Between the Trapezes - On Job Search! | February 2023
Help for when you’re between two career certainties
February 2023

February: A short month with many special days. From Ground Hog Day to the Super Bowl to Valentine's Day to President's Day to Black History Month to school breaks, there's a lot in this short month.

But all this activity is not stopping the steady stream of those looking for a new job. I see this in the requests for help that LinkedIn publishes, and in participation in job search networking groups.

News reports have us either in a hiring boom or the depths of a recession, opinions driven by glass-half-full or glass-half-empty thinking. Ridiculous. If you've been laid off, or just hired, your experience will certainly color your thinking.

Whatever your thinking is, the best way to go forward is to not let "the news" determine your life. No matter what the economy, you'll be fine if you treat your career as #1 any time, in any economy, because you'll always be networking, always be adding to your knowledge, your skills. As it should be. And you deserve that peace of mind.

Joanne

_____________________
Joanne Meehl
Resume expert whose resumes land interviews. Holds "The Resume Queen"® trademark, lives up to the title.
LinkedIn profile creator if you want yours to be an employer magnet. Double your profile views.
Networking guru who coaches you in elegant (not needy, gimme gimme) networking, finding hidden leads.
Interview prep that puts you at ease matching what they need and describing why they need you.

BA, MS, IJCDC
Photos in this Between the Trapezes courtesy of Shutterstock.com
unless it's flowers or memes, which are by Joanne

Your Career Is The Treasury of Your Life ©


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"LinkedIn is for job search,
but I'm not in job search, so..."

For those who think LinkedIn is for job search only, and thus don’t update their profile because they’re not in active search, consider this an instructional tale.

A job search client of mine in South Carolina who I’ll call Andrew, a technical project manager, wanted to leave the company he was with. “I don’t see how I can grow there…they are not appreciating what I can do, so why stay”.

We redid his resume and updated his LinkedIn profile. He was sending the resume out and starting to get responses. 

Suddenly his manager left the company and a new manager came on board. In our next meeting, Andrew said: “You won’t believe what happened! It’s a good thing I updated my LinkedIn profile. When my new manager saw it, he called me into his office." 

“You can do all this?” he asked Andrew, sounding surprised. 

“Yes, I can”, Andrew answered. 

“I was told we had no one who could use these tools…I thought I was going to have to hire someone new. But we have this amazing resource right here: you! I’m so glad I checked out your profile. Let’s talk about what else you could be doing here. I have some projects in mind for you that need your help right away.”

Andrew then said his new manager is getting him a raise, as well. He now senses a future there. "So I'm staying," he said, with a big smile.

A change in management, who recognized what Andrew could do and put him to work doing it, kept him from leaving his company. A curious view of his LinkedIn page made it all possible. 

Does your manager (or potential client, if you're a consultant) truly know what YOU can do, from reading YOUR LinkedIn profile?

They should. If not, hire someone to help you update and upgrade yours so that an unexpected reading of it can work in your favor, like it did Andrew. 

It might not only be career-changing, it could be life-changing.

________________________

(Yes, I help people do updates of their profile. Attract more views from the people doing the hiring: Check out my store for the description. Then please be in touch.)
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This month’s Tip from Joanne:

"How long should my resume be?"

Too many candidates come to me with a one-page resume. "I was told in college 23 years ago that it should be one page". Oh dear.

A too-short resume means good content has been cut, and margins were made teeny for a hard-to-read, jammed look. Neither is good for humans reading the resume, giving a poor impression.

Occasionally a candidate will show me their 5-page resume. YES, 5 pages! Or 3, or 4. OMG! They usually have a full "job description" under each job, from when the job was advertised -- too boring and long and it says nothing about THEIR achievements, successes, joys in the job.

Two pages is just right, even for the new graduate who has done several internships and seasonal jobs. A good resume has to be long enough to cover the subject -- YOU -- yet short enough to be read quickly. It should focus on how your achievements match the target job in your target field, and should be customized for each employer you send it out to, based on what THEY are looking for. Thats. What. Works.

Thought of the Month

We must adjust to changing times
and still hold to unchanging principles.

Jimmy Carter - US President, and volunteer
Joanne Meehl Career Services LLC | Zoom or 612.440.6765 (by appt) | Joanne@TheJobSearchQueen.com