Imagine you are at a massive networking function at some large venue, where over time the people in attendance form clusters of sorts, depending on factors such as industry, location, and what they are looking for (clients; talent; business partners; investors; etc.). So far, so good.

Now imagine there are some “Me! Me! Me!” networkers among the people in attendance: people who ricochet in and out of small-group conversations, talking about nothing but themselves and what they do—in fact, doing pretty much all the talking. Those people approach everyone in exactly the same way, regardless of the other person’s need or background. Finally, those people throw business cards around touting what they want everyone to buy from them.

Do those “Me! Me! Me!” networkers sound like grotesque caricatures? Well, in brick-and-mortar networking, the only environment where I have come across anything close to that was car sales. The sales trainer in my group of trainees suggested you get yourself known in the neighborhood by placing business-card dispensers at every imaginable local business from the dry cleaner’s to the hairdresser’s to the dentist’s.

I never acted on that “sage advice” (I wouldn’t have, even if I had lasted any longer than three months in that line of work), and I can’t think of too many car salespeople who do. They, too, generally have more common sense than that.

How certain online “networking” goes really bad

Content management in the digital sphere is fascinating, even wondrous. Today content can be posted and sent out to practically unlimited numbers of recipients, at speeds and volumes that would have been unheard of just a generation ago.

And some people take that as license to hound down unsuspecting targets anywhere and everywhere. I don’t do a lot besides LinkedIn and Twitter in the social-media arena, but I have enough presence to find myself antagonized by obnoxious self-promotion every so often.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the kind of networking that gets people to think of you when they have a need for your product or service. What makes networking good is when it also includes offering something for free. (I wrote about that in detail in another blog post.)

Where things become obnoxious is when they approach you by making a faux personal “connection” (such as a generic compliment on your website or LinkedIn profile), and when you do connect with them, they message you on LinkedIn to pitch their product or service, and flood you with “newsletters” and “special promotions” you never signed up for.

And that’s where these online networkers are just like the caricature “Me! Me! Me!” brick-and-mortar networkers I made up above: all talk, no listen. As for online networking, much of it may not happen in the form of live, real-time conversations, but there certainly remains the need to “listen.” And if they don’t get that, then it’s “unsubscribe” and “unfollow”!

“Effective and efficient business planner.”
“Open-minded and flexible team player.”
“Motivated, top-notch self-starter.”
 
These are examples of what I call fluff bubbles. Other examples can be found in those self-presentations of having a “high level of energy” and an “optimistic attitude.”
 
The problem with phrases like these is not even the fact they have long been overused, like worn-out Velcro. The problem is they are lacking in substance; when the fluff bubble bursts, there is nothing left.
 
I can’t even blame garden-variety job seekers and networkers (and those new to the game at that) for using phrases like these as they try to position themselves. After all, plenty of job descriptions out there have phrases like these included, supposedly describing the desired soft skills for the job.
 
But echoing these phrases back at employers doesn’t make them sound any more convincing. Moreover, even though job descriptions seem to include these candidate “qualities” as a matter of routine, employers like to regard these things as a given in any new hire.
 
The “litmus test” for spotting fluff bubbles
 
1.  Is the phrase something most people could apply to most jobs?
 
Would you know from any of the above examples what that person’s line of work or industry is? Of course not! It could be a dental hygienist, a paralegal, a K–12 administrator…or, for that matter, a sanitation worker! That’s precious space wasted to proclaim how you work, rather than using it to showcase key qualifications.
 
Or think of what a job seeker might say in a cover letter: “I believe I have potential.” Chances are that will make the reader go like: “Duh! You want the job! Of course you say you ‘believe you have potential.’”
 
2.  Is the phrase something nobody would claim the opposite of?
 
Joe put on his résumé that he is a “hard worker.” What will the hiring manager make of that? “Well, finally, here is a hard worker! I knew it—all the others are slackers! Hey, didn’t that other résumé even say it outright?”
 
Sound absurd? Of course; it is absurd. Nobody would claim to have anything other than desirable qualities.
 
Take “excellent communication skills” as another example. I think it unlikely that anyone would say, “Oh, no, I don’t have ‘excellent communication skills’—I head for my cubicle first thing in the morning and hope to be left the &@%# alone all day.”
 
Better alternatives to fluff bubbles
 
You are trying to speak to the needs of your target audience. When you are a job seeker, trumpeting broad, random qualities is not the most promising approach. Rather, start by putting yourself in the employer’s shoes, and then show your capacity for generating results.
 
