One of the things I always ask clients to brainstorm at the start of our process is “SAR stories,” which will give us the ideal raw ingredients for your resume, LinkedIn profile, and job interviews.
SAR is an acronym for a type of success story; it stands for:
S – Situation
A – Action
R – Result
When thinking about a SAR story, the idea is to describe a Situation you were faced with; the Action you took; and the Result that was achieved. There are also other acronyms, like CAR (Challenge – Action – Result) and STAR (Situation – Task – Action – Result), that refer to essentially the same concept. An earlier version of this article referenced CAR.
Let’s use a really easy made-up example.
- Situation: Our vendor for widgets was raising prices significantly.
- Action: I obtained quotes from other vendors and assembled a cross-functional team to analyze whether it was feasible to make widgets in-house.
- Result: We were able to transition widget production in-house at a 23% savings compared to the vendor’s prices.
When you’re compiling SAR stories, you’ll want to quickly jot them down without regard for complete sentences, grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.
So the above example would look like this Shorthand Example:
- S – widget vendor raising prices
- A – got quotes; put together team to analyze
- R – moved widget-making in-house… 23% savings
Bear in mind that nobody will ever see your raw SAR stories–they are just for you (and your resume writer if you’re working with one).
On your resume, the example above would be presented as a succinct bullet – “Achieved 23% cost savings by transitioning widget-making in-house after primary widget vendor raised prices.”
On a job interview, you would take ~60-90 seconds to tell the story in your natural speaking style; there is no need to say “The situation was,” “The action was,” etc.
On LinkedIn, most of my clients don’t benefit from content as detailed as what’s on their resume, but a few highlights of your SAR stories still might make the cut.
Keep it short and simple
I advise compiling your SAR stories in a simple, abbreviated way just like the shorthand example above. I don’t recommend writing long, detailed SAR stories that take up half a page. Believing that you need to write something very detailed and eloquent will slow you down unnecessarily, and you’ll waste too much of your time.
Compiling SAR stories does not require writing ability, and it should only take a a minute to jot down each SAR story like the example above on a notepad. You could compile 15 SAR stories in 15 minutes–although sometimes the trick is jogging your memory! So this exercise might take 30-60 minutes if you struggle to remember everything you’ve worked on.
If you don’t have the numbers/data available
If you don’t have the data handy, you can use X% or $X as a place-holder until you’re able to find the missing number. Get all your SAR stories down on paper and worry about the numbers later.
If you don’t have access to the precise numbers, it’s acceptable to use estimates. You could say “an estimated 10% decrease,” “a 30-40% increase,” “7-figure,” “in excess of $250K,” etc.
If any of the numbers are confidential, some of the aforementioned approaches can also work well for obscuring confidential information (such as “6-figure,” “7-figure,” “8-figure,” “$500K+,” etc.).
Don’t Be Intimidated by SAR Stories
I find that clients often put SAR stories on a pedestal and tend to over-think them. They’ll come up with numerous metrics related to their performance and then say “I was only able to think of two SAR stories.” There’s a BIG disconnect here.
If they have 10 different examples of metrics that are measurements of various improvements, then each of those 10 metrics would be considered a Result, which could only have been possible by taking some sort of Action, which probably was prompted by a Situation. So in reality they probably have 10 SAR stories, not two.
One problem seems to be that some job seekers perceive a SAR story as having to be a really BIG deal. In reality, some of them aren’t necessarily going to be super impressive, while others will be more impressive; they don’t all need to be equally impressive. If you’ve had a 20-year career, you might have a couple dozen SAR stories. You don’t need to share all of them on interviews, and not all of them need to be included on your resume.
Only the most impressive and relevant ones are worth mentioning in resumes and interviews–but it’s best to begin by brainstorming a good number of them, and then we can cherry-pick. You’re better off compiling, say, 15 SAR stories, and only 10 of them are worth using, rather than only compiling five and missing out on the other five that would have also been helpful.
Think about past results from your work. For example: an increase in EBITDA, an increase in top-line revenue, increased efficiency, a cost reduction, time savings, or any metrics that are specific to marketing, supply chain, finance, or any other area of the business.
Keep Track of Your SAR Stories
Updating your resume is a great time to compile SAR stories. If it’s been a while, you’ll probably have a lot! Moving forward, I recommend that at the end of each year you jot down your accomplishments for that year in the form of SAR stories, with numbers when applicable. Keep all of that info handy so you’ll have it handy when it comes time to interview or update your resume. If you’ll be going through an annual performance review process, that’s the perfect time to jot down your abbreviated SAR stories for that year.
