Dear Sam: I was just laid off and do not know how to even begin a job search. What should I do to get my search off the ground? — Ron

Dear Ron: I’m really sorry to hear of your layoff. Let me outline the critical steps to get you started in the right direction.
1. Define your purpose.

Have you considered what types of opportunities you want to pursue? This is the most critical step to ensuring a targeted and effective search.

Do not get caught conducting a “general” search, which will only result in watered-down results. Instead, position yourself for something, not everything, and be strategic with where you send your resume. I promise, conducting a targeted search, while reducing the overall number of positions you may apply for, will yield stronger results and a higher average return rate.

2. Develop a great resume.

Once you have defined your target, create your resume, infusing it with language found in job postings of interest. In essence, when considering your target audience — the hiring managers you are trying to attract — you want to make sure you are speaking their language. To do that, you need to know what you want to market yourself as and translate your past experiences (this is the key to an effective resume) to create a strategic image of what you have done that positions you for what you now want to do.
You may have heard of keywords that need to be included in your resume. Speaking the right language, as mentioned above, means you will incorporate appropriate keywords and key phrases to secure the attention of your target audience.

Keywords are simply the skills, experiences, abilities and credentials your targeted hiring managers are seeking. So, if you have defined your purpose and are qualified for the jobs for which you are applying, incorporation of those keywords will come naturally in the presentation of your background and key qualifications.
In creating your resume, do not forget to develop a unique aesthetic that reinforces the tone of your candidacy. Do not use old formats; instead, check out recently written books and websites like mine — or create something from scratch to showcase a little personality on your resume, all working alongside your content to differentiate your candidacy.

3. Create a strategic job-search action plan.

Now that you have defined your purpose and marketed yourself on paper, begin to outline where you are going to look for a job.

Do not get caught in a rut of simply applying for jobs on the open market. Instead, leverage networking, prospecting, referrals and job-search events as additional elements of a multipronged distribution strategy.

4. Track and follow up.

Create and maintain a job-search journal to track your search. Print out every job you apply for, noting why and when you applied, why you would be a great fit and when you followed up on the opportunity. This tool will become invaluable during your search. Not only does it serve as a resource when a potential employer does call you for a phone or in-person interview, but also as a tool to reflect on the effectiveness of your search.

5. Be positive.

Remaining positive is critical in conducting an effective job search. Find a support system to keep you on track, accountable and optimistic. Many associations have job-transition groups where you can network with like-minded professionals — many of whom are still employed — to gain insight into value-added distribution opportunities.

Continue to reflect and refine your approach and search strategies until you see responses, remembering that targeted searches generate the strongest results.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and the owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

Whether it’s a new job or an important networking contact, job fairs can be very productive — if you take the time to prepare. Since the Spring Job Fair is only a couple of days away, I want to offer some assistance on preparing for a job fair.

1. Review the list of exhibitors. The worst question to ask a prospective employer is, “What do you do?” Do some research to learn about the exhibitors. You can also peruse the career section of their websites to get an idea of what positions they may be seeking to fill.

2. Customize your cover letter. While you are researching the exhibitors, gather their contact information and the HR managers’ names if at all possible. Use this information to customize your cover letter for each company. Doing so will immediately tell the recruiters that you have gone the extra mile and are very interested in working for them.

3. Prepare your sales pitch. Develop a two-minute, high-impact answer to the request, “Tell me about yourself.” Practice the delivery of this message before the job fair to ensure that you don’t stumble when making your first impression. Be sure this statement is not a narrative of everything you have ever done, nor should it focus on what you want. Rather, stress what differentiates you from the hundreds of other candidates. This statement needs to reflect the value you can contribute to the prospective employer; therefore, an understanding of the positions the exhibitor may be recruiting for would allow you to refocus this statement for different employers. Don’t forget to have the same message communicated in the qualifications summary on your resume, which will help recruiters remember you when they go back to the office with a stack of potential candidates.