As I discussed in an earlier blog post, job openings exist because employers are in need of results in some of the following categories:
 

1. Make (more) money
2. Seize an opportunity (or solve a problem)
3. Save money, time, or both
4. Recruit, train, and develop staff
5. Develop relationships with other organizations or the general public
6. Retain existing markets and customers
7. Develop new markets and customers

 
Your past employers kept you around for as long as they did because you were capable of producing the results they needed, perhaps without you even realizing it. A Certified Professional Résumé Writer can help you “unearth” your capabilities to be front and center on your résumé or in your LinkedIn profile.
 
Moreover, talking about results will allow your audience to infer the competencies you must have. For example, if you masterminded a grand opening of a new store location, and went on to boost revenue by 200% from the first to the second year, you probably couldn’t have done it without some kind of effective and efficient business planning!

As one year is about to end and another about to begin, let me take a moment and talk about—no, not New Year’s resolutions! (I am not a big fan of those, as I have discussed in another blog post.)
 
Rather, I want to talk about informational campaigning for your professional persona. If you haven’t tried that before, why not let the New Year be the trigger to do so! For consistency, the following is based on the example of job search, but much of it can be equally applied to targeting new clients, vendors, or other business partners.
 
The operative word here is “informational.” You are not the candidate begging for a job; you want to think of yourself as the long-awaited silver bullet for of their challenges. Showcase your assets; drive home your capabilities relevant to their needs. Help them cut through the fog between job seekers and talent seekers.
 
Seize the control you have, beginning with your timing.
 
Have you heard it said: Opportunity is not waiting for your ship to come in; it’s swimming out to meet it. So the company of your dreams doesn’t have any jobs posted right now? That might just be the best time to let them know you are out there, and what you are all about—speaking to their perceived needs.
 
Do some detective work to find the name of an individual who is a likely decision influencer, possibly a mover and shaker. Then send an informational letter along with your résumé. And yes, make that a letter—printed out, in an envelope, and sent in the regular mail. E‑mails are better for follow-up than for first contact.
 
A proactive informational campaign has a better chance of standing out.
 
When companies post jobs, they are inundated with résumés, and it depends on a host of factors whether yours will be noticed. On the other hand, when you send a letter when there is no job posted, you won’t be competing with countless others for the reader’s attention.
 
You may be catching them at the time a need is beginning to emerge. And even if that is not the case, they will be more likely to get back to you later if they already know who you are. Remember, most jobs (65–80%) are never advertised but filled through networking of one type or another. That goes to show how critical it is to be proactive about making a connection.
 
While on a proactive roll, announce your next proactive move.
 
Don’t leave them under the impression you will be sitting by the phone, holding your breath for them to call you. Instead, say what you will do next, and when, and how. Usually, that will boil down to a variation on the theme “I will call/e‑mail you within two weeks of this letter.” I have discussed this in more detail in my blog post How to Follow Up After Making First Contact.
 
Speaking from experience: This does work!
 
When I was a job seeker, I executed the above steps quite a few times. Although I was met with “radio silence” here and there, and even some outright rejection, I was able to generate some phone interviews.
 
In the case of one company, the day after my follow-up e-mail, I heard from another branch of the same company, saying they were just starting to interview for such-and-such job, and whether I was interested. Two days later, I interviewed for that job.
 
As far as employers are concerned, the way you job-hunt is the way you work. And when they can see you are proactive about your job hunt, it will work in your favor not just for the proactive quality of it but because you are making their hunt easier.

On that note: Let the New Year be your best year yet! ​🍾

On this Veterans’ Day, I want to kick a few ideas around on helping military veterans move their careers along.

Some of the veterans I work with are baby boomers whose service dates back several decades. Others are millennials who got out of the service recently and are now working on re-claiming their civilian lives and careers. And yet others are somewhere in between.

Although I myself haven’t had the honor, there are various ways the Certified Professional Résumé Writer in me rejoices at the chance of marketing the assets of job seekers who have served in the military.

Military service always belongs on your résumé.

Hiring managers worth their salt realize military service is not something you do just for the paycheck. Rather, it shows a person’s capacity for dedication and commitment. It doesn’t matter if you were drafted; you answered Uncle Sam’s call, and for the purpose of résumé writing, that comes down to the same as if you had volunteered.

Good hiring managers will also assume you came away from military service with certain transferable capabilities—such as clear, efficient communication, and level-headed performance under pressure.

The amount of military-service detail that should go on your résumé will vary.

Usually, the minimum info of military service on a résumé includes: the branch served in; any commendations received; and, as long as there was an honorable discharge, the mention of that. (I am not trying to sound patronizing; I know the honorable-discharge part can be an issue for the most absurd-sounding reasons.)

