One client, upon receipt of her resume, wanted to forgo the revision process, wanted a partial refund, and asked to “end this relationship” with no further explanation. Wow.

Another resume client refused to do career counseling despite her being completely at a loss for where to go next.

One job-seeker sent us a list of demands and concerns a mile long, and hadn’t even placed an order yet!

A valued former client threatened to stop making referrals if we didn’t get her in our already tight project queue.

Sheesh.

It’s enough to make a business owner want to throw in the towel and go pick Pink Lady apples for a living. What’s going on? Let me make sure we’re doing our job right, here.

Is it our product?

We’ve put together the most talented resume team out there; Seriously, our writers are word wizards; they’ve won awards; they’re nationally certified, even multi-credentialed with certifications, degrees, and relevant career paths. More than that, they take the whole client into account to design a personalized document that addresses every single stated challenge and concern. People would be amazed at how much thought we put into a 1-3 page document.

Is it our process?

We have the most comprehensive information gathering process I’ve seen, comprised of an hour of coaching/consulting and a very well crafted questionnaire to both help clients generate resume content and prepare them for their interview process.

What about customer service?

We’re responsive as all get-out. When I can’t answer the phone personally, our administrative manager certainly does, if only to get back to customers with a real live voice to say “we’re super busy, how can I help”.

Maybe we’re slacking on followup?

Our infrastructure is technologically rich, making it possible to track projects through every step and get back to existing clients immediately to address their needs. At any given time, 3 people are paying attention to a single client.

Am I ranting?

That’s not the goal here (well, not the primary goal). The point is we’re doing all we can to keep customers happy. We’re staying relatively small, offering a high-touch service, and bringing clients into the process all along the way. Put another way, we’ve set up a system to control our extensive resume development process so that nothing and nobody gets overlooked or under-serviced.

But I guess there is one thing that we can’t control:

The economy.

In following up with all of the aforementioned aggrieved clients, this what they had to say

“Things are tight right now.”
“I was really counting on this resume to change everything.”
“I just don’t have the money.”
“It’s hard to justify paying for anything.”
“I need help now, not in a month.”
“No one will hire me no matter what I do.”

The pain is real and it flows amongst anyone involved in the job search process, directly or indirectly. I suppose I need to buck up with my self-absorbed complaints of “difficult months” and instead relish the fact that I’m employed and in a position to help. And although my intentions with BrightSide are honest, simply offering or even successfully delivering, such help may not be enough to make the pain disappear.

Only getting a job can do that.

If I’m truly open to criticism (which I try to be), it hurts a little. And I suppose we’re all hurting at least a little in this economy. If it’s not us, someone we know is out of work and not getting the recognition they deserve–sometimes for no other reason than there are just too many applicants for each job available.

After several months of non-response, anyone–even the most seasoned, well-established career professional–will get discouraged. It’s a lonely, frustrating feeling and it seems to be inextricably linked to looking for work.

At the base of the issue, it just hurts.

And I guess one way to offer support to anyone in this position is to hurt a little bit with them.

Ready to move onto the cloud, I decided to leave the old-school off-the-shelf style software of Sage’s benchmark product Act! and go for the hot new thing. The glorious SaaS alternative.

Little did I know I’d find a bizillion CRM (Customer Relationship Management software) options out there–and slowly become an expert in this game, at least from a buyer’s perspective. As someone who’s slogged through CRM blogs, played with countless demos, quizzed living, breathing sales reps, and naively shouted “Eureka! I finally found my CRM” at least 3 times in the wee hours of the morning… I figured it’s time for me to share the journey.

In this post, I’ll go over my experience with Salesforce, AddressTwo, HighRise, Oprius, WORKetc, Batchbook, Pipeline Deals, and Big Contacts–one of which became our CRM here at BrightSide Resumes.

BTW, all of these options, have their merits and are worth exploring; they just weren’t for me. Here’s a quick run-down of what I was looking for in a CRM:

• Contact-centric
• Reporting (standard and customizable)
• Keystroke shortcuts — I’m like an elephant; I hate mice
• Opportunities/Sales Pipeline Tracking
• Tags/Groups
• Email Dropbox
• Custom Field Options
• Integrated email
• Email Templates (frequent fliers)
• Automated Activity Series
• Lead Capture Tool

(If you haven’t made such a list and you’re serious about finding a good CRM, I suggest you break out the spreadsheet now. I put it off but it wasn’t until I was clear on my needs, that I found the right tool… sort of like finding the right career, but I digress….)

Back to the CRM race.

Salesforce
Might be good for megacorps but for a small outfit such as my resume business, it’s overkill. My biggest complaint: it’s not client-centric, it’s account-centric. My clients are my accounts so these extra steps of creating an account within a company to link to my contact who I’m trying to convert to a customer…. too much. I should add that the sales guy–who’d be a cool guy to have a Guinness with–couldn’t prove to me how this could work easily for an ultra-small business. His final retort: “rock the demo for a bit and see what you think.” A few mouseclicks later, I’m back online searching through forums.

AddressTwo
I thought I found the answer with these cats. Ultra simple 1-page interface, tons of templates, a cool integration with direct mailer postcard company, in-depth referral tracking system, , easy reporting, newsletter drip-feed option a la constant contact, social media considerations, google integration, even a cute feature called “Addy” your own virtual assistant who’s basically a drop-box email address with a cute name. Oh, and the company’s still so small, I got the CEO on the phone and he was great. Another cool thing: a feature where users (there were only 800 of them at this time) get to nominate feature requests and vote on them, watching the most popular ones rise to the top. Snazzy… that’s the kind of company-customer collaboration that’s making business fun these days.

So what went wrong?
What you see is what you get. No customization at all. For me there were fields I didn’t need that I couldn’t get rid of and there was no way to add fields that I definitely needed. I applaud AddressTwo’s commitment to simplicity where so many others have over-featured but in the end, this is why I didn’t hand them my credit card number. Also, there was no way to enter set products or services at a price; I did have the option to enter SIC codes for industry products however… but I didn’t need that.

