2/4/10: Top Career Posts this Week
Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about getting blacklisted, customizing your resume, preparing for a phone interview, your first day on a new job, and learning forever.
From the Wall Street Journal: How a Black Mark Can Derail a Job Search
“While U.S. search firms and hiring managers rarely admit they have such tallies, a growing number keep unofficial blacklists of undesirable applicants. These individuals often remain untouchable for years. Recruiters and employers mainly want to exclude liars, losers and misfits. Yet you also can get banned for minor infractions, such as simply taking a counteroffer. And it’s hard to discover or remove a bad mark beside your name.”
Wally’s Comment: It’s true. There are blacklists out there. Getting on one can be very bad for you and hard to fix. Here’s advice on how to stay off a blacklist and what to do if you discover that you’re on one.
From Cube Rules: 5 ways to customize your resume to get the interview
“If you’re sending the same resume to every single job then you’re hurting yourself more than you’re helping. If you’ve sent out 100 resumes and have received no responses or only one response it’s time to reassess your job search strategy and take a good long look at your resume submission practices.”
Wally’s Comment: Just because you can send the same resume to every business in the Northern Hemisphere doesn’t make it a good idea. Here are some thoughts on how to crank up the customization of your resume.
From Ask a Manager: How to Prepare for a Phone Interview
“I’m always amazed by how often I can tell that a candidate hasn’t really prepared for a phone interview. Laziness aside, preparing takes a lot of the stress out of the experience and lets you answer the phone feeling confident and possibly even excited. Here’s what I recommend you do to prepare. Ideally, you’d do this the night before.”
Wally’s Comment: Yes, the phone interview is a real interview. And, yes, you should prepare for it with the same care and attention you would use for any serious interview. Here are five specific things to do.
From HR Ringleader: The Do’s and Don’ts of Starting a New Job
“Today is the day- day one at my new job. Thank you to so many of you who gave me advice on what to do and what not to do when starting a new job. From the comments on the blog, the DMs on Twitter, notes via FaceBook and e-mail, I feel like I am prepared to start this new phase of my life on the right foot.”
Wally’s Comment: Trish McFarlane just got a new job. And she got lots of advice from her friends about what to do and what not to do. And she’s willing to share. Lucky you.
From Great Leadership: Career Advice Part 2: Never Stop Learning
“There’s three parts to every career path: the past, present, and the future. Kind of like Dickens’s Christmas Carol. A lot of us tend to think of these elements in terms of the results we’ve achieved (as documented on our resume), the work we’re doing, and what we want to do when we grow up (our career plans and goals). There’s another way to think about your career path – think of your career as a learning journey. ”
Wally’s Comment: Many years ago, one of the giant paper companies ran ads with the headline: “Send me a man who reads.” Today we’d make the language more inclusive. We also need to broaden the key point. Make it: “Send me a person who learns.” Learning is vital to success in the Knowledge Economy. And the good news is that every job and every assignment you have give you the opportunity to learn something.