iPad Job Search Tips | Take You With You (Part 2)

In Part 1 of Take You With You, I opined about ditching the paper resume and bringing it with you inside of your iPad.  It is an engaging way to change the interview from the back and forth volley of a Q&A to a more tactile and interactive conversation.

But let’s not limit it to the resume – why not take all of you (at least the professional you) into the room.

The following program is brought to in living color

Portfolios, sample work product and other “leave-behinds” have been strewn across the desks of interviewers infinitas infinitio.  However, digital and “moving pictures” were not so easy to display (unless you had your own 3DBB). Stopping an interview in its tracks by setting up a projector (and littering the room with the vibe of a stale drive-in movie hot dog) was not a good idea. 

But in the tablet era – you are able to bring those nice bright colors of your life to life without jarring the interview off the rails.

Phrasing in tribute of Dick Clark’s recent passing, let me describe to you the things you would find on my iPad during an interview:

• A picture (shown to the left) of a project network diagramming session
• A series of pictures from a field study I conducted with a client for a Service Cloud implementation for their field service techs
• A diagram about governance and Salesforce.com (to illustrate the importance of the product manager mindset that you need to adopt with your social enterprise tools).
• The books I am reading (great conversation starter)
• A Home screen bookmark to this blog as well as other Apps that are a fit for that interview (e.g. The Chatter app or CloudOn).
• Pictures of the Big Boot (yes – I have worked it into an interview answer)

Of course – if you have access to “the interwebs” – you can show even more of your work.   Heck -  I can even show you my personal Facebook site (without giving you my password).

Never do I want to hear another word…show me

Whatever it is that makes you a most valuable candidate to a potential employer – show them.  Online, offline or how you drive results to the bottom line – bring all of that with you to the interview to help “digitally enhance” the picture of you that create in the interview.

Up next, in the final chapter of the “Take You With You” trilogy, I mention some “safety tips” when bringing your iPad to an interview (i.e. pants on, ethics and Lady Ga-Ga).

 

Related and not so related links:
iPad Job Search Tips
All of Me (Billie Holiday)
NBC Network ID (1968)
Tennessee Tuxedo - The Bridge Builders
It’s Time for a tasty and refreshing snack (Drive in Move Intermission film)
Kodachrome (Paul Simon)
Salesforce.com explains the Social Enterprise (Forbes)
Best Winner’s Circle Ever (25,000 Pyramid Billy Crystal)
Show Me (Audrey Hepburn)

iPad Job Search Tips | Take You With You (Part 1)

As you’ll hear here – and on the likes of 60 Minutes - the hardcopy resume is swimming towards the top of the dead pool.  It is on the same trajectory as the Blackberry: stolid corporations still love it - but consumers and progressive companies loathe it. 

But until the world catches up  – you still need to have a resume along with all your social media derivations (at least a Linked In Profile for  professionals – other sites depending on your industry and job). 

But now is the time for you to show the world – and your perspective employer – that you’re ahead of the curve.  You need to show them you’re not doing your homework on the back of a shovel with Honest Abe and that you are relevant in the digital and social age.

It’s a thousand pages give or take a few

Earlier this year, on my trek along the job search process, I decided to go paperless and also green.  For certain interviews, I printed zero copies of my resume and simply loaded a PDF of it onto my iPad. 

As often happens, a number of interviewers would come to the meeting empty handed and ask, “do you have a copy of your resume”?

With one tap of the Home button, I closed whatever app I was using to take notes, opened my Kindle for iPad (with my resume already loaded), and flipped the iPad around and handed it to them and said, “here you go”.  

Better still – you can click to your Linked In profile and show them a recommendation that underlines a point you had just been making in the interview.   At that point – like the iPad itself, the interview becomes interactive and tactile.  You can show them you are relevant online by showing them you online.

 

Epilogue: Let’s make this clear about these posts on the iPad and job searching:  You do not need an iPad to get a job.  If there is any reason that cash is king for you and your family, then be smart.  But if it makes sense for you – and is a differentiator in your industry - it’s another tool in the bag.  In other words, have style. There are always other ways to demonstrate your prowess during an interview.

Further – we all know results vary.  Make sure you know the person on the other end of the table will appreciate this tactic (“you never open your mouth until you know what the shot is”). 