This article first appeared on KellyDonovan.com
Why to leave your address off your resume
Executive Resumes, Professional ResumesIn the past, including your home address on your resume was a formality that readers expected to see. But today, it’s no longer necessary, at least in the U.S.
There are good reasons you might want to leave your home address off your resume.
Your commute could be a concern
Having your address on your resume could cause you to be discriminated against based on your commute.
If you live 75 minutes away from the company, and an equally qualified candidate lives 5 minutes away, who do you think has the edge?
This isn’t as big of a deal for an executive candidate as it is for an entry-level candidate, but nevertheless it can still be at least somewhat of a factor at all levels.
After all, companies love employees who will arrive early and stay late–and workers who live farther away might have a harder time doing that since they’re spending so much time commuting.
Most executive roles necessitate a significant time commitment, and having to spend an extra 2+ hours in a day on a round-trip commute is a drain on both time and energy.
Even with the advent of hybrid work, where you might be remote a couple days a week, commute time still might be a consideration.
Additionally, a candidate who lives further away is more of a flight risk; employers will worry you’re going to leave the company and take a job closer to home as soon as you find the right opportunity.
Privacy is a greater concern now
Your address provides personal information that you might not want hundreds or thousands of strangers to have; these days, it’s easy to look up your address online and find out the value of your home, what the residence looks like, who else lives there, when it was purchased, and many other details.
Chances are, they wouldn’t look it up right away, but if you did become a finalist, you never know.
Do you want your prospective employer to make judgements about you based on their perception of your primary residence?
The perception could be “oh, that’s an expensive house–he’s going to want more money than we want to pay!” Or, “ugh, look at that shack!”
It puts you at risk for identity theft
These days, you can never be too careful about protecting yourself against identity theft.
Your home address is one of many pieces of information cybercriminals would like to find about you as they put together all the puzzle pieces they need to steal your identity.
Sure, your address is one of the less sensitive pieces, but still – why make it any easier for them?
Even if you trust the recruiter or company you’re giving the resume to, you simply never know whose hands it could end up in, whether it’s an unscrupulous temp worker, a janitor who likes to snoop, or a criminal who hacks into something.
It takes up valuable space
The space devoted to your address could otherwise be used for something more useful, like a link to your LinkedIn profile.
A link to your LinkedIn profile makes it fast and easy for a recruiter or hiring manager to access your profile with no searching required. That’s a huge plus, because a search for someone’s name often pulls up many results, which can be confusing.
What should be included instead?
Instead of having your full address, you might want to put a metro area.
For example, you could put “Los Angeles Area” instead of putting “Studio City” or whatever specific part of the metro area you’re in.
This is unless you’re seeking jobs that are right there in your town or neighborhood, in which case being local would be a selling point.
If the location of your current job is an accurate reflection of the metro area you’re in, you could theoretically omit any mention of the metro area in the contact information. However, some recruiters would prefer the clarity of knowing your location.
No matter what, your email and phone number should always be on there (only ONE phone number–the best one to reach you at).
When you DO need to provide your address
It’s also worth noting that the address still needs to be provided sometimes.
If you apply for a position on a company’s website, 99% of the time you’ll have to fill out a form that prompts you for your address, and it’s probably a required field.
For an executive, an online application might not be part of your journey, but you might provide your address later in the hiring process, like when it’s time for a background check.
This article first appeared on KellyDonovan.com
“Private” LinkedIn profile? Nope!
LinkedIn, Online PresenceThere’s a misconception I hear from executives sometimes. They tell me, “I have my LinkedIn profile ‘set to private’ for now,” and they explain it’s so their boss won’t see it, or so nobody will see it until it’s perfectly worded.
Another one I’ve heard is “I don’t want my boss to know I’m on LinkedIn, so I haven’t connected with him.”
If we’re on the phone, they won’t see my exasperated facepalm. It’s frustrating to hear the same misconceptions repeated by different people year after year.
The not-so-private setting
Contrary to what you might believe, LinkedIn does not (as of now) have a blanket setting that hides your profile from the view of other LinkedIn users.
There is, however, an often-misunderstood setting—the Public Profile Setting—that some users mistakenly believe can hide their profile from the view of anyone on LinkedIn.
