One Darn Good Writer

Here’s how to avoid putting a negative spin on your work glitches and how to stop hiring managers from wondering what you really did with your time. Read the story here.

In an era of consolidation, hiring software collates every applicant’s resume. Read this story, which I wrote for The Ladders, to make sure you stay at the top of the pile.

Traditionally used to screen out entry-level applicants for retailers, pre-hire job assessment tests help shrinking HR departments weed through senior-level applicants. Click here to find out more in the story I wrote for The Ladders.

How do you pick the directors, coworkers and direct reports who will be your job references? And once you’ve picked them, how and when do you put them in front of a recruiting professional?

For a condensed version of the story I wrote for The Ladders, click here.

For the complete story, read on:

According to professional resume writer Mary Schumacher, who works with The Ladders, the first thing job searchers should realize is they need to cut one particularly stale phrase out of their resumes when it comes to reference lists.

“For the kind of job searcher that the Ladders attracts, a resume would not have any statement like ‛References available upon request,’” Schumacher says. “In fact, I don’t think any resume needs this kind of statement. It’s a cliche and not necessary to include.”

Here’s more input from professional resume writers on how to present references:

Reference document blueprint

• File Format: Should be in a separate Word document.
• Title: “Professional References” or simply “References.”
• Reference Information: The list should include at least three references, preferably from your most recent employers. Include name, title, name of company, address, e-mail, phone (or just e-mail and phone). Make sure contact information is current.
• Branding Consistency: Resume writers recommend taking a cover letter and saving it as a new document titled “(Your Name) References” or something similarly descriptive.
  Next, highlight and type over everything but the header, which contains the name and contact information, suggests Stephen Van Vreede, a certified professional resume writer who works with The Ladders. “This way, a job seeker will have a consistent, branded framework for their resume, cover letter, and references, giving them a more professional appearance,” he says.
• Print It Out: Several copies of the reference list (in case the candidate is interviewed by multiple people) should be printed out on high-quality, ivory or white resume paper and taken to an interview, Van Vreede says.
• Post It: Schumacher notes that many people have references right on their LinkedIn profiles, as quotes from bosses or customers. LinkedIn makes it easy to request recommendations by simply e-mailing those in your network; just click on Recommendations in LinkedIn’s left-hand menu.
• When to Submit: During the interview phase.
• Submission Exceptions: Submit prior to interviews if you’re in a field where it’s required, such as education.

Who to include and how to approach them
Schumacher says the best references are from a former employer organization and should be a former boss, co-worker, or somebody whom you’ve supervised. Others to consider including are vendors, customers or those you’ve worked with at a volunteer organization. Make sure to only include references who understand why you left the company and who will say good things about you, your leadership, and your performance, Schumacher says.

Before including a reference on a referral list, ask them in advance to be a verbal reference (as opposed to writing a reference letter), Schumacher says. Bear in mind that “some companies or organizations have policies against saying a lot about a former employee except for dates of employment, salary, etc.,” she says.

In today’s rough economy, many companies have gone under or have merged/been acquired, Schumacher notes. In such a case, it’s “difficult to to track down a former boss or co-worker, especially as people move around.” Thus, she suggests asking for a letter of reference from someone in the company once everyone knows you’re leaving so that you’ll have a written record in case you can’t track the person down years later. “The letters don’t carry as much credibility as a telephone conversation, but it’s better than nothing if you can’t find a person,” she says.

If a prospective employer requests your references, make sure to give them a heads-up that someone might call and coach them on items to highlight from your past work, Schumacher says. Just as important: make sure to thank them for their efforts on your behalf.

How to stand out from the competition
Dan Dorotik, another certified resume writer who works with The Ladders, formats his clients’ reference summaries by including two columns. In the left column, he lists the standard information as outlined above in “Reference Information.” In a right-hand column, he then gives one-to-two sentence descriptions of the relationship between the job seeker and the reference, including information the reference can verify about the candidate.

Alternatively, Dorotik lists in the right column a “testimonial” from the reference, which he said can be an excerpt from a letter of recommendation, an e-mail or another source.

“This presentation of references is much more effective, as it provides further insight into the candidate-reference relationship,” Dorotik says. “Many job seekers do not use this type of reference summary, so those who do position themselves above the competition.”

