do you love working here?”  Not “like.” Not “enjoy.” Not “value.”  Ask if they love their job.

Because the question you really want to answer for yourself is: “Will I love working here?”  And no one really knows that for sure.  But if no one loves working there, what are the chances you will?  And if a place has so much mojo that most people DO love working there, don’t you think the odds are pretty high that you will too?

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The perfect job

It doesn’t have the highest salary.  It doesn’t have the fanciest title. It doesn’t give you a team of 100 people reporting to you.  It doesn’t have a clear path to promotion.

It’s where you have the most leverage.

It’s the job that allows you to take who you are right now – your skills, your passions, your knowledge, your relationships – and use them to greatest effect.

Which means of course that the perfect job is the perfect job for YOU, right now, at this moment in your life.  It might be a dud for someone else.  And someone else’s dream job might be worthless to you.

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Help me help you

My favorite scene in the movie Jerry Maguire has Tom Cruise’s Jerry at the breaking point, berating Cuba Gooding Jr’s character to “help me help you!” Jerry is a former star sports agent on the brink of losing everything (including his mind), who is left with a one last client, a talented, chip-on-his-shoulder Wide Receiver (Tidwell) who is Jerry’s last hope at salvaging his career.

I learned today of a new phenomenon in the job market, what I’ll call the “preventative job search.” This is where a person who has a job but who has watched a few rounds of layoffs gets a jump on getting laid off by quietly searching for that next job while still employed.

Sensible, and it reinforced my feeling that the follow-through on job cuts is still to come, and that competition for jobs is fierce.

So before you send that next email asking for an informational interview, decide what it is you are looking for. Know what it is that you are best at. Point to your track record and explain how you hope to parlay that into success in your next role. “I’m interested in what you do and I’d like to talk to you” isn’t enough any more.

Help me help you.

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