4. Map out your strategy. When you get to the job fair, find out where each company of interest is exhibiting, and map out a strategy to visit each booth. Don’t be discouraged if you see long lines. If you need to, return at a more convenient time, keeping a list of the exhibitors you have visited so you don’t leave the fair forgetting to speak to one of your prospects.

5. Ask for business cards. Upon closing your discussion with each hiring manager, politely ask for his or her business card so you can follow up on the opportunity with a second copy of your resume and even a personal phone call.

6. Take advantage of professional-development opportunities. Plan to attend one or more of the free seminars regarding education and job advancement. These seminars provide training in best-practices-based job-hunting techniques while also providing insight into the job-search process.

7. Dress for the job you want. Despite the fact that a job fair may seem less formal than an individual interview, you still need to take the time to dress for the job you want. Take this opportunity to put your best foot forward, both on paper and in person.

By preparing yourself for the job fair, you will make the most of this opportunity, engage yourself in a professional environment and better equip yourself for future interviews.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Central Arkansas Human Resources Association are hosting the 2013 Spring Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock. The event is free to the public.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and the owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

I am always so excited when a client comes to me with a “dream” job in mind. While the fact that my client will be applying for only one job certainly adds pressure — I want to make sure the resume is perfect for that one “dream” opportunity — it also provides me with a chance to be ultra targeted in my content and presentation.

MEET DAN

Dan wanted to work for a fire and security company in a territory account manager position. He had been with his current employer since 2004 and had transitioned from maintenance to an account development role. He then sought to exit the industry and secure a more senior-level opportunity in sales.

ORIGINAL RESUME

Dan’s original resume lacked in the areas of strategic content, formatting, white space and prioritization of information. Dan had also not yet updated his resume with his most recent position, so his resume had a lot of room for improvement and development.

NEW RESUME

I created an engaging design for Dan’s new resume, ensuring that the aesthetic would compel readership. I identified the key words that his next employer would be seeking and wove those throughout Dan’s new resume. I used selective bolding, uppercase letters and separation of content to ensure that focus would be placed on the most applicable aspects of Dan’s background. From excerpts from his performance reviews to select keywords being pulled out ahead of key contributions, the entire resume is focused on helping Dan break into a higher-level sales role in a completely new industry.

THE RESULTS

Dan wrote to me with wonderful news about six weeks after I completed his resume: “I wanted to let you know I received my job-offer letter last night. The annual salary was $5,000 more than what I was initially told. I have never been in a position in my life to resign from a job, have the right tools available to secure the job that I wanted and get the job I wanted. … I am so excited about this new chapter of life.”

View Dan’s before and after resumes below.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and the owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Dear Sam: I have proven I can step into any role and excel. With my job search lasting for nine months now, I really need a job and am willing to do anything. How do I make my resume reflect that I can do almost anything? — Mike

Dear Mike: While this may seem like an effective strategy, it is actually quite the opposite. I cringe when candidates tell me they can do anything and do not have an idea of what type of jobs for which they will be applying.

While I certainly understand the need to not limit your options in today’s job market, a one-size-fits-all strategy is rarely effective. Instead, one should really try to identify a primary objective, even if this means you have a second or third objective requiring modified resumes. If you try to present yourself as a jack-of-all-trades, you suddenly become a master of none — clearly not a good presentation of your candidacy.

Defining your purpose is the critical first step in crafting an effective resume, a step that facilitates your understanding of what your target audience is looking for and what keywords to incorporate into your resume. While you may have thought that broadening your scope on your resume would yield more responses, it is likely it is doing the opposite.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

Peter has a strong background in re-cruiting, sales and marketing. He came to me seeking help in facilitating a career change.

While highly successful in his current field, Peter had decided to take the opportunity — based on some life-altering situations — to pursue positions that reflected his personal passions.

ORIGINAL RESUME

Peter’s original resume positioned him as a very successful recruiter, which would have been perfect if that was indeed the type of position he was pursuing. He was uncertain, however, how to make his background work for his new areas of interest.