The Public Profile Setting allows you to adjust what people OFF of LinkedIn can see (people who don’t use LinkedIn at all, or people who aren’t logged in). It also controls whether search engines can index your profile.
However, LinkedIn users logged into their accounts can still view your profile regardless of what you do with the Public Profile Setting.
The usual limitations still apply—for example, LinkedIn tends to restrict the ability of free accounts to view profiles of users that are outside their network (beyond three degrees of separation).
In general, though, other LinkedIn users can usually view your profile even if you haven’t added them as a connection. Not only that, but LinkedIn might also suggest you as a connection for them. Let me explain how this works.
How LinkedIn shows your profile to users you might know
Blocking your boss?!
Some of the folks I’ve spoken with are savvy enough to know that any LinkedIn user can potentially view their profile, so they take things a step further and actually block their boss or co-workers who they’re trying to hide from on LinkedIn.
The blocking feature on LinkedIn is similar to the blocking feature on Facebook. If someone is harassing you, you can block them. If you had a nasty breakup or divorce, you can block your ex. If you have a stalker who threatens your safety, by all means block them.
You can block whomever you want, so some would say why not just block your boss and anyone else if you don’t want them to see your LinkedIn profile and activity?
I’ll address the rationale for transparency later, but first, let me point out that blocking cannot guarantee the person never sees your profile—only that they won’t see it through the account you blocked.
Let’s say your boss goes home, realizes he forgot his laptop at the office, and checks his email on his wife’s computer that evening. Someone sent him a link to an article on LinkedIn, so he clicks the link to read it. His wife’s browser keeps her logged into LinkedIn, so he’s viewing it in her account.
His wife has added several of your co-workers on LinkedIn—she met them at the office Christmas party and wanted to connect with them because she’s a Realtor.
If any of those people are first-degree connections of yours on LinkedIn, guess what? You might pop up as a second-degree “People You May Know” recommended connection, and now your boss sees you (through his wife’s account)—and wonders why you haven’t connected with him.
Or, perhaps your boss bumps into someone at the coffee machine or water cooler on a Monday afternoon and they happen to mention that they just loved the great blurb you posted on LinkedIn last week.
Your boss then realizes he’s never seen you on LinkedIn and tries searching for you. When you don’t come up at all, he surmises that you must have blocked him and becomes suspicious about what you’re trying to hide. Busted!
The bottom line
You’re not private on LinkedIn. If you want to harness the benefits of using LinkedIn, it’ll be hard to do that without making yourself visible.
To truly be incognito on LinkedIn, you would need to use a fake name, not list your employer name, not connect with anyone, and use a unique email address for LinkedIn only—but what would be the point?
You should assume that anyone with internet access can potentially view your profile. This shouldn’t be a problem if you only share content on LinkedIn that you’re comfortable with anyone reading.
LinkedIn is no longer considered a “job hunting website.” Technically, it was never just about that, anyway—but now it’s more robust than ever, with opportunities for companies to market themselves, avenues for networking and sales, and thousands of LinkedIn Learning videos on diverse topics.
You can share news about your company on LinkedIn and even share kudos for your team members and co-workers. Your boss just might appreciate your loyalty to the company when he or she sees all of that!
This article first appeared on https://KellyDonovan.com
Should you share samples of your work?
Career Advancement, Job SearchYou might have heard that sharing examples of your work could be helpful when you’re interviewing. But is it really a good idea? How do you decide whether to share?
In some professions—like journalism—sharing a portfolio of your work is a critical part of the hiring process and is usually part of the initial application process as a prerequisite to garnering an interview.
In many fields, however, it’s not that common to provide work samples. If you’re trying to decide whether to provide work samples, here are three things to consider.
1. Don’t share anything that you don’t have your employer’s or former employer’s permission to share (or reasonable confidence that it would be acceptable).
For example, don’t share anything that might be confidential, especially if the company in question is a competitor.
A good question to ask yourself is how your current or former boss, colleagues, and senior management would feel if they found out you provided the samples in question to another company. Even if you think there’s no way they could ever find out, why take the chance?
2. Think twice before doing actual work to create the sample without being compensated.
If a company wants to have you create something specifically for them to demonstrate your abilities, keep in mind that this could be an exploitative ploy to get work done for free.
An example would be a marketing plan you developed for a product similar to one the prospective employer will be launching. They might just decide to “borrow” your marketing plan and not bother to hire you.