So I reluctantly stepped away and kept looking.

HighRise
Talk about simple. Jason and the 37 signals people have got simple down to a science. I’m already hooked on their BaseCamp product which I use for project management. If you’ve been a customer with us, you know it rocks, and you know it’s easy to pick up.

HighRise is the same: rockin’ and easy to pick up quick. I think my favorite thing about HighRise is how darn gorgeous their UI is. Wow, it’s beautiful which means it wasn’t just fun to look at it was compelling to play with. I watched all the demos. They had the drop-box, a cool pipeline tracking option called “Deals” and even an easy place to put quick comments about a client. Again, I wanted to love this and buy it and integrate it with Basecamp…. WAIT A MINUTE… HighRise doesn’t integrate with it’s sister product, BaseCamp! Yes, you read that right. You’d have to enter contact info twice for each program, even though they’re by the same manufacturers. Search the forums and you’ll find 2 years worth of complaints related to this incompatibility issue.

I love 37 Signals for coming up with BaseCamp and I think these guys are some talented folks but they really made an oversight when they kept HighRise and BaseCamp separate.

There was also one other MAJOR issue. No reporting and no templates. No set reports and no option to build reports. Imagine having 2,000+ contacts but not being able to run a single report, except to look up a single contact by name. Frustrating to have so many great people/clients in one place and nothing to do with them.

I came back to HighRise (after looking at other CRMs in this list) at least 3 times. I wanted it to be the one but it just didn’t seem practical.

Oprius
This one was recommended to me by a fellow resume-writer and I can see why. A very comprehensive tool, cool company, and by far the cheapest option: $14.99/month with unlimited everything. Say what?!

Oprius’ steering committee seems like they’re having fun while remaining ethical about their practices–at least that’s what I glean from their “About Us” page. I was especially impressed with their “relationship builder” feature which enabled you to set up a series of activities according to the phase a propsect/client was in. You could also link these activity series to groups/tags. So, tag someone as “favorite client” and you can automatically send them emails thanking them profusely and set tasks in the internal calender to followup. This all happens behind the scenes. I also like how the UI sets you up to easily keep notes while you’re on a call.

The glitch in the matrix in this case: Again, no reporting. Ouch. Also, there was no email drop box and no link to Gmail or Outlook so you’d have to work exclusively through their email tool, and I’m willing to bet that their tool is not as strong (nor as frequently updated or inundated with add-on apps) as Gmail. Other shortcomings: no pipeline/sales tracking feature and no keyboard shortcuts. Out goes Oprius.

WORKetc
Wow, these guys have a genius idea: a single piece of software that serves as a CRM, SFA, and PM tool all in one. Strangely, this idea has not occured to anyone else so hats off to the WORKetc. peeps. For me, this was a bit too much software for my needs. The Project Management part was WAY too involved. I worked on their free intro for a while and was impressed with the responsiveness of support/sales. I like their vision but it was still a bit clunky for me.

I spoke with a very polite sales rep who tried to point out how much I’d spend on two or three pieces of software vs one. She didn’t have much to say when I pointed out that the cost of their system, while considerably less to begin with, would hike up with each user I add. And since I’d be using this as a Project Management tool (hey, that’s the point right, use this tool instead of BaseCamp?), I’d have to give access to all of our writers, editors, and admins. That’s 10+ people which means you ruin the all-in-one “deal.”

Batchbook
It’s no mistake that this company sounds a lot like Facebook. Their angle is social media. Quite innovative and pretty sexy. One thing I noticed in the video tutorial is you can actually monitor FB, Twitter, LinkedIn for use of keywords related to your product, so you can keep in close touch with people talking about your product/services. That’s genius! I expect more products like this to emerge and I can certainly see the value but some other key elements were missing–so I left this one alone.

Pipeline Deals
This was one of those screaming-at-3am-out-of-joy moments I mentioned. This is one hot application and at an unbeatable price for small business (aside from Oprius, that is). Pipeline Deals is about sales, sales, sales. Hence the name. They’re lead-tracking system is so darn intuitive it’s silly. They have a 3-tab system where the same information is organized in different ways to be able to use for different purposes. Again, I loved the leads tab, where you can look at all of your prospective clients, noted with color splashes whether they’re hot, warm, or cold. So simple and so easy to prioritize things at a glance. Then when you have a note to add or want to log some call information, make one mouseclick and you’re recording new data without even leaving the screen. I get a tingle just thinking about the Leads page.

Other cool stuff, the Rolodex type business cards that represent contacts, reporting up the wazoo, key shortcuts, groups/tages, dropbox, and most of all that robust, intuitive sales-tracking. Wow. These guys got it going on. Seriously, check them out.

So why weren’t they the winner for me?

There was no option for email campaigns using templates, autoresponders, etc. Since they had a drop-box you could easily record emails sent through gmail but I couldn’t set up a series of emails to go out, or even have a quick list of frequent fliers to choose from. Some quick research showed me that Gmail has the quicklist option. They call it “canned responses”. So that’s an alternative but I still couldn’t get an activity series to happen.

One other issue was they didn’t have an easy way to enter products/services. I’d have to manually enter a deal name, then enter a product name, then a price, and quantity, every single time I wanted to linke a client to a service. Not cool. Way more work than even an admin should do.

I seriously didn’t want to step away from these guys. I even waited on hold to get them on the phone and ask for work-arounds but the sales guy confirmed I’d have to do all that data entry. Not gonna happen.

BigContacts, Winner
Just when I thought I couldn’t go on anymore, I found BigContacts.