Peter’s resume opened with an objective statement that reflected his new area of interest, stating his objective as “To contribute to the greater good, help improve the lives of others and work with a company that encourages creative, strategic and leadership development.”

What was lacking however was the presentation of the transferability of Peter’s prior career to his current career targets.

NEW STRATEGY

When asking Peter about his current career targets it became clear that we would not be able to position him effectively for his areas of interest — music ministry and patient advocacy — in one resume. Instead, the most effective presentation strategy would be to develop one main body for his resume and customize each qualifications summary to convey the right message to each target audience.

For both of Peter’s new resumes, I focused on conveying the relevance of his recruiting career.

To do this, I developed a strong overview of his positions with quantified results serving as “evidence” of his ability to deliver on expectations, but followed with a functionally organized list of key contributions. In this section of his resume, I introduced some of Peter’s key efforts by functional subheadings, a strategy that provides additional focus and clarity for the reviewer and allows Peter to communicate how his experiences as a recruiter align with the responsibilities of a music minister. To do this, I introduced select statements with the subheadings of Best Practices Identification, Performance Management, Workflow Coordination and Awareness & Communications, all skills that directly translated into his new fields of interest.

In addition, in Peter’s music ministry resume, I added a Music Experience section that explored his tenure as an instructor and professional musician. Not relevant if we were creating a resume for a recruiter, this section serves to reinforce Peter’s interest in the field and his ability to perform in a somewhat unfamiliar role.

Lastly, I created a unique design and used imagery to tell a story before one word would be read, branding Peter as what he wanted to be rather than what he had been.

When it came to developing Peter’s second resume, the main body of the resume essentially stayed the same — with the omission of the music experience section — but the qualifications summary differed and told more of his personal journey and the reason for his desire to enter the field of patient advocacy.

While a resume typically does not explore a candidate’s personal journey, it was imperative to do so in Peter’s case in order to convey one of his differentiating factors — that he has lived the journey of a patient and experienced the vital role a patient advocate can play.

As mentioned frequently in my column, creating a one-size-fits-all resume is never the right approach and will always diminish the results of your search.

Avoid diluting your candidacy, but create alternate versions of your main resume — even if the body of the resume remains the same — to communicate the right message to your target audience.

View Peter’s before and after resumes, along with his core skills summary, below.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

BEFORE

AFTER

SUMMARY

Dear Sam: I am currently an adjunct college instructor and am seeking full-time employment in higher education. I possess a master’s degree, but not a Ph.D. Should I enhance my skill set through more education? Or would it be better to amplify the skills I already possess, having taught college since 2004 and having attended many professional-development activities? — Matthew

Dear Matthew: I preface my answer by saying that you should, of course, review requirements for positions of interest in order to determine the prerequisite requirements for the roles. If a Ph.D. is nonnegotiable, then of course, you have your answer. I suspect, however, that it is not an actual “requirement” for the positions of interest; hence, answering your question to me.

I have to tell you, education is rarely the reason one candidate is more qualified than another. In addition, education is not often a differentiating qualification. When so many candidates — your competitors — apply for the same roles with very similar, if not identical, academic credentials, you are suddenly all on an even playing field. Therefore, how much you differentiate your candidacy is through the uniqueness of your experience.

Experience is how we are all unique. Granted, if those who you are competing against held similar roles to you in their past, and if you all simply explored your job description on your resumes, you would unfortunately all look very much alike. However, it is the candidates who take the time to dig deeper into each of their teaching roles that will be infusing their resumes with their uniqueness — and differentiating their candidacy.

With almost 10 years of teaching experience, Matthew, I am certain you can position yourself as a highly competitive candidate for the teaching opportunities that do not require a doctoral-level degree. Remember, uniqueness comes from your hands-on experience, rarely your education. Best to you.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and the owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonlinecom. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.com.

