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Wednesday Job Forum

President Franklin D. Roosevelt eloquently pointed out, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” Every Wednesday over Zoom, The Job Forum hosts a 90-minute workshop that is sure to empower any job seekers during these challenging times. For the last 70 years, this nonprofit service has hosted a multitude of events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sign up for free on Eventbrite to team up with expert panelists volunteering from local businesses and nonprofits and fellow job hunters in this encouraging space. During April 2023, I attended two weekly Wednesday events and am excited to share my impressions!

How did you find out about The Job Forum?
In the beginning of 2022, I left my previous job of 6 years looking to make a splash in the social media and content space. As daunting as a career transition into a new field can feel, my first interaction with The Job Forum lifted those spirits. Looking to optimize my resume, LinkedIn, and “long held” fear of networking, the recurring and free/low-cost events here caught my eye. A few professionals I crossed paths with in SF informed me there was an organization that prides themselves on tailoring custom feedback for participants. It can feel like a whirlwind jumping on the computer and “aiming to get the next job pronto.” Step into a Wednesday event prepared to talk about your work journey and receive lots of constructive criticism.

Tell us something about the event that stood out?

I found the panelists to be laser-focused in their responses to each individual job hunter. For the Wednesday event, 5-7 minutes is allotted per person in their share. Outcomes vary from how to grow your side hustle to expanding location of remote job search to uncovering a relevant Slack group. The Job Forum panelists are leaders in their respective fields and have a strong sense of delivering next best steps. As a job hunter , it’s very important to come prepared with a concise question or topic for discussion. You’ll be sure to walk away with a wealth of knowledge and strategies to manage your job search.

 

What do you think is the valuable reason to attend an event at The Job Forum?
I believe that a huge asset is the attention one receives from both panelists and fellow attendees. During the events I’ve recently attended, each volunteer panelist provides their take on a given matter while the Zoom chat fills up with commentary from the community. I find myself collecting many pertinent insights that weren’t originally in the forefront of my mind nor included in my job search tactics. This allows me to  develop a more in depth  approach to job hunting  and add more ideas each time I participate, as well as to aide other job hunters who are new to The Job Forum.
Do you plan to keep attending The Job Forum during your job search and why?

I plan on continuing to regularly attend The Job Forum events (of all kinds) during my job search because of the accountability I’ve taken away from the organization. I find that the job hunting tactics of mine are more fine-tuned with more exposure from the individually crafted advice. The direction of each event takes its own course and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the helpful content shared to me in the social media space. As I’ve mentioned earlier, taking on the entire scope of finding a job alone can feel very overwhelming. Make your next job search a little less complicated by collaborating with us.

by Jason Slamovich

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Workforce of the Future – Program for young people offered by The Job Forum

The Job Forum has expanded, and offers career guidance and job search skills to two age groups of young people in a program called Workforce of the Future. This is a new initiative supported in part by a grant from the Miranda Lux Foundation who fosters vocational programs and training for the young. The program and number of special job seeker sessions has been expanded since we started it in 2022 and has been honed based on research The Job Forum conducted with young people in two groups:

15-18 high school students

For teen job hunters, The Job Forum goal is to assist them to better understand career vocational alternatives, including opening their awareness to careers and jobs they may be unaware of, and compare the desirability of all of their alternatives. Some of these alternatives may not require a four-year college education. Teens often have little access to learn about newer growing job categories, and yet this information is more crucial than ever in their selecting educational opportunities and future careers.

18- 25 college and early career

For those 18 and above, The Job Forum includes special sessions on how to actually conduct career and job research, what professions or industries to consider along with information on how to contact adults for informational interviewing and how to build resumes, write effective cover letters and create effective LinkedIn profiles.

 

We are fortunate to have an advisory board to help us

Aiden Kelly, Job Forum Program Advisor, “Workforce of the Future”

Aidan Kelly is our lead Program Advisor to the Job Forum’s Workforce of the Future Youth Program. In this capacity he provides input, helps with outreach, and advises The Job Forum about the vocational jobs and careers youth programs. Aidan is a citizen of San Francisco, a Political Science major in college and plans to work in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Job Forum “Workforce of the Future” Program Advisory Panel

The advisory panel provides input, ideas for topics about careers or vocations, and helps with outreach to students in order for them to benefit by attending the tailored sessions of The Job Forum  “Workforce of the Future “program.

