Appalling wage decreases and persistant gender gap

Apparently today is a day for sharing other people's great posts and thoughts: 

Economic Policy Institute (accompanied with the above graph) says: 

After gains in the 1980s and particularly in the 1990s, hourly wages for young college-educated men in 2000 were $22.75, but that dropped by almost a full dollar to $21.77 by 2010.  For young college-educated women, hourly wages fell from $19.38 to $18.43 over the same period.  Now,with unemployment expected to remain above 8% well into 2014, it will likely be many years before young college graduates — or any workers — see substantial wage growth.

And here's what Feministing has to say about it: 

The gender gap is still strong which one would hope despite a shift in the overal economy, wouldn’t be true given the change in women’s roles in the workplace–but it appears that they are being hit disproportionately  with lesser wages.

Furthermore, as someone who graduated college 10 years ago (eeek), I can probably count on one hand which of my contemporaries was able to buy a house, start a family (and not be struggling) or live a financially comfortable life. And something we all have in common is staggering student loans that impair our finances in disastrous ways.

If the situation has gotten more dire, we are looking at another generation of young people that are unable to provide for themselves, create families, buy houses or even have access to health care. What this says for the country in 50 years is nothing short of financial doom.

The system is broken and it seems to only be getting worse. Happy Monday.

Infographic Resume

On the interwebs there are myriad suggestions for improving your resume and staying current. I even wrote about it over here. But I remember a few years ago at work I was talking to a friend and colleague who had come across someone's resume that was in the form of a map. This person had worked all over the world and had a "pin" in each location with a blurb about what he did there and for how long. Obviously that's not your standard design.

I think doing a unique/out of the box resume is a big risk - you never know who is on the receiving end. Maybe it's a very old-school executive who finds your creative style unprofessional or maybe even offensive. But in the right circumstances, I think the risk can pay off.

I recently joined Brazen Careerist which is yet another networking site (similar to LinkedIn) but BC promotes the idea of a social resume and is a very fun site to play with. They recently launched an app (it's free!) that connects your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account to create an infographic resume for you. I love how it made my look at resume in a new light - it really pulls out the important bits and doesn't bog you down with boring language. Go make yours!!

Something else I like about BC is that they give you badges based on your accomplishments. Here are mine:

• 100%Smart Ass
• 100%Health Nut
• 100%Side Hustler
• 100%Debt Saver
• 100%You're Brazen
• 100%Positivity
• 100%Job Hopper

While trying to do a bit of research for this post, I came across people who had turned their facebook page into a resume, had used prezi to create an interactive resume, and who made their resume look a LIFE game board.

I think your profession really determines whether or not infographic or unique resume structures are appropriate but one day, I'd like to send off an infographic and see if it would get any positive responses.

September Unemployment Report

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend.

Mike and I have a friend who has just moved into a new home. He told us that he's been watching a lot of HGTV recently to learn all about home improvement. I've been a Food Network junkie for a pretty long time but I decided to see what this home-improvement hoopla was all about - and now I'm hooked. This past three-day weekend was like a do-it-yourself (or do it with really awesomely trained professionals) marathon.

Anyway, Mike and I were doing errands and talking about professions - what we thought we would do when we were younger, what paths we wish we'd taken. I said, "Hey, maybe I could go intern with a contractor and learn how to build stuff and make houses". Mike replied, "You know there's not much of a market for that kind of labor right now".

My terribly witty response: That's true. Right now the demand is really highest for public health professionals.

Don't I wish.

With that delightful anecdote, I bring you a discussion on the September, 2011 U.S. Employment Outlook from Simply Hired so we can so who is right, Mike or me.

The U.S. Employment Outlook is a monthly analysis and forecast of employment trends in the United States. These findings are based on monthly job seeker activity on SimplyHired.com, which aggregates millions of listings from over 30,000 employment sites, and data obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are some interesting tidbits:

August was the second consecutive month of positive hiring. That's good - but the unemployment rate in August was 9.1% according to LBS. 

Hmmm? Maybe I should pick up a hammer and nails. Ok, probably not but outlook is not so positive in non-profit land and I'm a little restless. 

How is your profession/field doing? Do you feel optimistic? Have you thought at all about changing professions? 

Set down the coffee cup - Phone Interviews

I have mixed feelings about phone interviews. Different organizations treat them differently - some just want to talk to you more about the position, some want to make sure you're not crazy, and some are actually hardcore interviewing you. It's hard to know what you're going to get so it's best to be prepared.

Last month I had a surprise interview which I now really wish I had asked to reschedule. Before they called, again, unexpectedly, I had a big ol' cup of coffee. I was so excited and hyped up on caffeine when they called that I chose to continue and gabgabgabgabgab a mile a minute. Bah!! Awful. Here's my tip: don't do that. 

Penelope Trunk offers some other, more general tips:

1. Attend to your surroundings. 
Don't just mute the TV, turn it off. Stay in a quiet place where you know you won't be bothered or distracted by noise. If you're doing a video interview, make sure your background isn't cluttered, busy, or distracting for the interviewer. Also, don't drink too much coffee.

2. Dress the part. 
You may feel silly walking around in your apartment in a suit just for a phone call but I swear it helps. You'll feel more professional and sound that way too. Especially do this if you're having a skype/video interview!  Let your interviewer turn on their video first so you can best gauge whether or not to throw that jacket off.