You should probably be compensated if the work will be extensive. Do a careful analysis of how long you think the work will take, as well as the likelihood that the employer will simply use your outstanding work for their benefit, but without hiring you.
Sometimes a candidate will create a 30-60-90 day plan for an employer. This is a fairly reasonable request for an executive candidate. The document helps show that you’re ready to step into the new role and hit the ground running. However, only take the time to do this if the interview confirmed your interest in the position, you truly want to get an offer, and you believe the employer is sincere.
3. Think carefully before volunteering to provide samples.
If the interviewer hasn’t asked for work samples, don’t proactively volunteer to share work samples unless you truly have stellar samples you’re highly enthusiastic about sharing.
You might be thinking that a proactive offer to share samples will be a nice touch to mention in your post-interview thank-you note or to mention as you finish up an interview. But think carefully first. If you’re going to offer samples, you should assume that the interviewer will take you up on your offer. Make sure you’re prepared to follow through.
When in doubt, you could ask a trusted colleague for objective feedback on just how strong the work is. An outside perspective might be helpful, because it’s hard to evaluate your own work objectively.
If you’re being asked for samples rather than offering them proactively, it might be tricky if you don’t have relevant samples you’re really proud of. You could simply say that you don’t want to share them without permission (if that would be a believable answer).
This article first appeared on www.KellyDonovan.com
When is it a bad idea to share your executive resume?
Executive Resumes, Job Search, Professional ResumesA colleague you’ve been friends with for years is ready to move up in his career. Or, he’s scared because of a looming layoff. Whatever the scenario might be, you want to help.
In that vein, you share some tips, offer to serve as a reference, and even send him the shiny new executive resume you just paid a professional to write.
“Maybe my new resume will give you some ideas!” you tell him.
I speak from experience when I say that it might be more than just some “ideas.”
What I’ve seen
I’ve seen it happen multiple times now over the years. Someone books an initial consultation with me to discuss the possibility of becoming a client; they say they were referred by one of my past clients.
Before the call, they send me their resume. I open it up, and WOW! Boy, does it look and sound familiar.
Not only have they used the same format that I created for their friend’s resume, but they have, ahem, “borrowed” a lot of the wording.
What’s the problem?
You might be thinking that this is no big deal. You want to help your friend, and you shared your resume with the hope that it would be helpful to them.
However, if you’re in the same industry or profession as someone, there’s a decent chance that:
If your friend’s resume looks and sounds the same as yours, this could lead to confusion. Let’s say you send your resume to a recruiter and she opens it, then mistakenly confuses it with your friend’s resume that she looked at several weeks ago. “Oh, that guy again?” she thinks to herself. “He wasn’t the right fit for that EVP search I’m doing, so no need to waste my time talking to him again.”
The bottom line
Standing out from the pack is critical when you’re competing for sought-after executive roles. If you invested in professional help with your executive resume and LinkedIn profile, one of the primary reasons was probably so you could differentiate yourself. Think carefully before doing anything that would negate the time, effort, and money you spent on differentiation.
This article first appeared on www.KellyDonovan.com
Is the “hidden job market” a real thing?
Job SearchYou’ve probably seen or heard the term “hidden job market” at some point. It gets used a lot, but you might be wondering what it truly means—and it doesn’t help that there’s no official or standard definition.
The lack of an official definition means that various sources have different explanations—sometimes misleading. Then, there’s people who try to debunk the concept using a straw man argument, perhaps because they have their own understanding of what the term means, while others mean something different when they say “hidden job market.”
However, the truth is that there ARE some scenarios where an upcoming job opportunity might be considered hidden in some way.
One of the most well-known situations is executive search; for a senior executive role, it might not be posted publicly because a retained executive search firm will be hand-picking the best candidates.
However, there are also other situations in which a job might not be posted, usually because the role in question isn’t yet open and it’s too early for it to be posted. It will be posted at a later date, but by the time it’s posted, the decision maker might already have a couple candidates in mind. And in some rare cases, the decision maker might not want to deal with the time and hassle of fielding an influx of applications.
In this article, I’ll explore examples that don’t involve executive search firms.
Example A – Upcoming departure
The SVP is disappointed that her VP Operations for a major facility hasn’t been able to turn around the under-performing site. If things don’t change soon, the SVP will be will be looking for a replacement.
If the SVP meets anyone interesting at an industry conference this year, she might keep that person in mind for when the time comes to hire a replacement. At that point, the job will be posted (per company policy), but she might have already decided she wants to invite this person to an interview if he is interested, meaning he’s already one big step ahead of the herd of 100+ applicants who will likely apply.