Samantha L. is a student at Hillsdale High School where she is involved in her school theater program, Dungeons and Dragons Club and is the assistant manager of the Boys Tennis team. She is interested in exploring potential careers in Biology and Literature. She is passionate about reading and writing.  She also enjoys drawing and playing Genshin Impact in her free time.

Chloe L. is a student at Design Tech High School, sponsored by Oracle, which is a public charter school combining academic content with creative problem solving. She is involved in the school’s community service club, volleyball, soccer, and track team.  She envisions exploring career options in Biology and Entrepreneurship.

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Job Hunter Success Story – Meet Ismail Bugdayli

This is a real success story about Ismail Bugdayli. But first, Ismail wants you to know he made lots of effort and plenty of mistakes in his job search. He wants other job hunters to Not make his mistakes.

 

Now that he has a great new job and is taking the great next step in his career, he can laugh when he shares that he applied for about 500 jobs in 1.5 years. He didn’t do any networking, and simply kept applying again and again for job openings. He learned that his job search method did not work very well. He explains he had only around 25 interviews, so he points out that is only a 5% return on his efforts.

 

Now he says he loves his new career as a Sales Executive at Eurofins E&E North America. This is a fascinating company. They are a global leader in product safety testing and inspection for pharmaceuticals, food, environment, MedTech and electrical products, including electric vehicles and more. They are also a leader in lab services and testing for pharmacology, genomics, molecular clinical diagnostic testing, forensics, and material science.

 

 How did he get from no job to this great job?

 

During his job search, Ismail had become discouraged. He found that job search in the Bay Area is very competitive, challenging and time consuming. He was lucky his wife somehow heard about The Job Forum! He came to us multiple times. He says he was helped by so many of our volunteers, managers from local companies, who took the time to encourage him, confirm that he had real value as an exceptional candidate, and open up his mind to searching in ways that would better communicate his value.  At The Job Forum he was advised to first stop sending in job applications and instead make new contacts, ask questions, and show himself to be genuinely curious, to focus on learning more about what was valued in various roles and companies on his target list.

 

Ismail listened. He started to try to reach out, ask for coffee meetings, ask via Linkedin for the chance to talk.

 

When reaching out, he said things like this: “I’m curious about your role at XYZ company (industry). I am about to apply to an open role (specifics or an example) and I am curious to hear about your story and your experience. Would you please share it and talk with me? “

 

It worked!

 

Ismail told me “Around 80% of the people I asked were willing to talk and help. There are so many nice American people!”

One thing he learned in the process is to be much more specific. He advises others:

“Be sure to say exactly what you are curious about, with specifics as to what you want to understand about the job role or the company or their experience. Ask lots of real questions about what the person you are speaking with has experienced themselves and ask them what they think it is like to do the job or be in the company or work in the field.”

 

Customizing and tailoring 

All the volunteers at The Job Forum told Ismail that “customizing and tailoring” his approach for each company and role would be very useful and would be necessary to succeed in a modern job search. One field he was interested in was a role in sales or business development.

 

As part of his information gathering campaign, he went to a seminar on using AI in sales, using ChatGPT.  So having heard about the need for customizing in his job search, he had used ChatGPT to fine tune his presentation of his skills. He got insights about various roles, analyzed his resume for fit with the job descriptions, and figured out what to expect as questions and potential answers for the interviews. He also collected so much material from the interviews he had with so many kind people that he began to put it all together, and this helped him tailor and customize his approach so he could more likely be the winning candidate.

 

Ismail says that he had 3 interviews at his new company. For those interviews his goal was to show the company that he is “other oriented” and can do “solution selling,” focusing on delivering product solutions to the prospect’s problem.

 

Value of The Job Forum

Ismail says: “The Job Forum changed everything for me.” He likes that we  bring local company managers together to advise job hunters.  He appreciates that The Job Forum mentors and managers encourage people like him with language like:  “Yes you can do this!” All of this makes a tremendous difference in the ability to keep at it – to take a more effective approach based on what companies want and needs that job hunters can fill.

 

“The Job Forum made me realize that I had the right seeds and just needed help to figure out how to water and grow the plant – so to speak.”

 

Here’s his advice:

 

“Every job hunter must do more, and be more curious – to get clarity by understanding these 3 things:

1. Who they are – the company, service, product and people

2. Who you are – the skills and the value you offer the company that they will want

3. How to combine the two so that you are super focused on what you bring as a solution. Clear insights on how you are the one who can be trusted to fix problems and deliver value in the job.