It’s so easy to blow it from the get-go. Here’s how: Open the letter with “Dear Sir or Madam.” Isn’t that great? You just told your potential employer that you’re too lazy to look for a hiring manager’s name. How about this approach instead: Do some due diligence. Find out some names, find out or guess the company’s e-mail address naming convention, and then, most importantly, find out what the company’s problems are. Then, in the cover letter, drop some hints to Mr. Sir or Ms. Madam about how you’re going to fix those problems. For these and other tips on cover letters, check out the article I wrote for TheLadders.

The cookie-cutter approach—i.e., using free or dirt cheap resume templates from the likes of Google Docs and Microsoft Word—is handy to create an initial draft, but beware; hiring professionals can spot a cut-and-paste job a mile away.

Predictably enough, professional resume writers have a slew of reasons why job seekers should avoid resume templates, and one resume template vendor I spoke with for this article on TheLadders even agrees with their rationale. But on analysis, it’s easy to see that both resume templates and the professional resume writers’ individualized attention are both crucial tools in a job seeker’s arsenal. Click here for the full article, which tells you how and when to use this fill-in-the-blank approach.

If you’re a free agent–such as a tech journalist who’s recently gone solo to freelance or a small business just getting its feet wet with online presence–you may well be baffled by the endless means of representing yourself online. Lord knows I was.

What I’ve found since launching the make-me-a-brand quest -lo- these 48 hours ago is that baby, you’re a fool if you pay for any of this stuff. At least, don’t pay a lot. You can get free branded e-mail from Google Apps (my new e-mail: lisavaas@lisavaas.com); tied into a blog and web page courtesy of WordPress‘ free blogging platform, tools and hosting.

To do the branding thing right, you should of course have your own domain name, and that’s where you’ll start spending money. A teensy bit of money, that is: Registering lisavaas.com cost $9.99 per year through GoDaddy. To have that lisavaas.com domain redirect to my site and blog, WordPress charges me $10.

These aren’t the only options, but they’re good ones, and they’re dead simple to set up once you get the hang of it.

Getting the hang of it wasn’t so easy, though. Setting up name servers and plugging in Google’s codes to enable branded e-mail to work with WordPress was not an intuititve process at first blush.

Luckily, through a stellar community for online journalists called the Internet Press Guild, I was fortunate enough to be showered with good advice that lead me to choosing this holy trinity of GoogleApps mail/GoDaddy domain/WordPress site and blogging platform.

One IPG member in particular, David Strom–who runs the incredibly helpful Your Personal Geek site–has put together  a 4-minute webcast that walks viewers through getting all the moving pieces in sync. I can’t recommend the webcast highly enough. Strom’s instructions take you step by step through what can be a baffling process. You can make it all work without watching the webcast, but with Strom’s help you’ll speed through what can be a slow and arduous search to figure out how to sync up all these moving pieces.

When it comes to branding yourself, don’t forget about social networking sites such as FaceBook or LinkedIn.  I tend to shy away from FaceBook given that I’m not entirely sure I want to see business colleagues in tutus, but then, I am a baby boomer. LinkedIn feels more grown-up, and it doesn’t have as much temptation to make a fool of myself–at least, not that I’ve discovered so far.

To maximize your social networking profile, beef up your network as much as possible. While importing your contacts is one good way to do this, *don’t* make the mistake of spamming your entire address book like I did. I wound up apologizing to:

• People interviewed for stories long ago
• People with whom I’d bartered for goods on Craig’s List
• Personal contacts
• Friends of friends
• Anybody else who wound up in my address book for reasons other than having long-term professional relationships (the only people I shoud have e-mailed in the first place).

In fact, I spammed so many inappropriate contacts that LinkedIn turned off my ability to invite new connections. I don’t blame them. It was obnoxoius–don’t make my mistake.

Here’s what you should do, though, to maximize LinkedIn:

• Edit your public profile URL to direct to your name (i.e., http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisavaas instead of a randomly assigned number)
• Copy LinkedIn’s HTML to get a personalized graphic button that you can paste into your blog and Web site to direct visitors to view your LinkedIn profile. You can see how this looks in the version I’ve posted on my About page
• Publish your profile to Google and other search engines.

I’m still learning how to brand myself, so please feel free to share with me your own strategies, feel free to give me feedback on this first site/blog, and good luck with turning yourself or your business into a brand.

Welcome to my new blog! After 12.5 years at eWEEK, I’m now free to help out with your tech writing needs. If you need a top-notch writer and editor who thoroughly understands the industry, from security to open source to virtualization to the meaning of deadlines, I’d be happy to chat. I’m available for freelance assignments or long-term work.

A huge shout-out to the good people at IPG (Internet Press Guild) for their help in getting this site together.