3. Stand up. 
I often pace when I'm on the phone but that's not what Penelope is suggesting. In fact, don't pace too much because you could sound winded. Penelope says, "Walking around a bit, but not too much, also keeps the call going smoothly. If your body is confined, your speech sounds different than if you have run of the room. It's one reason that the best speakers walk around instead of standing in one place at the podium."


4. Prepare for obvious questions. 
I think this is pretty standard - be prepared and be able to be concise.


5. Don't forget to close
 Make sure you get a clear idea of what the next steps are. When are they going to start in-person interviews? Will there be another round of telephone interviews? By when will you have an answer? Who will be conducting the in-person interview? This helps with your sanity and shows that you're seriously invested.

Also, don't be afraid to reschedule a surprise phone interview! You want to be prepared and have your space ready.

Hires, Fires & Bears

Very cool infographic from Mango Blog.

Improving Your Resume

Taking advice on your resume, once you have one made and "perfected", is difficult. I've invested a lot of time in putting my experiences down on paper and making it look pretty so when people tell me to change it up, I may be likely to shut down. Resume format is pretty subjective and obviously I think my way is the best way.

But here are some tips that make me willing to rethink how I've done my resume thanks to Penelope Trunk.

Focus on achievements v. responsibilities. 
A resume is not your life story. No one cares. If your life story were so interesting, you'd have a book deal. The only things that should be on your resume are achievements. 
I think this is true for cover letters too; you want to focus on achievements and try to give corresponding numbers. Everything else is space filler. This one is hard for me to buy into because quantifying achievements is so hard...but possible.

Your resume is a marketing document not a moral statement
The best marketing documents show the product in the very best light, which means using whatever most outrageous tactics possible to make you look good. As long as you are not lying, you will be fine.


Don't give everything away

The idea of a resume is to get someone to call you. Talk with you on the phone. Offer you an interview. So a resume is like a first date. You only show your best stuff and you don't show it all.Some people dump everything they can think of onto their resume, but a resume is not the only chance you'll have to sell yourself. In fact the interview is where the hard-core selling takes place. So you only put your very best achievements on the resume. Sure, there will be other questions people will want answers to, but that will make them call you. And that's good, right?

I like these tips because they aren't completely obvious to me. The usual, make it look nice, don't have spelling mistakes, be relevant, tips are SO OLD! But I think job seekers, new and experienced, could use these to rethink how they are selling themselves. I think selling results versus tasks is very appealing.

How willing are you to change up your resume format? If you actually make your resume results-oriented only, by how much do you shorten it?

No Really...Informational Interviews

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of informational interviews, and then I had one.

And it was AWESOME. 

I feel like the woman I spoke with gave me everything I needed: confidence, encouragement, and a big ol' reality check.

We began our conversation trying to get to know a little bit more about each other, our goals, and our paths. One of the most important things we talked about was networking. She brought up a statistic that I've seen as well and talked about over here. Roughly 80% of new hires come from people's networks, not responding to a job post. This is really hard to stomach when you read about it on the internets because let's be honest, it's much easier to sit at home & respond to a job post than to get yourself out there! However, when you hear the statistic and you're in the process of networking (having an informational interview in my case) it doesn't seem so scary.

One important reality for me is that I am a closet introvert. I don't think that's how my friends would describe me but I am often terrified when meeting new people at a social event or conference or whatever. I'm no good at going up to people and selling myself, it scares me. Well one thing we talked about last night was changing my perception of networking. I was networking with her and it was fun! FUN! All you have to do is have a conversation with someone, not shmooz about and sell yourself. When you realize that networking isn't a chore and it's not negative, it makes that 80% statistic seem positive, not a hurdle.

Also, wouldn't you rather have a conversation with someone than write a cover letter? Absolutely.

Speaking of cover letters, she gave me a fantastic tip,

Informational Interviews

I'm a strong believer in the power of informational interviews. They are a great way to use your network of people to your advantage! I'm having one this evening and here is how the connection happened - I started this blog, my sister sent a link of it to one of her friends, said friend read it and suggested I connect with someone she knows, I did, now we're having an informational interview. Thank you, blog.

I found some tips for having an effective informational interview on Lindsey Pollak's Blog and I wanted to share them here since they are especially relevant for me today:

1. Confirm - at least 24 hours in advance to show that you are taking this seriously. This is SO important. I had a meeting set up once and did not confirm ... the woman I was meeting had the date and time wrong in her calendar so I waited in a coffee shop for an hour before I was able to get in touch with her. Confirming is beneficial for you in so many ways.

2. Be on time - Duh! As a professional you should be on time anyway. To me, being 15 minutes early is on time. You want to get there and still have some time to collect yourself and your thoughts.

3. Do your research - When you're going into an informational interview, you want to be able to ask smart questions. This does not include, "What do you do?". You should already know that...that's why you're talking to this person! A quick search on Google or LinkedIn should answer this for you. Doing your research shows the person you're talking to that you are taking this opportunity seriously.

4. Clearly & concisely explain your situation - While you've done your research, it's likely that the person you're interviewing hasn't done theirs, and that's okay, it's not their job. You should be able to give a brief introduction of who you are, what you've done, and what you're looking for. This about your job "objective" and expand on it a bit. It's okay if you don't know what you want to do; you're probably doing this interview in part to help you find out. Just be able to communicate.

Even if you aren't searching for a job, it's still a good idea to do informational interviews from time to time with people in your field. Get to know people in your field, find out what they are doing and whether or not they like it.