 

Giving back

Ismail hopes to give back to The Job Forum in order to help others who are looking for jobs. He says: “I truly can’t thank The Job Forum managers enough…” for helping and encouraging him and others looking for jobs in the SF Bay Area.

 

Thank you to Ismail for sharing his success story.

 

by Janet Beach, The Job Forum

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The Powerful Benefits of Informational Interviewing

The highlights from a workshop created as part of The Job Forum’s Workforce of the Future Program, which was supported in part by a grant from The Miranda Lux Foundation to help prepare young people under the age of 25 for the world of work.

Participants who are giving the advice:

Lisa Clark, the Chief People Officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, who focuses on Program Management and People Strategy.

Tina Choi, a consultant at Propeller, a management consulting company (with more than 8k employees) who focuses on projects from program management to operations and process improvements, especially in retail and technology spaces.

Penni Hudis, Chair, Board of Directors at Women’s Cancer Resource Center, which is a nonprofit providing cancer support services.

Kaishna Mckenzie, a doctor from the Dominican Republic who works as a medical assistant and social media manager at the Mosaddegh Eye Institute

Roger Brooks, Marketing Research Consultant &Strategist and Vice Chairman of The Job Forum, focused on market research in technology, digital and social media, and the wine industry.

Informational interviewing why and how?

Avoid job choice mistakes: I was talking just today with a good friend of mine, who is telling me that her daughter in law, who graduated college two years ago, took a job that didn’t end up being the job she thought she wanted or the job she thought she was getting into. Some proactive informational interviewing is what could have potentially prevented that lack of fit for ending up in a job that did not satisfy her.

Broaden your understanding: Informational interviews are absolutely critical. If you’re young, starting out in the world of work you’ve seen a job on a TV program, or you’ve talked to one person or two people who are in a job, it may sound interesting, but you hardly know anything about it.

You want to broaden your horizon. You want to talk with the number of people so that you can really get their varying perspectives and understand, via informational interviews, what matters in this job or type of work. Informational interviewing is how you research the roles and the companies. Informational interviewing is a form of data gathering. And you want to do it in a whole variety of settings in jobs that you know something about and jobs you know very little about and yet are potentially interested in.

Build your professional network: When you are lucky enough o be in informational you are starting to build a professional network.  You want to be ready with some really good questions for the person with whom you are speaking. Prepare questions for them about how did you get into this job? How did you prepare? What education did you have to have? Was that education background you had really beneficial? You want to come across as being someone who is someone they want to get to know better, because in the end, this could help you build your professional network.

Develop a business relationship: It is really, really critical to think of informational interviewing as a relationship and so when someone gives you their time, you absolutely want to do a very sincere “thank you” and be specific. Let the person know why you’re thanking them. I learned a lot about the job. I learned about the career path. I learned some really important advice that I will take to heart. I think the information you shared will be very valuable especially what you said about XYZ and ABC. Your thank you note can be an email or in writing and mailing or both.

Expand your contacts to other people and companies or industries: In the course of the informational interview, you ask, “Do you have a colleague or two with whom I could talk?” “Can you introduce me to someone else who got into this job? into this field? “Do you know someone I can meet next who joined the field in a different way? Who has an additional or may have a slightly different take on it?” “Can you please introduce me next to someone who may have a different background? Maybe they’re of a different age. Maybe they’re older, maybe they’re younger? Maybe they come from a different ethnic community”.

You want to be building that network as part of doing your informational interviews.

Company and industry culture fit: I think informational interviews are really important for you to get to know about the company and the role too and really learn about the team dynamic in the company or field and you are doing informational interviewing for you to understand, is that something that you want to do, and are you going to be successful with people depending on you for this kind of work?

 

Ask and you will find friendly people: Ask for an informational interview by name and method. “I wonder if you will allow me a 15-20 minute informational phone interview with you? I will really value being able to ask you about (- be specific – name a job title or say their company or department or industry.)

Most people are really open for giving short phone informational interviews, and they really want you to be to find the right fit and especially if you’re in high school, college, or you are transitioning to a new industry or thinking of switching to a different kind of a career role.  But you have to ask. Ask people you know. Ask on LinkedIn. Ask people you meet by attending The Job Forum. Ask people via Meet Up groups or industry meetings. Many people are going to welcome you with open arms because they want to help you find the jobs that are going to be the right ones for you.

Be prepared and don’t waste the opportunity: You want to treat an informational interview as an interview. You want to be prepared. You want to do your homework. You want to research the industry, so you’re prepared with good questions and questions that you know that you can’t necessarily answer online or looking though LinkedIn posts.