If you are concerned about dating yourself because your military service goes back several decades, rest easy; your Certified Professional Résumé Writer will discuss ways around that with you. (For starters, you will notice the dates of your service aren’t necessarily part of the minimum info.)

How much more detail you go into beyond that minimum info depends on factors such as the marketability of your service to your civilian ambitions and aspirations. For example, if you served in an IT-specialist capacity, you might elaborate on that if you are now looking to build intranet solutions for businesses. Or if you were a communications officer and regularly put out press releases, that might certainly be helpful to market you to a public-relations role.

As I mentioned on another page on this site, veterans have always been part of my particular clientele focus, besides mid-level professionals and career changers. In that sense, let every day be Veterans’ Day.

You know that, ultimately, your résumé isn’t written to please the ATS. Behind every ATS, there are humans who look over your résumé once it “passes” the electronic pre-screen.
 
The other week, at our local networking group, we looked to empower each group member to make his or her résumé more of a “human magnet” by trading on-the-spot feedback with other group members. We had them pair up over multiple rounds, each round with a different partner, putting notes for feedback on each other’s résumé. That way, everybody came away with multiple copies of his or her résumé with spontaneous written feedback on them.
 
In the concluding discussion, it became apparent that the “rules” job seekers often worry about really fall short. Whether it’s about how far to go back with dates, how many pages to give it, or where to list awards: there isn’t any “quick fix” where you just flip the switch, and your résumé hits it out of the ballpark henceforth.
 
So what are some things to bear in mind?
 
All readers of your résumé—recruiters, HR pros, hiring managers—are people. As people, they will have a gut response to your résumé.
 
Do you think anyone will be blown away by a cliché-laden “objective” that reads: “To utilize my skills in a new full-time opportunity with potential for growth that speaks to my ambitions while benefiting the team”?
 
The fact that there even is an objective is the least of problems with it. Hopefully it will garner some feedback to the effect that none of the “information” in this phrase distinguishes you. Which leads to the next point:
 
If several people give you the same feedback on something about your résumé, there probably is something to it.
 
If there is fair consistency among people in pointing out what they thought worked well, what caught their attention, or what they might have done differently, that is something to be taken under advisement.
 
Interacting with human persons about your résumé can help develop your résumé to be more like that of a human person.
 
Discussing your assets in your own words—spoken words, not writing—makes it easier to put it in words that sound like they come to you naturally…like the natural you.
 
Look at it this way: You will be sending some variation of your résumé out to many different people. Wouldn’t it seem like the smart thing to do to get insights on your résumé from many different people first?

They say most people try their hands at five to seven different lines of work during their work lives. I say if that is true, then by now I am like most people.

If you are concerned your career may be a patchwork of disparate jobs, and how you are supposed to build a brand with your history, then get the following overview of my history and judge for yourself if it sounds “patchwork” to you.

Right after getting my degree in psychology, I freelanced as an information specialist for a psych-lit database, writing abstracts and keying search terms and categories for new publications so database subscribers might find the literature they needed.

Then along came a position as a research associate in academia. The idea was that I should get a Ph.D. and make academia a career, but I found that didn’t speak to my kind of creativity after all. I did find the publishing aspect intriguing, though.

Following a major relocation for personal reasons, I took a series of stop-gap jobs, including work as a driver-training instructor and as a part-time, on-call instructor at a private language school. (Should I mention I also tried car sales at one point? I lasted all of three months….)

Sound “patchwork” enough, yet?
 
It did seem to me like publishing might be my eventual permanent stomping grounds. I took a two-semester program to become a Certified Publishing Professional, and I did land freelance gigs copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading textbooks, ancillaries, and companion websites. And yet, a “career” to speak of never got off the ground.

When I first applied to a Career Center position as an instructor for workshops in job-search–related topics, it seemed to me like just another among many applications I was sending out at the time. But then I got an interview, and eventually the job offer.

And that’s when everything started merging and blending into the career I am still in today.

In “my” angle of career services, I draw on nuggets of prior experience. There is the part where I research, read and understand, and manage and integrate information from relevant books and articles. There is the part where I am in a classroom providing something like continuing education, and encouraging a group dynamic where people are comfortable sharing. And there is the part where I provide customer service, such as listening actively and offering options.

Moreover, there is the part where I edit and write cover letters and résumés with exacting style conventions and guidelines in mind. That way, I help the “real” authors (i.e., the job seekers) come up with compelling pieces of writing for their target audiences.

And there is my diversified experience working in a broad range of jobs, and some of them in the gig economy at that, with its challenges to my adaptability and my capability of communicating effectively with all types of internal and external clients.