This isn’t just a stroke of good luck for this potential candidate. He made the wise choice to attend the conference; he pushed himself out of his comfort zone and schmoozed with lots of strangers at the conference; he bravely asked many of them if it would be possible to keep in touch afterwards; and he followed up with LinkedIn connection requests and thoughtful notes sent via LinkedIn or email to continue the relationship. Having the right connections isn’t about luck—it’s about strategy and execution.
Example B – Upcoming expansion
The company’s Head of Sales for the Americas knows the company will be launching a new division next year. When the time comes, he’s going to need a VP of Sales to build and lead a brand new sales team for the new division. He might try to promote from within, but he’s open to considering external candidates—especially since existing internal talent lacks experience with the product the new division will be selling.
While playing golf with a former colleague, the Head of Sales asks his former colleague if he knows any sales leaders who have experience with this type of product. This leads to a warm introduction to a potential candidate long before the job is ever posted–and he ends up hiring her.
Once again, although this might sound like good “luck” for this candidate, the reality is that she was very strategic about maintaining relationships with her former bosses, coworkers, and classmates—resulting in her being top-of-mind when the golf buddy was asked if he had any recommendations.
Example C – Small business
The owner of a small business currently has 16 employees and several part-time contractors. He knows he could use one more FTE, but he’s hesitant to advertise the position. The last time he advertised an opening, he was besieged with candidates who weren’t a good fit. As a small business owner wearing multiple hats, it was a stressful experience since he’s too small to have an HR department. In the end, he hired someone who was referred by one of his employees.
After hearing that an outstanding manager at one of his vendors is being laid off due to a merger, he’s intrigued by the opportunity to snag a top-notch leader he already knows, likes, and trusts. He takes a look at her LinkedIn profile, and it’s filled with content that demonstrates her expertise in the industry and passion for her work. He requests her resume, invites her to an interview, and ultimately extends a job offer–all without ever posting an opening.
Takeaways
Bear in mind that the examples above are merely examples—there are many similar instances that my clients have encountered. To increase your chances of having these types of “hidden” opportunities, make sure that human-to-human interaction is a component of your job search strategy.
The human interaction could include keeping in touch with professional and social connections, getting introductions, being involved in a professional association, attending local events, going to conferences, doing speaking engagements, and similar types of activities.
This article first appeared on www.KellyDonovan.com
The 5 types of LinkedIn posts you should be doing
LinkedInPosting on LinkedIn is a good way to maintain “top-of-mind awareness” with your professional contacts. It also provides evidence that your profile is current when recruiters and others view it. The WHY of LinkedIn posting is fairly clear, but WHAT to post is a bit more complex. Here are the five types of posts I recommend including in your repertoire.
1) Share your perspective on an article related to your career field or industry.
This is easy; you don’t have to go to the effort of writing an entire article yourself.
Instead, if you find an article of interest in an online trade publication for your profession or industry, you can share the article on LinkedIn and write 3-5 paragraphs with your reaction to it. Did the author miss an angle? Is it spot on? Do you disagree with points the article makes?
You could close your post by asking others for their thoughts on the premise of the article or the aspect you discussed in your paragraphs.
What not to do: Don’t be that guy who shares an article without saying anything about it, or who just says “Good read” or “Interesting article.” If you have no insight of your own, don’t bother. People care about what YOU have to say, which is why they’re connected with you on LinkedIn.
2) Show your gratitude and appreciation for others.
This is the kind of post that shows you’re not someone who’s just trying to promote yourself on LinkedIn.
Instead of talking about yourself, create a post that mentions other people you want to recognize. When mentioning someone, tag them by typing the @ followed by their name.
Here are some ways you can showcase others in a post:
3) Be a cheerleader for your company and share their news.
If your employer is posting company news on LinkedIn, it doesn’t get much easier. Just share their post and say something about it. The more it pertains to the work you do, the better. If you’re in the C-suite, this is a no-brainer.
Showcasing your company through some of your posts is a way to combat the perception of LinkedIn activity being about job-hunting.
Needless to say, make sure anything you’re saying won’t get you in trouble (no confidential information).
4) Turn your post into a mini-article.
Did you know that you can use up to 3,000 characters (about 500 or so words) in a LinkedIn post?
