TheJobBored

Yesterday, I had a quick post about the one page resume myth.

But what happens if you can’t even fill one page? Usually, you’d only encounter this situation if you a) haven’t had much work experience or b) held only one job for a long period of time.

There are solutions for these problems.

If you’re a student or recent grad, and you don’t have much work experience, the solution is simple: just load up on your grades, academic achievements and other activities. An employer will understand that a young person might not have an extensive career history. They know you’re just starting out. You just need to show them you have something on the ball and are eager to gain experience. Listing grades, courses taken, clubs, sports, activities… that’s the sort of thing you will fill your resume with. It shows you have a pulse. [Read more →]

Let me take the time here to quickly address a pet peeve of mine.

Your resume can be more than one page. Trust me.

I don’t know why this is, but a certain segment of the populations holds fast to the notion that a resume can be one page and one page only. This is simply not true. Of the hundreds of resumes ResumeWriters produces a week, I would say more than half are 2-pagers. Some are 3 pagers.

If you have career or job search question you would like answered on this blog, click here to Ask Brian.

Reader Sarah asks:

I enjoy reading your site and have already learned some useful tips from it. I have a random question that I can’t find an answer to anywhere on the internet: What does the term “confidential letter of interest” mean? I just read a job announcement (one I want to apply for) and it said, “please send a confidential letter of interest and resume…”

I know what a cover letter is. I guess I don’t understand what makes a letter of interest “confidential.” Does it mean that THEY aren’t going to let anyone else read it? Or does it mean I have to do something on my end. It just seems like a pointless phrase that obscures more than it clarifies!

Brian answers after the break: [Read more →]

In the pantheon of at-work-timewasters, computer solitaire has to stand alone in the first rank.

Sure, there’s also Minesweep and now online soduku and Facebook Scrabble, but surely more work hours have been wasted playing that stupid included solitaire program on your Windows PC than anything else.

Except maybe online porn. But you have to really be brave to surf that stuff at work.

It’s funny how even computer solitaire is a reflection of the last 20 years of the real world computer industry, complete with Microsoft monopolistic chicanery. Check out this comprehensive history of computer solitaire by Slate: Why We Can’t Stop Playing Computer Solitaire.

Solitaire helped acquaint users with Windows, and it introduced the world to Microsoft’s special brand of business ethics. Paul Alfille says that FreeCell’s inclusion in Windows 95, and every subsequent version of the OS, was “nothing I did and nothing I condoned.” Now an avid Linux user, Alfille says he sold the rights to his version of the game to the University of Illinois, but Microsoft never paid the university a dime in royalties. [Read more →]

Great post on the perils of working from home over at Snakes and Ladders: 7 Reasons For NOT Working From Home.

I know, I know. People hate it when I tell them that working from home is not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s like movie stars saying it sucks to be rich and famous.

For part of the 3 years I lived in NYC, I worked out of my apartment. I can attest to a lot of the perils on this list. I would add the following:

• I most definitely put on weight. Around 25 pounds when all was said and done.
• Workspace is an issue. Especially if you live in a 700 square foot apartment. After a while, you feel like you’re living in your workspace, not working in your home. If I had had a house at the time, with a separate floor or level for the office, maybe it would have felt different.
• They mention tv and other distractions, but I really cannot stress enough the struggle to come up with a plan for discipline and productivity. In my case, I could turn around from my desk and see my bed down the hall. Think about a day, like today, maybe… when you have the monday blahs, and you stayed up too late last night watching basketball, and you literally cannot keep your eyes open. Now imagine your bed is within reach.
• But the overarching thing that I found to be a problem was the lack of human interaction that they mention in points 1 and 3. As much as you might hate your co-workers, at least you have living, breathing human interaction. In my case, I ended up eating out with my laptop every day, using working lunches to get out and about and talk to people, even if they were just waitstaff. It’s depressing when you realize it’s 3.30 in the afternoon, and not only have you not traveled more than 15 feet all day, but you haven’t opened your mouth once to make speech, much less talked to another human being.

