Does your current resume get you as many interviews as you’d like? Or does it just seem to end up in a black hole in cyber space?

I have a lot of clients updating their resumes right now. Their reasons for doing so vary. Some are leaving their current company but want to continue working in their field with another company. Others are moving to a new city or state. Some are looking to change industries all together. 

Update Your Resume Every 6 Months

It’s important to keep your resume updated, even when you’re not changing careers or seeking a new job. I tell all my clients they should update their resume every six months, regardless of their current work situation. Why? Because:

1. It’s much easier to remember what you’ve done in the past six months than trying to remember what you’ve done in the past six years.
   
2. You never know when you may lose your current job and have to start looking for a new one.
3. You may have to provide a copy of your resume for reasons other than trying to find a new job. 

For instance, if you’re up for a promotion, or if you’re asked to present or speak at a conference, you may be asked for a copy of your resume. 

Last year I worked with someone who’d been in the music industry for about 20 years and found himself suddenly out of work and looking for a job. He’d never updated his resume over the course of those 20 years. However, when I had to help him put together a new resume, he was scrambling to try to remember results, accomplishments, dates, and other necessary details for a resume. It took us a little longer to complete his resume since he’d not kept up with it during his career.

Include Results to Get Results

When making your updates to your resume, always remember to include your accomplishments and results of your hard work. This is necessary to land an interview. If your resume only lists your job duties, it will end up in a black hole in cyber space. Or worse, in the trash.

Recruiters want to see what you’ve done for your past employers. For instance, have you made them money, saved them money, saved them time, increased efficiency or improved customer satisfaction? If you can show you’ve previously done these things and can quantify them, recruiters will assume you’ll be able to do the same for their company.

Most people struggle to come up with accomplishments for their resume. I help you properly word your accomplishments so your resume will get you more interviews. When you include results on your resume, you see results in your job search!

Learn How to Write a Stellar Resume

Updating your resume not only helps you stay prepared for the unexpected, but it also gives you a sense of achievement, rejuvenates you, and helps you brainstorm future work opportunities and projects.

To learn how to improve your resume and get more interviews, register for the on-demand program Resumes That Get You the Interview: Surprising Secrets to Getting Your Resume Noticed. In this program I teach you how to properly word your accomplishments in a way that grabs the reader’s attention. I also provide some of the best resume advice you’ve heard in 20 years!

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Look Out! Here Comes a Truth Bomb About Your Resume

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Life can often be mundane, causing you to feel stuck. Especially when you aren’t living and working in your purpose. So how can you become more passionate about your life and your work? How can you better enjoy both? By following these 8 simple life and career hacks:

1. Try again at a previously failed attempt.

Most people will suggest you try something new and I’m all for that. I’m a big believer in trying new things, whether it’s new food, a new hobby, or even something as simple as a new route to work.

But I also know it’s important to try something old. Especially something you once attempted and failed at before.

You may remember from my article 5 Ways to Discover New Passions, I shared how I failed at my first attempt at rock climbing and how something clicked after giving it a second chance. This gave me more confidence and a greater interest in the activity, resulting in physical improvement in my body.

What’s something you can try again? What would be the possible benefits of trying it again?

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, 5 Ways to Pursue Your Passions in Life and Work: How to Overcome Obstacles + Achieve Job Search Success

2. Do one thing you can complete within 24-48 hours that will put you one step closer to achieving a long-term goal.

You can accomplish a large goal by taking a step-by-step approach. Incremental steps add up to big achievements. Simply doing one small thing each day will help you develop habits necessary to reaching your goal.

What’s one thing you can do today to get you closer to achieving your bigger goal? What’s one thing you can do tomorrow? Ask yourself these questions every day. Before you know it, you’ll have accomplished more than you thought you were capable of!

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, Don’t Just Set Goals, ACHIEVE Them! 8-Step Goal-Achievement Plan

3. Understand how your strengths and skills benefit others.

Knowledge of what you’re good at is power, especially when trying to win a job interview or get promoted. But knowing how your skills solve other people’s problems helps you better understand your purpose, not just in work but also in life.

Think about your strengths and skills you possess both within and outside of your job. How do they benefit others?

For example, my top spiritual gift is encouragement. I use this strength in so many aspects of my life, including my work, my interactions with friends, and when learning alongside others. I’ve been fortunate to see how this gift helps people gain the courage to pursue their passions.

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, Personal Branding: How to Know What Makes You YOUnique and AWEthentic!

4. Update your resume every 6 months, even when you’re not looking for a job.

Because of my background as a career coach, I’ve helped thousands of people with their resumes. I always tell them the same thing: keep your resume updated every six months.

Why? 1) Because you never know when someone will ask for a copy of it. 2) You never know when another career opportunity or promotion will come your way. 3) It’s easier to remember what you’ve accomplished in the past six months than in the past six years if you find yourself in another job search down the road.