That’s plenty of space for a short article to showcase pretty much anything you’d like to write about, such as:
If you see others posting entire articles using the “publish” feature on LinkedIn, don’t think you need to follow their example.
A thoughtful post will get more attention than an article with precisely the same content word-for-word—the post will get more eyeballs, more love from the algorithm, and more engagement from other users.
The reason is quite simple: people are in a hurry and they don’t want to click through to read an article; it seems like it will take too long. But if they can stay on the same page and simply click “see more” to read your full post, that’s quick and easy, and then they can go about the rest of their day.
5) Talk about your latest activity or piece of news.
Your LinkedIn connections are interested in what you’re up to, so don’t leave them in the dark. Let them know about the interesting things happening in your professional life!
Extra credit: this tip is for nerds only!
Here’s a pro tip only for those of you who care about maximizing performance of your posts (don’t worry about this if you’re just getting started with LinkedIn).
LinkedIn’s algorithm doesn’t favor external links since they prefer to keep people on their platform for as long as possible—pretty much the M.O. of every social media platform!
Here’s an end-run around this for when you want to link to an article you’re talking about:
This article first appeared on KellyDonovan.com
How to: SAR stories for your resume and interviews
Executive Resumes, Professional ResumesOne of the things I always ask clients to brainstorm at the start of our process is “SAR stories,” which will give us the ideal raw ingredients for your resume, LinkedIn profile, and job interviews.
SAR is an acronym for a type of success story; it stands for:
S – Situation
A – Action
R – Result
When thinking about a SAR story, the idea is to describe a Situation you were faced with; the Action you took; and the Result that was achieved. There are also other acronyms, like CAR (Challenge – Action – Result) and STAR (Situation – Task – Action – Result), that refer to essentially the same concept. An earlier version of this article referenced CAR.
Let’s use a really easy made-up example.
When you’re compiling SAR stories, you’ll want to quickly jot them down without regard for complete sentences, grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.
So the above example would look like this Shorthand Example:
Bear in mind that nobody will ever see your raw SAR stories–they are just for you (and your resume writer if you’re working with one).
On your resume, the example above would be presented as a succinct bullet – “Achieved 23% cost savings by transitioning widget-making in-house after primary widget vendor raised prices.”
On a job interview, you would take ~60-90 seconds to tell the story in your natural speaking style; there is no need to say “The situation was,” “The action was,” etc.
On LinkedIn, most of my clients don’t benefit from content as detailed as what’s on their resume, but a few highlights of your SAR stories still might make the cut.
Keep it short and simple
I advise compiling your SAR stories in a simple, abbreviated way just like the shorthand example above. I don’t recommend writing long, detailed SAR stories that take up half a page. Believing that you need to write something very detailed and eloquent will slow you down unnecessarily, and you’ll waste too much of your time.
Compiling SAR stories does not require writing ability, and it should only take a a minute to jot down each SAR story like the example above on a notepad. You could compile 15 SAR stories in 15 minutes–although sometimes the trick is jogging your memory! So this exercise might take 30-60 minutes if you struggle to remember everything you’ve worked on.
If you don’t have the numbers/data available
If you don’t have the data handy, you can use X% or $X as a place-holder until you’re able to find the missing number. Get all your SAR stories down on paper and worry about the numbers later.
If you don’t have access to the precise numbers, it’s acceptable to use estimates. You could say “an estimated 10% decrease,” “a 30-40% increase,” “7-figure,” “in excess of $250K,” etc.
If any of the numbers are confidential, some of the aforementioned approaches can also work well for obscuring confidential information (such as “6-figure,” “7-figure,” “8-figure,” “$500K+,” etc.).
Don’t Be Intimidated by SAR Stories
I find that clients often put SAR stories on a pedestal and tend to over-think them. They’ll come up with numerous metrics related to their performance and then say “I was only able to think of two SAR stories.” There’s a BIG disconnect here.
If they have 10 different examples of metrics that are measurements of various improvements, then each of those 10 metrics would be considered a Result, which could only have been possible by taking some sort of Action, which probably was prompted by a Situation. So in reality they probably have 10 SAR stories, not two.
One problem seems to be that some job seekers perceive a SAR story as having to be a really BIG deal. In reality, some of them aren’t necessarily going to be super impressive, while others will be more impressive; they don’t all need to be equally impressive. If you’ve had a 20-year career, you might have a couple dozen SAR stories. You don’t need to share all of them on interviews, and not all of them need to be included on your resume.