Big Contacts met every single one of my criteria listed above. It wasn’t the slickest looking app I toured but it had all the functionality. And it had it in spades. BigContacts is simple, in fact I find myself looking for other tabs to find information before I realize it’s all right there in front of me. The main tab is broken down into three areas:

• the left pane is a quick-access command center
• the middle panel is a”business card” with all the contacts vitals plus space for customized fields and comments
• the right panel is where all your tracking takes place (notes, email correspondence, record changes, and calendar

Let’s talk customization. Go to the Admin tab and become a master customizer in an hour tops. So easy, but again, not so pretty. I was quick to load up my products, define some client types, and develop lead-tracking labels. Very exciting. Then I added my administrative manager to the user list and picked up a unique drop-box number so we could send emails directly into contacts from gmail–this includes the attachments to those emails.

They have several reports already set up and you can build your own. I admit, I fretted over not being able to find a lead-tracking report already built. In fact, I was livid. How can I not be able to track prospective clients through the stages of my pipeline! That’s ridiculous. I’m in the support tab and I find nothing. Thinking of calling them when I find the “Sales Manager” button.

Genius. It’s not a report, it’s a window that sits on the 3-part UI I mentioned so you can look at leads according to what stage they’re in. click on the lead and go to the contact. Then click on the phone number and BigContacts automatically dials the number through Skype. Log the call or send an email and it’s recorded. My only complaint with the Sales Manager feature is that if you decide to send an email or leave a note, the Sales Manager window is replaced by the “Call” or “Email” window. So you have to open it again. I’d like to see this fixed but for now I’m cool with just clicking ctrl/shft/w to open up Sales Manager again.

Another awesome feature is the activity series you can set linked to different fields in your database. This way you can set up templates to fire off to clients and prospects at different intervals. I’m not crazy about spamming clients so I use this sparingly. I’m not looking to drip relentlessly on people; they either want to work with us or they don’t. Clients, however, I’m happy to stay in touch with and I believe that’s a reciprocal feeling.

I won’t go on and on about BigContacts (too late), but I will say the customer services has been great too. I’ve gotten quick responses to every email I’ve sent, including the ones related to my importing my contacts from Act! to BigContacts so I can finally say I’m in the cloud, baby.

I’m in the cloud.

-Cliff
CEO and Self-studied CRM expert for BrightSide Resumes

I can wear jeans, go barefoot, even have a little wine at 4:45pm on Friday while I tackle technical problems. No one’s watching. Carte blanche, baby!

So why I have I started wearing ties to work?

It started with my 3-year old. Whenever she dresses up, she demands I do too. At first I just threw on the tie to please her but then forgot to take it off, after dropping her off at daycare. Perhaps more accurately, I forgot I was wearing it at all. Resumes tend to put me in a trance (in a good way).

Ties can complete an outfit, they’re great to fidget with while listening to voicemails, and they give you respect points at lunch hour.

I’m kind of digging it…this tie thing.

Knot like normal,

-The Artist “Formally” Known as Cliff

I used to just go to a cafe and sit there. Sit and think and let my mind wander, like a flash flood filling up a dry river bed. Ideas pouring over rocks like glittery fish, tails flapping in vain to the forceful current. Silence soothed.

Now silence invites only thoughts about work: the price of loving your work and owning your work. I enjoy these thoughts but I fear becoming boring like a current swirling into an eddy. Nothing to see but spinning ripples around a hollow. That’ll put anyone to sleep.

So I read to find stillness, I play WordWhirl on my Palm Pre to silence the entreprenuer. Who needs yoga when you have gadgets? To be honest, writing resumes does the same thing…brings the stillness. Focus on one thing and one thing only for hours, like a water skiier concentrating only on his next turn, not the fish underneath nor the boat pulling him along.

You gotta start with the small stuff.

It took us 2 and a 1/2 hours to go 15 miles from the East bay to San Francisco. My compatriot, a 3 and a 1/2 year old with a bloodied index finger from a fall earlier that morning, was hardly herself–crying every 15 minutes and demanding ice cream for breakfast.

Parking was like a video game. Picture an aerial view of 100s of cars in a 12-block radius breaking traffic rules as they as they circle perimeter watching for brake lights and nonchalant people with keys coming out of their pockets. Rolling stop signs was the norm–how else would you get in front of the person who had the right of way?

Then the walk, 6 blocks, which isn’t much but you have to add in rest stops from carrying my compatriot on my shoulders, in addition to a backpack and the dried brush she collected along the way. Oh, and the ice cream break, gathering of water at the bodega, and homeless guy who harassed us for not stopping to chat (so we gullibly stopped to chat).

By the time I reached Golden Gate Park and discovered there weren’t any signs up designated which stage was which, I didn’t care that some of the best bluegrass in the world was at my fingertips. I nearly took off.

Glad I didn’t.

We found a patch of goodness right by the port-o-potties, on the outskirts of the crowd closing in on the Arrow Stage. Upon splashing down on the blanket, Evaline immediately took stock of her toys: 1 coloring book, 6 crayons (5 of them broken in half), 1 Cinderella doll, 1 squishy ball, a hair clip, a magic wand / drumstick, and (to join in the bluegrass properly) 1 wooden recorder, which she plays like a bugle.

She played the flute a bit, colored maybe a page or two and spent the rest of the time using her daddy as a jungle gym (when she wasn’t rocking out to the tunes in her gold cowboy boots!).

There were 5 or 6 stages so people around us kept moving in and out like the tide but we just stayed put, camped out by the toilets just in case, loving the sun, the hardcore-from-Texas-and-Mississippi bluegrass bands, and nothingness in front of and all around us for the next 6 hours.

Dancing and Prancing,

-Cliff

Some people are born-again virgins, I qualify as a born-again gym member. Back in college, when me and my roommate used to go, people literally laughed at us as we walked out the door in our cutoffs and trendy skater shoes. But we kept at it. I even took a weight training class senior year (a bit off the mark from my Lit degree but everyone needs balance in their life).

So about 2 weeks ago, we got a family membership. Now Evaline goes swimming with the other guppies, I can finally try karate and get back to soccer, and Molly and me can bond over the dumbells. So far, it’s working quite well. The pecs are coming back, as is that just-out-of-wrapper freshness.