Examples of topics for valuable questions: What are those? What are those questions you have that help you to dig a little bit deeper?

  1. Do your homework on the individual that you’re talking to find out about him or her and then you can ask specifics related to his or her experience in the field. This experience is why you are talking with them.
  2. You also want to be prepared to talk succinctly about yourself and ask for feedback. Take some time to prepare and be able to share about your educational background and any work experience that you have, what your interests are, and ask the person if they think these make you a good fit for this type of a role or company or industry … and ask what you might do a better job of describing or what you might emphasize differently.

Then be prepared to ask between five to 10 questions you have about what related to what it is like to work in this job or field:

– What does a day in this kind of field look like?

– What are you mostly spending your time doing in this role?

– How are people evaluated in the job in this field?

– What is the career path upward for this compony?

– What is the name of the entry-level job title and what potentially comes next?

– Is this a field in which I will be able to financially support myself?

– Is this a field that is growing – or is it contracting or being replaced by other jobs?

– What are some examples of some challenges or the hardest parts of this job or this industry or this career?

– What are some examples of very satisfying aspects of this work?

Be sure to write the down your questions and practice speaking your questions: Review them ahead of time so it’s not the first time you’re asking them when you’re sitting, talking to the individual in your informational interview.

Stay in the data and information collection mode to find out how to succeed: In reality an informational interview is not a real interview for a job. It’s for you to network, and for you to get to know if a certain position or a certain company is going to be relatively ideal for you. I am working in a busy office as a medical assistant right now, This is my third job as a medical assistant. Each doctor has been completely different to assist and I’ve been doing ophthalmology all three times. So the same might be true for your job search. Each company that you’re at will be different. So the best way to understand what you will like and not like, or succeed in doing or not, is through informational interviewing to uncover information. You want to make a good career and job choice decision, so informational interviewing will increase your chances to do that.

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The Job Forum’s Workforce of the Future – “Good Careers for Young People to Consider”

Many, if not most, young people are undecided about what kind of work, or careers, they want to pursue, or how to prepare for an effective job search. The Job Forum (a 501c nonprofit now in its 70th year) has created a new youth program to help students and young people with job search and career advice!

 

Initiated last year, with funding support from the Miranda Lux Foundation, The Job Forum created a “Workforce of the Future” workshop series for young (15-25 age) job seekers. Also helpful in getting this important series off the ground was the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) College and Career Readiness Program.

 

The second workshop in this year’s series of six free sessions are devoted to introducing an array of professions to young job searchers who are, or may be, considering different career paths. The schedule and link for more information and way to register appear below.

   
·      Good Careers for Young People to Consider

Part II – Finance, Sales, Social Media, and Technology

March 8, 2023
   
   

These and all workshops leverage the expertise of Job Forum volunteer panelists who represent a wide range of San Francisco Bay Area professions and companies. All young people are welcome to attend and start to make connections with adults in SF Bay Area businesses who want to help mentor them.

 

To register for free, please visit our Eventbrite page or click here: https://moregoodcareers.eventbrite.com.

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Is The Sky Falling?

Is the sky falling?

 

As I write, none of my clients at tech companies like Google and PagerDuty has been laid off, but they have been affected nonetheless. One tried to reach her boss on the day layoffs were announced, only to discover his email had been deactivated; he had been laid off. Another client experienced overwhelming anxiety as an expected layoff was delayed for weeks. Yet another wondered how to complete projects which relied on collaboration with another team which had been eliminated.

Behind the headlines, there are real human beings trying to figure out how to navigate the loss of colleagues, more work on their own plates, and of course their own lives at the same time. Survivor guilt, the challenges of a reconfigured organization, and worry about one’s own future can impede effectiveness, which in turn adds to stress. Some people rush into working harder in hopes that will keep them safe, while others become disengaged, fearing they will be next.

What can you realistically do to protect and take care of yourself in confusing times like these? Here are a few tips:

First, evaluate your sources and the information itself. Learn to recognize both scare headlines and false reassurance, even from legitimate sources. Internal announcements and press releases from an employer are authentic sources, but they often use vague language, without much detail. News media may provide more context, but they often employ scare headlines to attract attention, or they imply trends beyond what the data support.