This is a quick aside… cause I don’t get this. Someone might be able to enlighten me in the comments. I’m no economist.

I don’t know about you, but the last few months, conversations amongst friends and co-workers, etc… it’s all been about how expensive everything is. Gas… we all know. But have you been to the grocery store lately? Jeepus.

And yet, the govt. claims that inflation is “under control.”

How much longer can this fiction go on? Do you know anyone who believes we haven’t seen inflation in prices recently? On the one hand, they say inflation is fine… yet gas is at record levels and food prices they admit have gone up the most in 18 years!

And there’s no inflation?!! For who? If the record rising price of fuel and food don’t count as inflation, maybe I don’t understand the definition of the word.

A weekly wrap-up of the forwards, email, jokes, You Tube videos and water cooler chatter making its way around America’s offices this week.

I think we all pretty much assumed that Bill O’Reilly would be nightmare boss to work for. Perhaps you’ve already seen the clip floating around of a 20-years younger O’Reilly freaking out on his crew because he doesn’t understand the phrase “play us out.”

If not, this clip from the Colbert Report not only gives you then entire Bill-O rant, but also features a hilariously dead-on parody by Colbert.

1) The Administrative Assistant-
On the one hand, the administrative assistants and secretaries keep the world turning. They route the communications, schedule the workday, make the meetings happen, facilitate the introductions and most importantly, manage your manager. You always want to be deferential to their power to keep you in the loop.

But it is their relationship to the bosses that make them especially important to your career. They are power brokers in the truest sense of the phrase. Bosses tend to be unaware of the soft power their assistants have over them. So if you need to approach your boss without seeming to direct, the assistant is the best route to take. Like Charlie Sheen in Wall Street, wooing the assistants, male and female, is about getting a boost from the true courtiers who can make the right introduction at the right time.

In addition, the assistant or secretary can be the best source of information and intelligence when you need to know a boss’ intentions or read their mood.

2) The IT Guy.
As more and more of our worklife is lived on the company network, the guys and gals holding the keys to that network are increasingly powerful. Being in the good graces with the IT guy can provide you with a myriad of benefits. Maybe you just want them to let Rhapsody through the firewall so you can listen to music when at your desk. Or maybe you just want to be the first person to be serviced when something goes wrong with your computer. If you’re up against a deadline and you don’t have time for a computer crash, it’s an insurance policy to know IT will come running for you first. [Read more →]

… According to Weddles.

If you don’t know Weddles, they have, for several years now, published a guide to online job search. The poll I’m going to reference is an online poll from Weddle’s readers. They seem to have a decent grasp on the realities of the modern job search:

“Most job seekers use a number of different sites. The average now is five. I recommend using two of the big general sites like CareerBuilder.com or Yahoo! HotJobs and three specialty sites — one that concentrates on your career field, one industry site, and one that focuses on the location where you live or want to live. That way you’re covered from all angles, and keeping track of the activity on five sites is easier than it sounds, because most of them have features that will notify you when a new opportunity that’s appropriate for you gets posted.”

The following is from their polling, the 2008 Users’ Choice Award winners:

General Purpose

• CareerBuilder.com
• CareerJournal.com
• Craigslist
• Indeed
• Job.com
• Monster
• SimplyHired.com
• Workopolis.com (Canada)
• Yahoo! HotJobs

[Read more →]

Here’s an appropriate post for a Monday.

BusinessWeek has a short article about how some companies, in the name of worker and server sanity, are encouraging workers to hold off sending emails over the weekend.

I think we can all relate to coming fresh into the office, only to be deluged by a mountain of emails that can derail you from getting started on real work for several hours as you dig out.

Since late 2006, the PricewaterhouseCoopers email system sends an automated warning to workers logging in on Saturdays and Sundays: “It’s the weekend. Help reduce weekend e-mail overload for both you and your colleagues by working offline.”

The article points out that sending an email urges others to respond right away. Some might respond just then, some might not right away… and sometimes the email gets lost since others might not be looking for work issues on a Saturday afternoon. It’s better to wait until work hours so that this disconnect of attention doesn’t cause unneeded confusion. [Read more →]