Crazy though, 15 years later from my college days, I’m stilling playing back words of encouragement from my roommates: “sweet pain”…”extendahz baby”… “do it for Johnny!”. The ghosts of inspiration by my side, as I grunt to the beats of Alice in Chains on my iPod.

Keeping it Fresh,

-Cliff

Nestled in the urban delights of Oakland, is a plantation-like estate more akin to the humid flats of Savannah: the Dunsmuir house.

Built by none other than Alexander Dunsmuir in honor of his scandalous love for his friend’s wife, this house boasts 37 rooms, 12 fireplaces, and 16,224 square feet of living space. For 2 people. And their guests of course.

Unfortunately, Alexander died while on his New York City honeymoon with his betrothed and really never got a chance to live in his mansion/wedding present. Whatever, enough with the history lesson.

Tired of going to the usual parks and brunch spots, we set out for the Dunsmuir house one sunny Sunday afternoon. Molly found it in a travel book.

The meadows around the house were spotted with picknicking Bay Areans, in a sense, pretending to be billiionaires for the day–seeing as we all had a view of this mansion as a backdrop to our children’s cartwheels and hula-hooping.

Pretty cool. When it came time for the tour, I noticed something: The 12 folks around me, spanning in age from 5 to 65 and smiling, intently but leisurely as the period-costumed guide blathered on about pillar placement, were all women.

“Where are all the dudes?” I whispered to Molly.

“Guys don’t do antique houses,” she said.

So, while the other dads sat (or snoozed) out on their blankets, one hand on an open book, the other on absolutely nothing for a change, I amped up my knowledge base on 17th century cooking appliances and water closet technology (or lack thereof).

Certainly something new. and Interesting. I even asked some questions.

Jogging would surely contradict this worldview.

Ah well, it’s time…

I put on the closest thing I have to jogging shoes–Grey Saucony’s that used to be Navy Blue–before an impromptu inner tube ride in the Farmington River with my dad. Great arch support, wide enough to fit over my high instep. Like walking on clouds. Perfect.

I made it to the end of the block with a friend’s death metal band playing on my iPod. Suprisingly I wasn’t heaving. The traffic lights were a good excuse to take a few breaks before I made it to the lake.

9pm and the Lake was bustling with people: walkers, runners, strollers, gossipers. Happy hour for fitness peeps. The death metal–strangely optimistic in its lyrics–put me in the zone. My kick was high. I only had to stop about 10 times before I got around the entire lake. Pretty good, considering I’m coming from a strict diet of Wii Boxing and Yoga and maybe a few push-ups now and again.

Describing my jogging experience just ain’t going to be exciting so I’ll spare you the details and cut to the chase.

It was good. Some highlights?

• Listening to Eddie Veddar croon like a wolf while running through the playground I usually go to with my 3-year old.
• Stopping and breathing heavy on a bench, though I was sort of interrupting two necking love birds.
  Nodding to other joggers
• Hearing the sand crunch under my feet during the 2-second intervals between songs. Made me think of Chariots of Fire. Holy Sh*t. I’m jogging!
• Having random thoughts come in and out of my head and (best of all) having no thoughts at all.
• Feeling the “tickle drips” of sweat on my ears and neck.
• Not throwing up
• Running through a sprinkler 3 blocks from home
• Bragging about my jog to my wife with my back sticking to to the leather couch, and then guiltlessly watching a special on a man who lives with grizzly bears in his log cabin.

I don’t know if I can say I’m a jogger now, but I felt the burn and it was good. Might have to invest in some new shoes.

With calves aching,
-Cliff

Eagerly & Beaverily,
-Cliff

Recessions tend to push hardworking people into two groups. On the one hand is the layoff survivor handling the load of multiple former employees. On the other is the hyperqualified job seeker who nevertheless remains overlooked. Both types of people often need to write a new résumé, and neither can afford to do it the same way they might have in the previous millennium. Here are some tips:

Laid off? Tell the truth. Otherwise you risk the job-hopper label. And in fact, there’s no shame in being laid off. During downturns in the economy, organizations shrink, morph, or disappear. So include a one-liner that details the company’s cutbacks. That will keep the “blame” for your departure on your employer, not you. Give the percentage of people that were let go along with you; mention that your boss was laid off, too; brag about surviving previous rounds of downsizing. If appropriate, divulge that the company may have made a poor strategic decision.

Acquired? Clarify the gobbling order. It’s common nowadays for a company to have changed hands (and names) several times. For a single acquisition, state the current name of the organization with the name of the acquired firm in parentheses. This way, a potential employer can research your company without hitting dead-ends. For multiple acquisitions, lead in with a short paragraph that describes the evolution of the organization and how your position has fluctuated as a result. Remember, being retained through a series of restructurings implies that you’re deeply valued.

Overextended? Categorize your achievements. Hanging on after layoffs usually means that your workload has doubled or tripled—great for your career but often difficult to present on a résumé, because too many bullet points is the kiss of death. So include only the information that’s relevant to your career objective. Then, if necessary, use bold subheads under your official position title to delineate the different genres of your accomplishments. Consider alluding to increases in responsibility, noting when and why you were selected to handle mission-critical projects.

Stay on the BrightSide.

Interview Do’s

1) Visit the company’s website to get a sense of its products, services, and marketplace.

2) Spend at least an hour reviewing your portfolio, especially the pieces the hiring manager has asked you to bring (see above). Remind yourself of your contributions to the projects so that you can discuss them confidently.

Also, ensure that your work contains no errors (typographic, formatting, etc) that would reflect badly on your professionalism. Make notes about what you would improve about each piece, then use them when discussing its strengths and shortcomings. People who recognize suboptimal situations, take responsibility for the deficiencies of their work, and learn from their experience, are much more likely to be hired.

