3/11/10: 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 cover letters, going beyond the numbers, changing sectors, building a broad business network, and resources for job seekers.
From the Wall Street Journal: Standout Letters to Cover Your Bases
“It’s something job seekers often wonder: Do you really need to submit a cover letter with your résumé?”
Wally’s Comment: Some hiring managers simply don’t read cover letters. So why put effort into your cover letter? Simple. You don’t know if you’re contacting one of the non-readers or a hiring manager who thinks cover letters are important. This article gives you advice on what to do to make your cover letter a potential competitive advantage.
From HR Bartender: Performance Metrics: Beyond the Numbers
“Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured gets managed.” It’s very true. Tracking the numbers is essential to running your business. But it’s also important to not just calculate numbers. You need to have a good understanding of what they mean.”
Wally’s Comment: With spreadsheets and calculators, anyone can generate performance numbers. But which are the important ones? Why?
From Dorothy Dalton: Changing sectors or function? You need to walk the talk!
“50 % of my coaching clients aspire to move out of their existing sectors, some perhaps that have been hard hit by the recession (automotive, logistics, manufacturing, financial services) and into hot predicted growth areas for 2010 such as Clean Tech, IT renewable energy, healthcare, personal development education and re-cycling.
Wally’s Comment: Dorothy doesn’t say it, but some candidates seem to think that hiring managers are psychic. They expect the manager to look at a resume that lists only experience as a keypunch operator and see the potential for a marketing vice president’s position. OK, so maybe I exaggerated a little. But, if you want to change the kind of work you do or the industry you do it in, you’re going to have to bear the burden of communication.
From Cube Rules: How to build a broad business network
“Research consistently shows that your business network is the best way to find a job. Then, there is the best of the best: getting a recommendation from an employee in your network that is inside your target company. This makes sense: a person already in the organization knows the potential candidate and will put their reputation on the line saying this person (you!) will do great in the job. This means your best opportunity to find a job is to have a business network where people are in as many different targeted companies as possible. But how can you start to build that kind of network? Let’s check out some different tactics to get you there.”
Wally’s Comment: I selected this article because it’s about building a broad business network. The idea is not to have the most friends, twitter followers, or contacts. It is to have the most contacts that can help your career.
From Katheryn Rivas writing at All Things Workplace: Ten Online Resources for Job Seekers
“The Internet can be a very useful tool when it comes to finding work. However, you may have to search hard and long for quality websites, since, as with most things online, there’s a lot of junk. The following are ten online resources with job search engines and other websites to help you find work fast.”
Wally’s Comment: This is about the perfect length for a resource list. It covers a number of areas and offers a limited number of recommendations in each.