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, Resumes That Get You the Interview: Surprising Secrets to Getting Your Resume Noticed

5. Ask 3 people who have your dream job how they got to where they are.

These conversations can open your mind up to ideas and opportunities you never before considered! Listen carefully to their stories while asking a lot of good questions. Learn not just from their successes but also from their failures.

You may find there wasn’t a straight line to their career path. There rarely is for most people. This can give you confidence to pursue a new career path despite lack of formal education or direct experience.

Take their encouragement and advice. Put it into action to see how far you can go in the direction of your personal and professional pursuits.

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, The Secret to Successful Networking: How to Do It Naturally and Effectively

6. Make a list of questions you’d ask if you were interviewing the interviewer.

People often forget the job interview is a two-way street. You should always ask questions to help you make the right decision when faced with multiple offers.

Besides money, think about the things you’d need or want in your next job. They could include similar core values, a flexible schedule, a culture that promotes “family first,” healthy living, etc.

Formulate a few questions you’d need to ask to determine if your next opportunity will provide those things. Make sure to ask these questions in your next job interview, along with the other type of questions I outline in my blog post “A Proven Interview Hack.”

Here’s what one of my clients experienced when she did this:

“One of the companies I interviewed with I decided not to accept any offers from them based on their answers to my questions so as not to get myself into the same work situation I was in previously. It is SO empowering to know what is good for me and to be able to say no! I have the tools now to spot the red flags and this has been helpful on several interviews. I am so glad to have this confidence.”

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, Steps to Acing the Interview and Reducing Your Interview Anxiety

7. Start a collection of your best work.

Curate a collection of your best work both from your job and your outside projects. This can include personal things you’ve made (i.e. a book, a painting, etc.), and the projects your most proud of from your job.

Your body of work will help you see how your skills overlap. But most of all, it will reveal your own career path thus far and where it might be pointing to next.

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, The 3 Super Powers of Successful Job Seekers: How to Stand Out Above Your Competition

8. List the ways you’ve impacted the bottom line in your job.

When you’re working on hack #4, always include your on-the-job accomplishments and results of your efforts. By focusing on results and not just your job duties, you’re able to easily see where you’ve had an impact, giving you a greater sense of purpose.

Also, it helps you confidently discuss your worth when it comes time to negotiate a new job offer, a promotion, or a pay raise.

Source: paNASH’s on-demand program, Make More Money, Without Taking a Second Job

When you follow these life and career hacks, you’ll start to see ways to become unstuck. Soon you’ll be living a more passionate, vibrant, and productive life!

Related Posts:

• How to Make Money, Stay Fit, and Be Creative: Combine Your Passions
• How to Keep Yourself Focused on Your Goals

“Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?” This is a common job interview question, but it’s also one you should ask yourself. Even if you’re not currently interviewing for a new job. Why? Because in five to ten years (or less), you may be interviewing for a new job after having been replaced by artificial intelligence in your current job.

Think it can’t happen to you? The phenomenon of “technological unemployment” is happening at a much faster rate than in the previous century. Corey Koehler of SideHustleX discusses the ramifications of technological unemployment and how it will impact the future of work:

The Future Of Work: Something Called Technological Unemployment

The Future of Technological Unemployment

Unlike in the previous century, robots aren’t just stealing factory jobs. They’re stealing jobs at various levels in almost every industry, including the legal and medical fields. Eventually, robots will even replace doctors and lawyers! Can you imagine it? You better, because your job could be next.

What will you do then?

Will you panic? Or will you prepare?

Will you make yourself adaptable and marketable for the new human jobs that don’t yet exist? Will you know how to market yourself in a modern job market? And will you know how to create your own job and be your own boss if reality requires it?

There’s Good News

Now this all sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but with every wave of robot-stealing-jobs comes another wave of newly created jobs for humans. The people most likely to be hired for the jobs that don’t yet exist will be the ones who are the most proactive in their career planning.

Therefore, career coaching is so important. It’s not just for the currently unemployed, but also for the employed (for now) folks. It’s why I’ve created paNASH’s new coaching track:  the Career Growth Track.

This track includes:

• Successful on-boarding in your new job/role/business
• Preparation for promotion and advancement opportunities
• Transition planning
• Establishing yourself as an industry expert
• Staying relevant in your industry
• Methods for asking for a pay raise or increasing your rates
• “Fire”-proofing yourself
• Maintaining joy and challenge in your career
• Creating your own opportunities
  

How to Stay Relevant

Career coaching has always been important, but it looks different today. No longer is it just about helping you find a job or helping you progress in your career. It’s also about helping you be creative and be open to unexpected opportunities, including possibly working for yourself. It’s about helping you recognize where your various past experience is leading you next into an ever-changing world. And how to connect the dots from your past experience to new work that’s yet to be created. It’s the only way to stay relevant in the job market of the future.

To learn more about paNASH’s new Career Growth Track, email your questions to me at lorib@yourpassioninlife.com.