I like to think all of the above enhance my knowledge and understanding of the territory. I like to think that this is how the seemingly jagged, disjointed tidbits of work history come together and add to my resourcefulness in the career in which I am today. It certainly is the career in which I have lasted the longest.

Well, I hope I have been able to illustrate how a supposed “patchwork” career may in fact have common threads that can end up working in your favor. Your work history may turn out to be rich in that regard. In some way or another, the least of common threads that ties it all together is you.

​Fourteen years ago, I bought that mini stereo system. It fit snugly in a cabinet compartment alongside my cassette-tape deck and my DVD player, which I hooked up to the receiver.
 
Over time, the stereo system came down with various flaws. First, the CD changer started acting up. Next, some of the buttons on the remote stopped working. Then, the headphone jack became shaky. Eventually—just the other week—the connection from the amplifier to the right speaker died.
 
That was the last straw. It was time for a new entertainment system.
 
My first impulse was to just replace the old mini system with a similarly sized new one. But as I shopped around, I found that each of the mini systems I was looking at had at least one critical limitation in one area or another. It soon became apparent I would need to move beyond mini-sized gizmos after all.
 
Turning necessity into a virtue, I shopped not only for a receiver and a CD player in standard size—and for a new and bigger cabinet—but also for tall, floor-standing speakers. Once my purchases were done, my big project for this past weekend was to dismantle the old system, and install the new one.
 
That project ended up lasting two days into the workweek, but it got accomplished after all. For one, it involved the tediums of assembling the new cabinet, and the elbow grease of moving objects around. For another, it involved efforts of planning and configuration to integrate new, bigger, improved solutions.
 
And that’s when it hit me: What I was doing mirrored endeavors of building and upgrading a professional brand. Here’s the way I figure how my entertainment-system project is illustrative of that.
 
When some part is no longer useful, it may be time for more than a quick fix.
 
What I considered originally—replacing the broken mini system with a similar one—would have been the path of least resistance. But my life has changed from 14 years ago, and what was optimal then is not necessarily optimal now. (And remember, “optimal” means “best under the circumstances.”)
 
Implication for brand building:
Your professional persona evolves continuously. And as an evolving professional, you are going to care about different things over time. That, in turn, may call for new avenues in line with your shifts in skills, interests, and values.
 
Having a “revamped” brand in your mind doesn’t mean you are already halfway there.
 
Once I had all my new system components on board, I still had to go give it considerable time to assemble the new, bigger cabinet so the new, bigger components would have a place. In addition, I had to re-do all the connections among the various components.
 
Implication for brand building:
You should expect to put effort into broadening and deepening your competencies so the new, revamped you may become reality. You may have to seek out mentoring, perhaps even formal re-training so you can grow your professional persona.
 
Even so: stay focused on one thing at a time.
 
It may have been time for a stereo-system upgrade, but I still have the same old TV set, which I also bought 14 years ago. Ever since, it has been a reliable workhorse, and there have never been any problems with it. (I guess the workmanship was a lot better than in the case of that mini stereo system.)
 
Implication for brand building:
A healthy pursuit of improvement is a good thing, but jumping on anything and everything just because it is “hot” may be ill-advised. For example, I have adopted LinkedIn and Twitter in a timely manner. Skype, on the other hand, popular as it has come to be, is something I have been doing just fine without so far.
 
But…I am keeping Skype on my radar. (Just as I may eventually have to bite the bullet and get a cutting-edge 4K HD smart TV after all….)

It is inevitably one of the first questions when making a new networking contact: “What do you do?” And indeed, people tend to define themselves through what they do. That way, any time one has been out of a gainful job can feel as if one hasn’t done anything with that time.

Not only can that seem difficult when it comes to the résumé, it can feel like a gap in your life—double the discomfort, twice the unease in someone’s job search and networking. But just because there was a time you didn’t do anything in the gainful arena doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything to speak of.

Therefore, instead of suppressing your time out of the working world for job-search and networking purposes, embrace it! You may have gained valuable experience, and built marketable skills, to show for yourself.

Your résumé doesn’t have to be a “complete” account of anything.

Résumé writing of old meant a laundry list of everything you had ever done. That is not what matters on a résumé anymore. Take advantage of that fact. Your résumé isn’t even a “legal” document; it is your single most important marketing tool. You can set the right expectation in the reader’s mind by changing that section header from “Experience” to “Experience Highlights.”

A one-liner may be an option, but avoid “explaining” anything.

You may choose to put a brief phrase such as “Family leave of absence” or “Personal leave of absence,” but beyond that, any more details might generate more questions than they would answer. Just look at politicians when they are pressed for explanations. Having explaining to do means you are on the defensive, so why put yourself on the spot.

