Bioblogs : Resumes for the 21st Century

by Smith, Michael Holley

• ISBN13: 9780061130397
• ISBN10: 0061130397
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Way too often, job seekers focus on what they have done in the past while employers are looking for what they can provide in the future. Here, in BIOBLOGS, noted resume expert Michael Holley Smith shows job seekers how to create a revolutionary, effective, and visually stunning resume that connects the resume writer's creativity and talents to the needs of employers. Illustrated with examples.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(4)
Selfwork	5	(12)
Out With the Old, in with the New	17	(14)
Creating A Bioblog	31	(12)
The Bioblog Gallery	43	(106)
How to Build a Bioblog	149

Excerpts

Bioblogs
Resumes for the 21st Century

Chapter One

Selfwork

You are who you are. Let's begin our conversation with that undeniable and subtle given; from there we can go on to examine the business of your creative character and what it does for or against you in your work. To accomplish this, we'll review the common links connecting the various aspects of your personality, as well as how effectively they meld in the work "place” (a psychological and social briar patch).

Before we begin, let's also take a moment to establish some essential guiding principles to keep in mind as we investigate and improvise. With regard to your individual character and how well it can succeed at work:

You will do your most notable work when you engage your best character traits.

Your best traits will determine how well you will fit in a company's culture and its levels of expectations for your performance.

Your success in becoming integrated into the company's stated mission will determine how well you can promote your character's particular strengths.

Your ability to promote the becoming you is contingent upon how well you can maintain a realistic, though subjective, sense of self-measurement over time.

Your successful self-promotion must be confirmed through a company's public recognition/rewards, beginning with authentication by coworkers and peers.

First things first, however, because if you are not already inside a company that is worth all this energy and effort, you must persuade the gatekeepers to a different company to open its door and let you in—at least for a look-see. This is the sole reason why we need to utilize the new art form of bioblogs—to be noticed in order to take further action, to move beyond the initial "cold call" threshold, where you're on the outside, and into the dynamics of the "personal interview," where the rubber meets the road in face-to-face traction and engagement.

The immediate task is to recognize and act on the basis that the most valuable qualities you can possibly offer an employer are those that apply to the widest range of workplace environments: i.e., the adaptable but true qualities of your creative character.

For us to determine precisely what this means from the perspective of a potential employer, which is an important first step, let's delve into some of the most obvious facets of "creative character for hire at work" and how the employer sees it.

In simplified terms, any employer that is seeking a qualified worker needs the most direct and unadorned answer to, Do you know what you want and how we fit in this picture? The answer to this question will tell the employer a lot from the start, and part of the professional interviewer's biggest challenge is to distill this difficult, complex issue into an answerable query. What the HR representative will want to know next is, What kind of person are you?

So the employer wants to know right up front: Do you know what you want?

Then it wants to learn if you have figured out whether the company can offer it to you.

Then the employer needs to know if you are the kind of person who can fit in the company culture.

Next comes, Are you this company's kind of person? This is the focal point from then on, and once this loaded question is transformed into a satisfactorily known quantity, the next layer of questions will be to reveal, What can we do with this person's creative character? In other words, if it discerns measurable values in your creative characteristics, it can look beyond the narrow focus of a particular title or work classification to see if there is another area in which you might be more useful; and once it manages this quandary, the rest will be a basic matter of metrics: How much do you want from us?

This is a streamlined version of the elaborate labyrinths through which employers lead candidates, sometimes sensibly and at other times incomprehensibly, even to them. A million different employers may employ thousands of different styles in approaching their particular candidates. For example, as an extreme view, Hewlett Packard's strategy for weeding out applicants is a far cry from the ploys and techniques used by franchises, such as Burger King, or retail stores, such as Dollar General. One size doesn't fit all, except in the sense that strong character traits—such as persistence, honesty, dedication, reliability, focus on the job, desire to do the best work, ability to make decisions independently—are welcomed universally, and are naturally going to be more desirable and more readily rewarded by a manager or supervisor.

The difference begins with the first impression, be it e-mail or snail mail or instant messaging or job posting or web portfolio or any other form. The potential employer's first look at your self-presentation can make or break you. There are no second chances if you fail on the first cut. An applicant who shows up wearing his gimme cap backward is unlikely to receive the same reaction as one who wears a dress shirt and tie; it merely reflects a willingness to put forth an effort to become a viable representative for the company. The message delivered is "I can make you proud and happy" rather than "I'm here to kill hours and get a paycheck."

A bioblog is the best new way to create a good first impression with a prospective employer by conveying powerful images and impressions of your creative capabilities and unique character.

According to Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, a major shift is taking place in global business: "The scales are tilting toward right-hemisphere abilities: artistry, empathy and synthesis rather than analysis." And the three forces that are driving this shift are an abundance of consumer goods (leading people to seek both meaning and function from products); outsourcing to Asia (labor flowing to cheaper production); and automation of routine work. What's left requires . . .

Bioblogs
Resumes for the 21st Century. Copyright © by Michael Holley Smith. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Bioblogs: Resumes for the 21st Century by Michael Holley Smith
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.