3) Make a list of questions you’d like answered at the interview (see our article, “Asking the Right Questions”), and bring this list with you. Candidates who don’t ask questions about the department, the company, their peers, their near- and longer-term responsibilities, the tools they’ll use, and so on, generally do not appear interested in the job and are seldom offered it.

4) If you’re interviewing for a position that leverages several of your demonstrated strengths and are confident that you both understand and possess the core skills to do the job, we recommend preparing a short verbal spiel that summarizes your accomplishments relative to (your understanding of) the job’s requirements. If you can — in no more than three minutes — tell an interviewer who you are, what you’ve done that’s relevant to what you think they need, and where you’d like to make a contribution, you’ve done their job for them. They’ll appreciate that!

Here’s the reason: most interviewers don’t scrutinize your resume before they meet you and don’t know what questions to ask. If you can ‘frame the discussion’ on your terms (without becoming pushy or arrogant), you’re almost certain not only to relieve their anxiety but to earn their gratitude and gain their trust.

All you need do — *once you feel you have a good understanding of the interviewer’s requirements* — is to offer to summarize your resume for them. How many people will say ‘no thanks, I’ve already got 30 minutes’ worth of questions for you’? Suddenly, you’ve got control of the interview. Now all you do is tell them:

a) what you imagine they need done and what kind of skills you believe the right candidate must have to succeed,
b) what you’ve done — and, just as importantly — what you hope to do (that’s relevant to their needs), and
c) emphasize your strengths and how complementary they are to (your understanding of) the company’s goals

If you can show passion, together with humility and calm self-confidence, the worst the interviewer will do is correct your understanding of the position’s requirements — giving you an opportunity to re-address them specifically. (Of course, if you are highly-judgmental and unalterably opinionated with regard to your skills being more valuable than the ones necessary for the job, it’ll be a very short interview….)

The danger of *not* framing the interview on your terms — that is, of ceding control of the interview — is that many interviewers are poor communicators and are anxious about evaluating your credentials. They therefore display the classic ‘fear what you do not understand’ response. Because they don’t understand your role or abilities and do not know how to find common ground, they’ll retreat, turn off their imaginations and any sense of empathy they might otherwise have felt, and start looking for the flaw that convinces them that *you don’t understand them* and are therefore unworthy to join their team.

Think about this for a moment — wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were interviewing?

Regardless of whether you take our advice and frame the interview to reflect well on your accomplishments, your job in the interview is to address your interviewers’ apprehension. In order to pass muster, you must help them understand what you can do to make them look good, and how you’ve succeeded in similar situations in the past. Anticipate their concerns so as to make it unnecessary for them to ask.

5) Get plenty of sleep before your interview. If an interviewer perceives that you’re inattentive, they won’t ask you why — they’ll just assume that you’re bored. For interviewers, perception is reality.

6) Bring at least two (2) clean copies of your resume, and arrive *early* to the interview. Some companies require you to fill out an application form before the interview, so be at least 10 minutes early. With most application forms, you needn’t answer all the company’s questions — just attach a copy of your resume, and fill in the missing information. If the application form asks for your salary history and you choose to omit that information, just write in “call” (or something similar) to indicate that you didn’t ignore the instructions but instead wish to discuss those details in confidence and after you’ve learned more about the position.

7) Dress up.

It’s seldom appropriate for women to wear heels and hose for anything but the first interview, but it’s worth proving that you can (at least once). In general, you won’t draw the wrong kind of attention to yourself if you wear conservative (and matching or complementary) colors, unprovocative styles, minimal makeup, and low heels. Interviews are the wrong place to make a fashion statement or demonstrate the ‘expressiveness’ of your wardrobe, so please leave the purple pantsuit with matching beret at home.

At the very least, men should wear a clean, unwrinkled, unlogo’d shirt with a collar, pants (not shorts or jeans) that have a discernible crease, and relatively well-cared-for leather shoes (not sandals, boots, or cross-trainers). For a first interview, a sports jacket and tie are entirely appropriate, but a three-piece suit is overkill.

If you need to keep your interviews a secret from your current employer or client, change clothes enroute to or from the interview. Hotels, banks, clothing stores, and even (selected) gas stations have rest- or changing rooms with mirrors so that you can transform your appearance as desired.

Engage your audience. Make steady eye contact, especially when you’re speaking. Uncross your legs and arms, and turn your body to face your interviewer. Smile. Show some passion — people trust passion. Pay close attention to what your interviewers say. Answer their questions *clearly and succinctly*, then ask if they’d like more information. Anticipate their concerns and address them concisely. Give examples that prove your points. Share personal opinions only when they’re relevant.

Even when your interviewer is entranced in a monologue, make it a dialog — volunteer evidence of your interest, understanding, sympathy, and experience. Interspersed comments such as “Boy, I’ve been there”, “That sounds really interesting,” “I’d love to be involved with that kind of a project,” or “I’m sure I could help improve that situation” usually leave the interviewer with a positive impression of your abilities and interests. Sometimes simply nodding and giving the occasional “uh-huh” is enough to show your enthusiasm and awareness.

9) Always ask questions that demonstrate your familiarity with and interest in the subject being discussed (see our article, “Asking the Right Questions). An interested but under-qualified candidate will be hired almost as readily as a qualified but passive one.

10) Ask your interviewers for their business cards. Even if you’re not sure you want to work there, send each interviewer email to thank them for their time and interest in your services, as well as for sharing their perspectives.

It’s a very small world, and you or your resume will likely cross these interviewers’ paths again. You can only improve your chances of being hired (now and in the future) if you show courtesy, interest, and enthusiasm.

Interview Don’ts

1) Don’t be late.

2) Don’t criticize former colleagues, employers, or clients. Badmouthing almost always backfires on the badmouther. At the very least, it proves that you can’t be trusted not to disparage your peers and managers in the future.

3) Don’t forget your portfolio. Unless this is a second- or third-round interview and you *know* you won’t be speaking with anyone you’ve not already met, don’t even think about showing up without past examples of your work. This rule does not apply to entry-level positions and professions that don’t foster portfolio growth, such as retail or administrative positions.