You do want to prepare for what to say when they ask, but that’s just the way to handle that—let them ask. When they call, and ask, it means they found your résumé interesting. Moreover, a potentially difficult subject is better raised when there is some conversational interaction, where you have more control of how things come across.

Speaking of “family leave of absence”:

This is presumably the single most frequent reason someone would have been out of the work force. You did gain and deepen lots of useful skills during that time.

If you raised kids, then you bring competencies in the areas of time and priority management, active listening, negotiating, putting out fires (let’s hope not literally), budgeting, logistics, and supply-chain management. Did you perhaps also hone your team-player qualities, possibly even your leadership, by participating in your PTA or by forming a neighborhood carpool?

If you were a caregiver for a loved one, then you may also have useful experience communicating with healthcare providers, speaking as an advocate, navigating the red tape of the insurance industry, and confronting the complexities of long-term care programs with resilience.

What if you just traveled the world?

While that may sound like you only did something for yourself, look at it as a way you fostered your openness to constant change, and continuously learning something new. That probably includes the broadening of your intercultural horizon, and your capacity for appreciating diversity. Maybe you can even add a foreign language to your lineup of skills.

There is much more to the intricacies of the professional persona that is you.

When you consult with a Certified Professional Résumé Writer, it will help unearth these facets of what you have to offer. The Résumé Writer will know how to use all that information to your advantage in crafting a powerful story of you that will help your next professional purpose find you sooner.

Networking—both brick-and-mortar and online—is about being visible and approachable. To be approachable, you need to be visible—preferably to the people you want to be approached by. You know people seek new business contacts on LinkedIn: strategic partners; vendors; clients; customers. And, of course, there are people who seek talent.

In my daytime job, the main concern of my clientele is that next gainful opportunity. Meaning, they want to be found when talent seekers look for assets of the kind they have to offer. Chances are, unless a specific company or alma mater is a factor, talent seekers run their searches based on keywords: skills; knowledge; abilities; technological competencies; and so on. Now that search is likely to yield tall stacks of results. (Yes, let’s face it: many people have qualifications very similar to yours.) Which begs the question: can you do anything to boost your chances of appearing in the first 20 results or so?
 
What is keyword density?
 
Keyword density is the presence of relevant keywords across sections of your profile. The main sections to be concerned about are: headline; summary; job write-ups; and skills. I like to think my own LinkedIn profile is quite adequate in presenting the right assets in the right places, so allow me to use my profile to demonstrate.
 
Headline
 
Here, capture the essence of your occupation, role, and professional capacity. My headline says: “Career Services Specialist | Workshop Facilitator | Certified Professional Résumé Writer.”
 
Summary
 
This is the first thing people look for after seeing your name, headline, and photo. (All right, I’ve seen your nametag, now tell me, in a nutshell: who are you professionally?)
 
From the first paragraph of my summary: “I take a look at [my clients’] career assets to bring out and connect the strong points. My clients’ career narratives are thoroughly revamped and recharged—from the nitty-gritty of cover letters and résumés all the way to new frames of mind ready for 21st-century job search.”
 
Did you notice the words “career” and “résumé” appeared in both the headline and the summary? (They appear yet again in the second paragraph of the summary, alongside the word “workshop,” which was also present in the headline.)
 
This is how you build keyword density. You want the right keywords to appear and then appear again, and again. That way, LinkedIn’s search engine will be likely to nudge your profile toward the top of results when someone runs a search for just those keywords.
 
Job write-ups
 
And on we go. Suffice it to just look at only part of the first bullet of my current job, which reads: “Facilitate workshops on brand building, stand-out résumés, and sustainable career-goal assessment.”
 
“Workshops”; “résumés”; “career.” Game, set, and match.
 
Skills
 
Well, does it get any easier to plug in the keywords you want to emphasize? This section invites you to do just that, and solidify their presence across profile sections. Guess what the three words are that appear in the first three skills listed in my profile….
 
But let’s move on from my profile. How about your skills? Suppose they include:

• Business Development
• Program Management

 
That’s four keywords: business; development; program; and management. Why not boost the presence of each by adding the following skills:

• Business Management
• Program Development

 
Did you notice how that just doubled the presence of each keyword—and in the same section at that?
 
Now check the other sections of your profile—headline, summary, job write-ups—for repeat mentions of these relevant keywords. Keyword density for the right keywords will improve your chances of being found in talent searches that are right for you.
 
Oh, and if you can get a couple of your LinkedIn connections to write you some recommendations, it won’t hurt to have some relevant keywords repeated across those recommendations as well.