Only the most impressive and relevant ones are worth mentioning in resumes and interviews–but it’s best to begin by brainstorming a good number of them, and then we can cherry-pick. You’re better off compiling, say, 15 SAR stories, and only 10 of them are worth using, rather than only compiling five and missing out on the other five that would have also been helpful.
Think about past results from your work. For example: an increase in EBITDA, an increase in top-line revenue, increased efficiency, a cost reduction, time savings, or any metrics that are specific to marketing, supply chain, finance, or any other area of the business.
Keep Track of Your SAR Stories
Updating your resume is a great time to compile SAR stories. If it’s been a while, you’ll probably have a lot! Moving forward, I recommend that at the end of each year you jot down your accomplishments for that year in the form of SAR stories, with numbers when applicable. Keep all of that info handy so you’ll have it handy when it comes time to interview or update your resume. If you’ll be going through an annual performance review process, that’s the perfect time to jot down your abbreviated SAR stories for that year.
This article first appeared on KellyDonovan.com
Please don’t upload your executive resume on LinkedIn
LinkedInYour new executive resume is done, and it’s a masterpiece. I can understand wanting to unleash the power of this resume, but please do yourself a favor and don’t upload it to your LinkedIn profile.
To be clear: what I’m talking about has nothing to do with your LinkedIn profile writing (job descriptions, About section, etc.). You should absolutely have your profile complete and filled with compelling information.
What I advise against is uploading a PDF of your resume. After all, if the profile has good content, why would you need the resume on there?
Here are the biggest problems with uploading your resume.
Sensitive information
Your resume might contain information that was never intended to be publicized in such a public venue.
For example, if a confidential number was $12.3M, on the resume we might say “in excess of $10M” or “8-figure” to convey scope without giving away too much. On LinkedIn, that much might be revealing too much, so it might be better to say “multi-million-dollar” or not even quantify it. If you upload your resume, the cat is out of the bag!
If your LinkedIn content has been carefully “sanitized” to omit information from the resume that might be too sensitive for LinkedIn, why would you then upload the resume and negate those efforts to sanitize it?
Once I’ve written an executive resume, my next step is to write the content for the LinkedIn profile (I’m also a LinkedIn profile writer and do this for 99% of my clients). Usually this involves job descriptions that are more condensed and sanitized than the resume content.
Not knowing how it will be used
If you’re on a boat and pour a drop of your drink into the ocean, can you get it back? Of course not!
Putting a document on the Internet can best be compared to that drop of liquid going into the ocean. Good luck stopping it from going wherever the current takes it.
First of all, understand that documents on your profile can be viewed by anyone who can view your profile, which might as well be everyone on the planet. Now, consider the following:
How it looks
Think for a minute what conclusions people might draw when they see that your resume is on there.
Just wait…
Resist the temptation. Wait until someone asks for the resume. Your LinkedIn profile in all its glory should be compelling enough to pique someone’s interest, and should cast a wide enough net to catch any fish you might want. Once you’ve got them in the net, at some point they’ll ask for your resume. And THEN you can go for it!
P.S.
This advice doesn’t have anything to do with a new LinkedIn feature that allows you to store your resume within your account privately so that you have it handy when applying for jobs through LinkedIn. If nobody can see it except employers you’re applying with, that’s fine.
This article first appeared on www.KellyDonovan.com
Your trusted resume expert… a robot?
Executive Resumes, Hiring a Career Pro, Job Search, Modern work, Professional ResumesArtificial intelligence (AI) is truly woven into the fabrics of our lives, including job search. Most mid-sized to large employers are using technology and AI tools in the recruiting and hiring processes, and there are also tools that job seekers can take advantage of, as well.
For example, one such tool that I introduce my clients to is Job Scan, which will compare your resume to a job description you’re going to apply for. This helps you tailor your resume to that specific job posting. Even if you’re working with a recruiter on a job not publicly advertised anywhere, this can still be handy.
In a future post I can explore the nuances of how this tool works and why tailoring is preferable to using the exact same document every time without any changes.
There are also other AI and technology tools that are more questionable and less helpful, of course. (Also worth exploring in future posts!)
For now, what I want to address is how to handle a robot’s advice. While AI is an amazing advancement, it also has its limitations.
Here’s the problem: software is only as good as the people who created it, and most robots we deal with in everyday life don’t excel at everything we throw at them.