 

Related and not so related links:
iPad Job Search Tips | Every Move a Picture (3Minus3)
3Minus3 Facebook site
”The resume will become an obsolete tool” (Trapped in Unemployment-60 Minutes)
”Style ain't the jeep U bought when U know your broke ass got bills” (Prince)
Paperback Writer (The Beatles)

20 Job Search Answers You Need To Know | #6 What should be in a resume?

A: Why what you did mattered. 
Note: The judges would also have accepted smart and get stuff done to advance to the bonus round of our game.

Here’s a few of my favorite rants on the topics covering questions I have answered over the years when in comes to resumes:

1. Don’t make me guess what you did

The first rule of a resume is to not make it an Easter Egg hunt for the hiring manager. As a hiring manger, I don’t want to do the math for you. If you are applying (for example) for a project management job, it might be nice if one or both of those words would appear on the front page of your resume (even better if they were side by side at least once). If I can’t tell why you’re qualified for the job in the first ten seconds, I am not going to take even another single second to try and figure it out.  Game over.

That’s why (in addition to the cover letter – since they often get separated) a career or skills summary atop the resume is usually a good idea (and helps set the stage for the rest of your resume). From the first paragraph, the hiring manager should have a mental picture in their head of who you are and what makes you special (and hopefully that does not involve orange hair and big, red floppy shoes).

2. Your Objective is less important to me

One of the most (misguided) resume debates is: Should I have an Objective on my resume? Yes – but we already covered that. Your object is to get an interview. Putting that on a resume would be tacky. This stolid vestigial resume remnant has no place in a post-Eisenhower world.

If you start your resume with (something like) I am looking for a management position where I can effectively utilize my expertise in human resources and project management, and staff recruitment and retention I would say to you go start your own company.

3. Smart and get stuff done

I sound like a broken record on this point. I first nicked smart and get stuff done from Joel On Software for 5 Traits of a Virtuoso BA | Trait #2: Smart, Get Stuff Done.  Again -smart is great. Always hire smart. But I need to be able to see that you can get stuff done or you’ll just frustrate the bejesus out of everyone else (including me).

4. Don’t make me guess why I should give a rip about what you did

I know you spent the last two years of your life working on the MYPPS project (which was a replacement for DITT³ platform). However – with just that description, I don’t know if you developed the next generation ERP platform, the everlasting gobstopper or you’ve just come down with a new-fangled STD.

I know everyone else in Morning Glow, Texas knows that BBSCo is the town’s biggest employer [okay – I made up the company name but the town is real] – but the 308 Million other people in the US (including me) have never heard of it.  So explain what you did (and what the company you did it at did).

Further – I don’t want your job description or a list of your daily tasks (since that’s kind of the same).  I want metrics (and juicy ones at that). 

Resume metrics sound like this:

• I increased sales of x% in a $x revenue company
• Achieved inventory reduction goal of x% in the first three months resulting in $xx,xxx,xxx in additional available cash flow
• Automated billing process resulting in reduction of x FTEs year over year resulting in a saving of $xxx,xxx annually
• Reduced employee attrition by x% in a xx,xxxx employee firm by giving everyone free pop-tarts on their birthday

Not only do these pop out of the resume – they also are great hooks for you during the interview (should you hopefully get that far).

But be careful. You’ll need to answer for the numbers and exaggerated delusions of grandeur that you used:

• If sales did increase 10% - you need to explain what you did to make it happen (and did you sustain it).
• If you use precise figures (e.g. reduced annual operating budget by $2,094.21) – be prepared to show your math, Professor.

5. Words matter

I saved this for last – because a lot of people think I whine to much about this. And yes – content matters over style. But I think your resume should have power verbs lightly sprinkled throughout.

But lighten up Francis – don’t go crazy and use 348 of them in one resume (as to make you sound stilted and stolid). But done with moderation and without repetition – it can add some muscle to the page.

On the flip side, avoid passive words/phrases like acted as (where you in a play?) and participated in (did you get coffee for the group that did the actual work?).

Up Next: What is the purpose of the interview?

Disclaimer: As with all job search advice you receive (from here or elsewhere), results may vary – use at your own risk. You must be the captain of your own career. The last thing I say to all my career coach clients is “ignore what you want, use what make sense to you – and if something works for you – pass it on”.