Dear Sam: I am 57 years young and feel my age is impacting the success of my job search. I have been out of work for 10 months, and while this seems in line with peers who are also searching for work, I haven’t even had an interview in five months. I’m wondering if my resume is to blame. — Cindy

Dear Cindy: There are a number of strategies you can employ as a mature professional to avoid unnecessarily aging your candidacy, while minimizing potentially disqualifying factors that you may not have considered. The best way to illustrate what you can do to serve your candidacy well is to tell you about a baby boomer I had the privilege of working with and the challenges we were able to overcome.

Rebecca came to me seeking help in positioning herself for what she hoped would be her last career move. While not aging her candidacy, she wanted to show potential employers that with 33 years of experience in the field of human resources, she was an expert in her craft. Rebecca had a jam-packed, two-page resume that was not aesthetically pleasing, was difficult to read and was missing a balanced presentation of duties and accomplishments. Given that it explored roles back to 1978, the resume was aging her candidacy.

The challenge a lot of the baby boomers I work with face is the need to present the “right” amount of experience on paper. While one would assume you should present all of your experience to differentiate from your lesser-experienced competition, in doing so, you highlight your age and assumptions of higher-than-average salary expectations. This presents quite a conundrum for candidates who want to showcase their extensive experience but in doing so over-qualify themselves for the job.

In Rebecca’s case, given she was seeking more senior-level roles, it would have been acceptable to explore 20 or so years of experience. However, her first employer was one she stayed with for 18 years, so including it in a traditional manner would have immediately aged her candidacy. To ensure that we didn’t do that, I explored her positions back through 1996, which provided hiring managers with a solid 15-year-career track record, while doing something called bylining her early experience.

Bylining early experience is a key way for more-seasoned candidates to present their experience while avoiding the potential of unnecessarily aging their candidacy. To do this, add a subheading — Foundational Experience or a similarly named subheading — at the end of your Professional Experience section that breaks formatting. In this section, remove all notes of dates, allowing you to include early experience without the context of how long you were employed.

In Rebecca’s case, this was key in presenting her depth of knowledge and experience in the field while not presenting experience back into the 1970s and 1980s. In following this strategy, delivering compelling content that would speak to her target market’s needs, adding a third page to her resume to provide critical white space (three-page resumes are common, and often necessary in presenting a more senior-level candidate’s career) and creating a compelling visual aesthetic, Rebecca’s new resume was far more effective and attractive.

Before and after versions of the first page of Rebecca’s resume appear below.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Dear Sam: I am 55 years old. I am having a difficult time trying to find work. I am beginning to think it’s because of my age. Why aren’t employers calling me back? — Theresa

Dear Theresa: The concern I have with your resume is that you have not fully explored your roles, responsibilities, challenges faced, differentiating experiences and contributions. You are not conveying your age on your resume, given that you only date experiences back to the year 2000, so your age is not playing a role during the resume-screening process. I would, however, omit the dates on your education. By presenting the years you graduated, you are unnecessarily adding years to your candidacy.

The issue with your resume is that it lacks engaging content and packaging. Each of your five positions is described with a handful of brief, fragmented sentences. You are creating no visual interest with this approach — no bullet points, no selective formatting and no prioritization of content — and, therefore, are likely not holding the attention of the reader beyond the average 4- to 7-second screening process.

Why not revamp your resume to explore your roles in a brief paragraph — which hides short, fragmented statements — with accomplishments or highlights explored in bullet points? Bold the key takeaway in each bullet point to add visual interest and pull the reader through your resume. Once you do this, you will create more excitement about your candidacy. You have great, related and relevant experience; you just need to present it in a more attractive package.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@.arkansasonlinecom. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com..

Background:

Sandra came to me with a wealth of nursing experience and some major concerns:
1. Some of her most impressive experience occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.
2. Sandra was concerned that she would be competing against younger, less experienced, therefore potentially less expensive candidates.
3. Sandra was seeking employment with a major health system and knew there would be hundreds of applicants for just one open position.