For example, if you’re having a complicated marital problem, would Siri be a good source of advice? Probably not. She can find information on the Internet for you, but don’t expect her to give the kind of advice you could get from a marriage counselor or a friend who’s been married for 35 years.
Robots are lacking when it comes to analysis that requires common sense, empathy, and emotional intelligence.
Limitations of resume software
One of my executive clients ran her resume through Job Scan to tailor it for a job posting. A recommendation popped up saying that her resume was over the recommended length; however, what she didn’t notice was that it said “unless you are applying to executive jobs.”
Not only did the software not recognize that she was an executive-level candidate based on VP titles in her resume, but the software is simplistic with determining if the length is acceptable. If you’re one word over the software’s recommended word count, the robot says it’s too long; one word under, you’re good to go! Seriously? Bear in mind that there is no universal rule among employers for resume length, so this recommended word count is an opinion.
Let me be clear: the difference of a couple words isn’t going to disqualify your application when you apply for a job.
Sure, I see resumes all the time that are too long; executives will send me three-page and four-page resumes they’ve developed on their own, and these are almost always too verbose to be effective–nobody wants to read that much in an era of short attention spans. Guidance about keeping the length reasonable is certainly needed, but deleting an important bullet point to get a resume under the “magical” number a robot recommends is just silly.
These types of guidelines from an AI tool are usually based on best practices that are applicable to the lowest common denominator of people. Your needs might be slightly different, depending on your industry, level of seniority, target employer, target job, career history, and unique career situations.
You could think of it like government dietary guidelines. They’re based on what will probably work best for most people, but your needs might be slightly different if you’re an athlete, diabetic, celiac patient, or have a food allergy. In those instances, you could work with your physician, dietician, or trainer to determine what will be best for you.
Another odd glitch I’ve seen with this software is that in some cases it may say that the formatting of dates isn’t acceptable, even though in other instances it found the exact same date formatting to be fine (and I’ve tested the same date formatting in the most popular applicant tracking systems used by employers–Workday and Taleo–and it was fine, in addition to being consistent with best practices in my industry).
Handling a robot’s advice
At this point, advice from robots needs to be taken with a grain of salt. This is one reason it makes sense to work with a professional on your resume. You can get input from a human based on their experience helping other clients land positions.
Speaking of humans, that’s actually how most people land great jobs–not by applying online for an advertised opening. I’ve written in the past about navigating networking introductions (as a relationship-based job search approach) and problems with advertised openings.
It’s usually relationships that lead to the best opportunities–particularly at an executive level–and relationships help you get beyond the herd of 100+ other applicants who will likely be applying for those advertised openings along with you. Having a referral from an employee helps you snag an interview in these competitive situations.
The bottom line: AI job search tools range from useless to helpful, but even when they’re helpful (like Job Scan), you also need to balance their advice with the opinions of human experts and your own common sense. Oh, and while you’re at it, please don’t replace your marriage counselor with Siri. 😉
This article first appeared on www.KellyDonovan.com
A recruiter is calling… don’t answer!
Job Search, Recession Career ManagementWhen you’re in the job market and the phone rings, it’s impossible not to wonder if it’s a recruiter or employer–especially if the area code matches an employer you’re interested in.
Answering the phone right away would seem to be the best option, but not so fast!
What could go wrong?
Noise and distractions
Take stock of the situation. Are you in the car? In a noisy public place? Outdoors on a windy day? Any of these environments are NOT optimal for a cell phone conversation. Reception might be bad, or there might be too much background noise. Also, you might be distracted.
Even if you’re at home, noise from pets, children, and the TV can be equally problematic.
Not being prepared
Even if you’re in a very quiet place with excellent reception, you also need to be in the right frame of mind for an effective conversation that will convince the recruiter to move you forward in the process.
If it’s not a scheduled phone interview, the call is likely just an initial screening call to see if you might be a fit.
You won’t get a formal interview unless this initial screening goes well.
Potential problems can include:
It’s simple: let the call go to voice mail
Listen to the voice mail, and make your way to a quiet place. Collect your thoughts before calling back. Think carefully about key points you want that person to know. In all likelihood they just want to schedule your screening interview, not conduct it on the spot–so plan on that, but be prepared to answer questions on the spot if needed.
If they called in the morning or early afternoon, try to call back the same day if possible. If they called later in the day, the following morning is acceptable.
No matter what, call back, even if you’re not interested in the job. Relationships matter. (And it’s the kind thing to do.)