Related Post:

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur (Even When You’re Not One)

Increase Your Income

The number one way to increase your income is to provide proof of your work accomplishments. By detailing how you’ve impacted your company’s bottom line, you are more likely to increase your income in one of the following ways:

• Get hired for a higher-paying job at another company (if you are currently conducting a job search).
• Be promoted to a higher-paying position within your current company.
• Receive a pay raise for your current job.
• Avoid a possible layoff.

Accomplishments Are King

In a recent post on The Daily Positive entitled “What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Job Loss,” I said accomplishments are king in the job search. This is because a resume without accomplishments is guaranteed to end up in the trash. But, accomplishments are king throughout your entire career, not just in the job search, especially if you are trying to achieve one of the above results.

So what do I mean by “accomplishments are king”? Your resume, performance review, and LinkedIn profile should never read like a job description. Instead, these credentials should show what you did that no one before you in that position and no one after you can duplicate. They should include specifically how you made a difference in your job. Examples of accomplishments include:

• Ways you made the company money and/or increased revenue or profit.
• Ways you saved the company money or decreased spending.
• Ways you saved the company time or man hours.
• Ways you increased efficiency or made a process easier.
• Ways you increased customer satisfaction or decreased customer complaints.
• Ways you met deadlines ahead of schedule.
• Ways you came in under budget.
• Ways you improved staff morale.
• Ways you discovered a potential problem no one else saw and corrected it.
• Other examples you can think of.

Quantify It!

Once you brainstorm a list of your own accomplishments, you want to go back and quantify what you’ve done by including dollar amounts, percentages, etc. It’s okay if you have to approximate the numbers or if you have to go back and ask your supervisor what those numbers might be.

Often times when I advise my clients on doing this, I get some push-back. They’ll say something like:

• “Well, I really didn’t do anything important.”
• “I wasn’t trying to get the glory, I just did my job.”
• “I’m not in sales so I didn’t make the company any money.”
• “I don’t remember what those numbers are.”/”I have no way of finding out what those numbers are.”

Now is not the time to make excuses, especially if your job or salary is on the line. Everyone is unique and everyone solves problems and does their job uniquely. Therefore, you have accomplishments to show your contribution to the company.

You may have to do a little research and reach out to people from your work history, but it’s well worth it when you can prove why you deserve a job offer, promotion, or pay raise. It can even save your current job from possible downsizing if you can show just how big of a loss it will be to the company if they let you go.

Everyone Can Do This

Obviously, someone with more experience is going to have more examples to list, but even someone with very little experience can do this. For example, when I used to work with college students, a student came to me for help with his resume. The previous summer he was hired to deconstruct an old barn. He said, “Ms. Bumgarner, all I did was tear down a barn. How in the world can I make that sound good on a resume?!” After working with him, here’s what he came up with:

• Worked alone for long hours in extreme heat to deconstruct large barn, calculating the best way to disassemble it without causing costly damage to adjacent structures.
• Saved $1,500 by reusing board to create additional shelter.
• Made a profit of $500 by reselling remaining usable metal to salvage yard.
• Properly disposed of other materials that might harm the environment.

Display Your Accomplishments

Once you have brainstormed a list of your accomplishments, you want to include select ones on your resume under the appropriate job, several of them in your LinkedIn profile, and all of them on a separate document entitled “Accomplishments & Contributions” or “Competitive Advantages.” This separate document will serve either as an addendum to your resume for a job application, or as a stand-alone document for when you go in for a performance review or to ask for a pay raise. It should be formatted neatly, and it can simply be a bulleted list of all your accomplishments (no need to indicate in which job you performed these accomplishments).

Accomplishments ⇒ Confidence ⇒ Increased Income

When you perform this exercise, something magical will happen:  your confidence will soar! It is such a confidence booster to see on paper all you’ve achieved in your career. This confidence will also be noticeable when you go in to a job interview or a performance review, therefore increasing your likelihood of getting what you want. You’ll be able to tell the details of how you achieved such results, which is what employers want to hear!

Most people need help with brainstorming ideas or with the final wording of their list of accomplishments, and that’s what I’m here for. If you need help with making these necessary updates to your resume or LinkedIn profile, contact me so we can begin working on that. You need to be ready for when that promotion or job opening comes up. Don’t wait until it’s too late!

What’s your worth? My first year out of grad school, I worked at an institution where my male counterparts got paid A LOT more money for a lot less responsibility than me. I also once worked in an industry where I was often told, “Oh, we can’t pay you for your expertise, but this project will give you great exposure.”

HOLD UP! Am I the only one who sees there’s something clearly wrong with these scenarios? The second scenario mentioned will sound familiar to a lot of people here in Nashville, but it’s one that’s (at least in its particular industry) rarely questioned or challenged.

Know Your Worth

If you work hard and do a good job, shouldn’t you get paid for it??? My grandmother believed so. She was the hardest working person I ever knew. Here’s her story, and how she serves as an encouragement to stand up for your worth. I hope that both men and women will learn from her example and teach their children her example as well:

Know Your Worth And Close The Wage Gap

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