Sandra provided me with nine pages of handwritten notes, most of which were simple narrations of employers’ names and locations, the titles Sandra held and a few words about what she did in each setting. It was clear from Sandra’s presentation of her experience that she placed a lot of value on some of her earliest roles, including one in particular that she pursued on a volunteer basis.

Turnaround Strategy:

After learning more about Sandra’s background, I decided a functional format was necessary for her resume. While I take this approach on very few resumes, I felt that in this case, such a format was vital in minimizing the appearance of the number of positions Sandra had held in recent years. This approach would also greatly reduce the redundancy that would come from presenting the same job functions multiple times.

Fueling my ability to position Sandra in this manner was the additional insight I gained during our consultation. From listening to Sandra during our chat, I captured a sense that one of her strengths was the ability to identify conditions others overlooked. She also conveyed to me that as a result of her maturity and her work on a volunteer basis in launching a free clinic, she possessed excellent patient and physician relations skills. I used these, along with her fantastic accomplishments, as differentiating factors on her resume. This painted a picture of a true professional who, through experience, could offer a refined bedside manner and an expansive nursing skill set.

 Formatting:

The key to success for Sandra’s resume is the unique “Notable Accomplishments” section. Following a rather brief qualifications summary, this accomplishment-focused section provides a window into the value Sandra is positioned to provide. Exploring examples of opportunities she had to participate in capital-improvement projects, initiate process improvements and launch a free clinic — and the reputation she had gained for patient-care excellence along the way — this section proves vital in differentiating Sandra from her potentially less-expensive competitors.

Following “Notable Accomplishments” is a “Professional Highlights” section, which reviews key aspects of her nursing roles. Combining all past experiences to create one very strong section, this provides for a much more engaging read than a reverse chronological resume would have. If I used the more standard format for Sandra’s resume, the hiring manger might be turned off by the recent movement in her career and the number of positions she has held, not to mention the redundancy that would have been hard to avoid, given that she had very similar roles in many positions.

As is called for in a functional format, Sandra’s work history is presented next, with a listing of her employers’ names, dates of tenure and titles held. This section is strategically placed on Page 2 to play a lesser role in the screening process.

Results:

Sandra was kind enough to contact me to let me know she was successful in — and extremely excited about — being offered a job with one of her target employers, one of the region’s largest health care systems.

Sandra’s completed, job-securing resume appears below.

- Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit www.ladybug-design.com.

Dear Sam: As my job search continues, I need help. I may not be getting results based on my resume or the fact that I do not have much experience in my degree field. My journey has included pursuit of a medical-assistant diploma, then an associate degree in business, and now a bachelor’s degree in social work. I am searching for clerical positions. What am I doing wrong? — Nicole

Dear Nicole: You open your resume with an objective statement followed by an employment section. In the employment section, you present five positions, three of which have no description. You end with computer and professional skills and education. Let me briefly touch on each area to get you on the right path.

Objective: Nix the objective statement, and incorporate your skills in a qualifications summary. You must immediately grab the reader’s attention and keep him or her engaged to review your candidacy further.

Employment: If you would like your positions to be seen as valuable, you must provide details of your roles and key contributions. You have presented two years of your most recent experience with not one word about what you did. Earlier positions, where you included brief descriptions, are too brief and do not adequately represent your responsibilities and achievements.

Education: Omit high school information, leaving your three education programs presented. In the qualifications summary you create, be sure to relate how your varied education — and experience — uniquely position you for an administrative role in a health care setting. This is your calling card.

Very few competitors will have the blend of education you possess, and when combined with your office-management, medical-assistant and front-office experiences, I cannot imagine a more qualified candidate to gain entry into your chosen field. Just revamp your resume to paint a more competitive picture.

— Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and the owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Email resume or job-search questions to dearsam@arkansasonline.com. To find out more about Nolan, visit her website, www.ladybug-design.com.