4) Don’t dress for failure. Show your prospective employer that you are willing to make an effort to impress — and that you know that appearances count. You’ll never lose points for being better dressed than your interviewer, especially on a first-round interview.

5) Don’t just sit there. Don’t yawn, look bored, or look at your watch. Don’t let your answers ramble or wander off topic. And don’t blame, judge, or let yourself become defensive.

6) If asked a question about an area in which you have experience, don’t change your opinion halfway through a response. It inspires infinitely more confidence in your skills if you disagree politely with the interviewer’s opinion. Reconsidering an answer, unless the interviewer changes the parameters of the question, will be taken as evidence that you lack authority and aren’t the expert they expected. (An added bonus is that you get to see how the interviewer deals with conflict.)

7) Don’t discuss money. Interviews are stressful — even when they go well — and the hiring manager’s job is to balance your potential contribution with the cost of your services. Most will ask you “what’s your rate?” or “what kind of salary are you looking for?” before you’ve had the chance to inform yourself about:

a) the value of the total compensation package — which for staff opportunities may include raises, bonuses (sign-on and performance-related), training, subsidized education, stock options, vacation time (and even sabbaticals), as well as insurance (medical, dental, vision, and so on) and retirement plans

b) the compensation available at similar companies for similar opportunities

c) your qualifications relative to other candidates the hiring manager has interviewed (which may or may not correlate with the hiring manager’s level of interest in those candidates)

Answering the “how much?” question with a specific number or too narrow a range will almost always work against you. Shoot high and the hiring manager may think you unrealistic and insatiable. Aim low and you’ll undermine your ability to negotiate more later on.

When asked about your expected compensation, try replying with one or more of the following:

a) “I really haven’t thought about it yet — the reason I was interested in the position is because of its location / responsibilities / industry. Now that I’ve met with you and your team, I’m even more interested, although money is certainly a factor. What do you think would be fair for someone with my experience and abilities?”

b) “I know the maximum rate/salary listed in the job description, and I know the compensation available from other companies to which I’ve applied (or with which I’ve interviewed), but I need to educate myself more completely about this opportunity and at least think about it overnight before I can give you an appropriate number.”

c) “Money’s not my only consideration, but maybe it’ll help you to know that I’ve been interviewing for positions in the range of $X to $Y. I think my skills are worth a lot more than I’m currently making to the right company, but I can be pragmatic if nonmonetary factors make an offer compelling.”

d) “Let me answer that by asking you a question: ‘If I were hired and then, later on, found out I was making too little or received an (unsolicited) offer from a similar company to do identical work, would I be granted a raise?’” Most hiring managers will answer ‘no’. Then you say, “I didn’t think so. And I’d hate for either of us to be in that situation — which is why it makes sense for me to do some more homework before I give you an answer.”

In summary, being asked for ‘your price’ always results in a high-stakes game of chicken. It’s a test of your character as well as of how well-prepared you are. You can keep your cool and respond sensibly, or you can lose it — either getting lost in self-doubt and selling out for too little, or getting lost in ego and appearing greedy.

A word of warning to those prone to the latter course: greed will almost always work against you — even if you’re hired, you’ll be resented. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that a company’s interest in making you an offer automatically means that it’s willing to pay you the maximum advertised price. Unless you are perfect for the job in every way possible, you’ll find that humility pays serious dividends.

Don’t let down your guard. It’s a bad idea to get too familiar with interviewers, even if “everything went really well” and you’re just chatting with your potential colleague or manager in the lobby, on the phone, or by email. Careless interviewees often lose jobs they wanted and for which they were well-qualified because they sent the company overconfident or otherwise upsetting signals — an arrogant remark, a typo-ridden note, a disparaging comment about a colleague, manager, or even a political figure, an intolerant opinion or bias, expletive-laced voicemail, inappropriate ad-hominem criticisms, or unreasonable compensation demands (see above).

Cancelling an Interview

You should do all you can to avoid cancelling an interview fewer than 24 hours before it is scheduled. The only acceptable exception is if you’ve *already accepted another position* and would therefore be wasting the other company’s time.

If you decide you’re not really interested in an opportunity less than a day before you’re due to interview for it, but aren’t yet formally committed to another company, we strongly suggest that you keep an open mind — and the appointment. A ’sure thing’ often does not come through as anticipated, and it never hurts to have alternatives — no one can have enough allies, and no one works anywhere forever.

Regardless, cancelling an interview at the last minute is often perceived as thoughtless and rude so, if you don’t want to burn your bridges, at least call or email the company to explain your situation. They’ll appreciate your courtesy and understanding that their time is valuable.

Here’s a great article with 5 tips to calm your nerves and make sure your first day sets the right tone.

I’m one myself–the world’s best in fact–and though I know my resumes are well worth the $1,000 people pay for them, I understand that my services are not for everyone.

I do agree that you should choose wisely when looking for a resume writers; they come from all walks of life, from word-processors to corporate recruiters to marketing pros to career counselors to (yes) novelists.

Whatever background your writer comes from, make sure they’re a good listener. One thing that’s often overlooked as a benefit of quality resume-writing services is the career coaching and interview prepping aspect of it.

As an ex-corporate recruiter and career counselor with master’s degree in counseling, I fold coaching into my entire resume development process, both in my in-person interviews and through my questionnaire.

It’s not just about a piece of paper.

One of my regular clients always tells me: “Cliff, you don’t sell resumes. You sell lack of aggravation.”

But again, my services aren’t for everyone. Some people prefer aggravation.

Stay on the BrightSide.

As a resume writer, I’ve examined several companies doing video resumes and even considered starting my own company but after a few interviews with HR folks and some introspection (having been a recruiter myself), I realized that the #1 thing that’s preventing these things from taking off is that they force the screener into a passive role.

Paper resumes reign supreme because the reader is in control. The look where they want. They stop reading when they want. They laugh when they want (or cry), depending on the candidate.

Videos–even 10 second videos–shovel information into the screener’s head, a largely unwanted transaction on the part of the screener since it puts the candidate in control.

Ask any seasoned resume reader out there about what they do when they’re looking through resumes, and they’ll say something akin to “read between the lines”. A savvy reviewer will look for what’s not written in the bullet points, or at least look for general patterns strewn across the resume. With videos, it’s impossible to get this 50-foot angle that tells the real story in its entirety.

For this reason, videos will never work. Even when the day comes where you can download a video faster than opening up an envelop or unfolding a nice piece of off-white 24-lb linen paper.

Sorry YouTubers. You’ll have to stick to hamsters on the piano.

Stay on the BrightSide.

The Brazen Careerist makes a compelling argument for hiring a pro, using the analogy of a haircut to drive her point home.

Here’s a piece from her peace of mind:
“Please stop telling me that resume writers are too expensive. Sometimes I hear prices from resume writers and I think, who would trust their resume in the hands of someone who is so cheap? You should be looking for an expensive resume writer. Your resume, more than most things you buy, can earn it’s costs back ten times over” ….[Read orginal article]“

San Francisco, CA — Cliff Flamer, résumé expert and career counselor, was just deemed The World’s Best Résumé Writer” after winning the public vote for the first-ever worldwide résumé-writing contest sponsored by Career Director’s International (CDI).

So what makes his résumés the world’s best?

“The story,” says Flamer, who’s been writing résumés since 2001 via BrightSide Résumés (www.brightsideresumes.com). “Every person has a unique story to tell—the twists and turns in their work history, the timing and pattern of their achievements, the emergence of new credentials, even the time off with their kids—it all comes through on the résumé. And when presented right, you create a compelling, real, and always flattering story.”

The contest was open to 14 countries but the majority of entrants came from the US as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland.

“We wanted to find out who the best résumé writer was,” says CDI President Laura DeCarlo, the mastermind behind the competition. “Not just among our members, not just among certified résumé writers, but across the entire English-speaking world. Who really is the best?”

Contestants were given a standardized candidate profile and matching fictional job listing from which to draft a targeted résumé. Their work was then judged by a cross-functional panel of human resources directors, organizational development consultants, senior recruiters, career association directors, job board founders, and a couple of senior résumé writers.

“There’s never been a contest like this before,” says DeCarlo. “This time the judges are actual résumé evaluators—the same discerning executives who’ve screened thousands of résumés to fill real-world jobs.”

Following a 2-month submission period, the panel selected the 3 most outstanding résumés in appearance, content, and strategy. These top 3 résumés were then posted anonymously online, inviting the general public to have the final say in the public-vote portion of the competition—much like the hit reality show, “American Idol”.

Over the next 2 weeks, votes poured in via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other online community forums and professional organizations. Flamer took a sizeable lead halfway through the competition and finished the race with a 60-point buffer. His artfully crafted résumé inspired blog comments that were unanimously in his favor:

“The only writer I’d consider hiring to write my résumé… the best to quickly skim and get the idea of what the person has accomplished…. by far the best…easy to read, succinct, and most notably [putting] the individual’s best foot forward…It had flow and easily allowed you to see accomplishments while giving you the option of reviewing them in more depth… hands-down the best!”

In addition to his trophy, certificate, and coveted logo (now posted proudly at his website), world-leading résumé writer, Cliff Flamer, treasures this unsolicited commentary, which seemed almost tailor-made to his victory.

“I’m honored to have been selected by such an elite panel of judges, but what better landmark for success than reading the unbiased praise from the very people who make up my client base. When it comes to résumés, I write for three people,” muses Flamer. “My client, the employer, and myself. Winning this competition means I’ve satisfied the needs of all three audiences.”

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Let’s start with the most common Resume question: Should the resume fit on 1 page or go to 2?

[Cliff Flamer] Ah yes…the eternal question. For recent grads to mid-level professionals I suggest 1 page. Also, career changers often benefit from a 1-pager; it helps them to avoid seeming overqualified with all the wrong qualifications. If you must go for 2 pages (and some recent grads certainly have the experience to warrant this), make sure page 1 is enough to sell you in itself. (Check out his post on this topic here)

What is your biggest resume pet-peeve?

[Cliff Flamer] Flowery language that doesn’t say anything. Here’s an example: Multifaceted business professional well-versed in developing influential relationships with key decision-makers integral to the inner workings of the prosperity of multi-million dollar organizations that…Blah blah blah. Even professional résumé writers turn out this kind of rigamarole. It may be impressive to English majors but not to hiring managers. (I’m an English major by the way.)

What is the biggest mistake you see on resumes?

[Cliff Flamer] Including generic job descriptions instead of quantified accomplishment statements. If you’ve read even one book on résumé writing, you’ve heard this before but it’s still where most people err. You’re unique, so too should be your résumé. The easiest way to accomplish this is to show the impact of what you do. In other words, what do you see happening as a result of your efforts. For example, anyone can Market products but how successful are YOU at doing this and what approach do YOU take?

With the millions of people applying for the few jobs that are out there, how can you make your resume stand out from the rest?

[Cliff Flamer] You’re going to hate the answer to this but…it depends. There is no silver bullet with résumés but following the above advice about accomplishment statements is a good beginning. That and a clean, sharp format. Never, never underestimate an easy-to-read format. White space is your friend.

A question that has come up a lot is, whether or not you should put your objective on your resume, and change for each position you apply to. Do you think you should?

[Cliff Flamer] I’ve definitely heard this one before. Personally, I think Objective Statements are outdated, just like serif fonts and aol accounts. That said, you absolutely must make 2 things crystal clear within the first 5-10 lines of the résumé:

-What job/industry/functional area of company are you shooting for; and
-Why are you qualified to do it

This can be handled in tons of ways, depending on what experience you have. For recent grads, you can start with your Education. For people currently doing the work they want to do in their next position, you can get right into experience, especially if the job titles match. For someone with a lot of experience or irrelevant recent experience, consider building an introductory section that highlights you relevant skills outside the context of the job you used them in. In Résumé Speak, this is called using a combination format; it’s by the far the most popular format of all professional résumé writers. The word “combination” refers to combining a lengthy skills summary with a subsequent (detailed) chronological work history.

With, a few years of actual experience out of college, how many jobs should you put on your resume (ie. highschool/college part time jobs)? How far back would you recommend going?

[Cliff Flamer] I just worked with a client today who has her Spelling Bee Championship from Middle School on her résumé. And you know what? It’s a darn good idea. As long as it’s not the centerpiece of her résumé (or education section), this award could serve as a hook in that your interviewers might want to “use it” to break the ice or start a “get to know you question.” The other benefit is by saying she was in the spelling bee, you can infer that she had a pretty good work ethic way way back. I mean, how many spelling bee renegades do you know?

The point of my story is go back as far as you need to to dig up relevant or interesting work experience. And don’t be shy about coming out and saying you did something in high school or during the summer before Freshman year of college. Give the accomplishment context so it’s clear you’re not trying to over inflate. Also, it’s always impressive to mention that you worked your way through college or held a part-time retail gig while in school.

In terms of the number of jobs you should put, I’d only limit the amount if you have tons of short-lived positions in your work history. Pick out the jobs you liked or that are most relevant to your new target job, being careful about leaving gaps of more than 6 months between positions.

What about job gaps? Would you recommend taking something small, in the meantime and if so should you include this on your resume?

[Cliff Flamer] The criteria for a job gap is changing. I think it’s okay to have “job gaps” of 3-6 months on your résumé. Honestly, that’s how long a job search can take! But once you’re out of school and out in the workforce, anything over 6 months and especially over a year needs to be addressed.

Again, take the direct route. I worked on a résumé a few days ago for an Operations Manager who took off about a year and a half handling family crises. During this time, she picked up a very simple office manager job (just a few hours here and there). Our solution to this “gap” was to be open and honest about why she took the cut in responsibility. Here is the exact quote from her résumé:

“Accepted temporary office position to keep skills polished while handling a string of family emergencies, offering ongoing support and counsel to each of the partners at this niche-market real estate firm.”

We went easy on the bullet points and just moved on to the next job. That way, we filled the gap and she still comes out smelling like roses. Seriously, who’s going to fault someone for continuing to work while taking care of their family?

What advice would you give to recent grads as they start their job search?

[Cliff Flamer] Create your own luck. Acknowledge the fact that even the best planned job search is no match for happenstance. I got a job at a community college career center from going to an Oakland As game. Make opportunities like this happen to you by getting out there in anyway you can: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook will hook you up online but also consider volunteering, attending a conference, emailing a book author, going to church, interviewing a friend of a friend….Build a space where opportunity can flourish.

Stay on the BrightSide.

An effective résumé for will balance your strengths (i.e. what you can teach) with your areas for growth (i.e. what you can learn). In regards to the latter, I’m certainly not suggesting you claim ignorance. Rather, consider showing a recently developed interest in a new industry or field.

This is best done by illustrating how you’ve already begun exploring said interest and uprgrading your skills related to this area. Some quick methods to achieve this are as follows:

• weekend or short-term certification course
• self-study (visit a bookstore)
• subscription to trade journals
• membership with a professional organization
• online group affiliations such as with LinkedIn
• internships or apprenticeships
• guided tours (say of an alternative energy plant).

By showing on your resume that you’re enthusiastic about injesting a new flavor of work/life, you’ll present yourself as a hungry, invigorated job candidate who’s not even close to peaking in her career.

Stay on the BrightSide.

Here’s a snippet from the article, and my subsequent retort as to why we should redefine the criteria for a job gap:

“Let’s say you left one job, and then had 3-6 months of down time before securing your next job. In this situation, your primary concern is that the employer will have a suspicion that you were fired from the previous position. The conventional logic is that good people get recruited to their next position; therefore they don’t have gaps in their work history.”

Before you’re scared into thinking you’re a “bad candidate”, let’s challenge the definition of a job gap by this author’s standards.

In my world as both a job seeker and career counselor, a time period of 3-6 months of unemployment should not be considered a job gap. Perhaps 10-15 years ago this was true when we could rely on our company to stick around for a while, give us a pension, promote us consistently, and send a turkey at Thanksgiving. But nowadays, so-called job gaps of 3-6 months are on everyone’s resume. And, quite frankly, they should be.

Job searches, even conducted by “good candidates” with the help of a seasoned career coach take 6 months or more. Especially when we’re waiting to find a job that actually fits us. Just because we’re not working for 3-6 months doesn’t mean we didn’t get any offers for work or that we didn’t get approached by enthusiastic recruiters.

In fact, an employer should look at 3-6 months of in-between time as a good thing–a sign that a job candidate has taken the time to reassess their goals and value offering to come up with the next step in their career. This is the type of employee that has staying power, one who will stick around….even if the company doesn’t reciprocate such loyalty.

That said, when your career moratorium exceeds a year, you probably have some explaining to do–explaining you can do on your resume and of course in the interview.

Let’s cut us all a break and admit that work is no longer a linear process where one job leads to the next in a logical and predictable sequence. We’re constantly having to reinvent ourselves, even if we’re staying with the same career. Again, this type of behavior should be applauded, not condemned. Introspective, patient, future-focused job candidates make the best employees but to foster these attributes in ourselves, we need some time between jobs, to do research, redo some self-assessments, network with new and old contacts, and complete formal and informal training.

Put another way, these job gaps that appear on our resumes are most often NOT OUR FAULT as employees, and yet we’re still put on the defensive in the interview to explain them. Perhaps hiring staff need our help in reminding them of this: Time off is not necessarily time squandered.

Stay on the BrightSide.