For example, I have seen quite a number of headlines saying “Another tech company announces layoffs,” sometimes adding “as cuts continue.” I know that the point of headlines is to attract attention, which such phrases do very well. However, to my ears they also suggest that there will be many more layoffs ahead, which cannot be known. In fact, many economists believe there is a continuing shortage of workers for most positions. Therefore, it’s wise to actually pay attention and continue reading with questions in mind such as: What percentage of total staff is being laid off? How fast will it happen? Does the company say anything about severance pay? How is the company actually doing? Looking for this information will help you decide whether the sky is falling or someone is getting excited without enough information.

Second, it’s essential to know your own patterns when unpleasant news arrives. Do you overreact with anxiety or anger? Do you minimize the problem with rationalization, denial, or false hope? Do you isolate yourself, distract yourself, decide “I’m too busy to think about it now”? Being aware of your default pattern allows you to make better decisions about how to react, how to take care of yourself, and what to do immediately and in the coming weeks or months. Meanwhile, you can gather more information and consider your options.

 

 

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA production from Pexe

 

Third, tune into your values, strengths, and objectives. Focus on what matters most to you, Is it financial security, opportunities to learn new skills, the types of colleagues or customers you interact with? Ask yourself some tough questions: Do you trust that management is making good decisions? Do you feel appreciated for your strengths or are you being given projects that bore you? Are your employer’s mission and organizational culture consistent with your values? Do you have influence in your organization, or do you feel like a cog in the machine?

Fourth, take care of yourself. Take steps to support your physical and mental health, such as exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, practicing mindfulness, and relaxing with friends or a hobby. It can be tempting to let such basic self care lapse in times of stress, but that’s just when we need to be more protective of ourselves in order to be more observant, more creative, and more effective.

Fifth, take appropriate action. Refresh your connections with former colleagues and mentors, update your LinkedIn profile, upgrade and diversify your skills, rethink your expenditures and set aside funds for a rainy day. With your values and objectives in mind, consider whether an internal transfer, external job search, side hustle, or something else will serve you best. Brainstorm with trusted friends and advisors to better understand what you need and what you have to offer. Nourish your curiosity with new experiences and by meeting new people. These approaches will not only support you in the near term, they will strengthen you as a person and as a colleague or manager.

I’m always doubtful about predictions of the future. Most predictions, whether of doom or utopia, turn out to be inaccurate even when they contain elements of insight. I am persuaded that the best path to security, success, and happiness involves knowing what is important to you, cultivating relationships with kindred spirits and also with people with different perspectives, and nourishing your curiosity so that when the unexpected happens you notice potential opportunities as well as risks. It’s unlikely that the sky is falling, but if there are acorns or even debris landing around you, you want to be able to assess what it is and what it means for you.

I’m always interested in hearing from you. Please send me your responses to this newsletter, forward these thoughts to others who may benefit, and let me know if I can support you in important decisions.

 

by Deborah Frangquist – Deborah@chosenfutures.com

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Call For Job Forum Volunteers

The Job Forum is looking for great volunteers to help us with the valuable roles. These roles are ones where you can add the experience to your professional work experience. Please ask to interview for the roles you are interested in.

 

Contact Janet Beach for an interview:

 jbeach@usmarketingservices.com

415-309-3575

 

Please briefly state why you are interested and what you hope to contribute.

 

 Non-profit Fundraiser:

  • Conduct research for identifying ten new fundraising sources
  • Help design marketing case statements for communicating the value of The Job Forum for different funding target audiences
  • Create promotional materials and lead our outreach efforts
  • Research and write grant proposals
  • Develop/improve sponsorship descriptions and materials to help our organization achieve more corporate sponsorships to meet fundraising goals.
  • Send appeal letters asking for donations

 

Social Media Marketing Developer for non-profit organization:

 

  • Develop and implement Social Media to build awareness of our organization and its programs that help job hunters.
  • Set up campaigns via Social Media to spread the word about our organization’s mission.
  • Help with fundraising because social media can attract new donors and keeps existing donors engaged and aware of all we are accomplishing weekly
  • Help with attracting new volunteers in that Social Media can assist us in growing a more of network of volunteers especially for high growth job and industry categories.
  • Create Interactive content and post to social media to allow our audience to participate and feel more engaged.

 

Technical Project Assistant for non-profit organization:

  • Provide technical support at select events
  • Technical trouble shooting as needed
  • Streamline and improve ways to use technology at the organization
  • Provide some technical training to volunteers as needed

 

Co-Vice Chairman for non-profit organization:

  • Prepare a path for a change of leadership in the future
  • Take on responsibility for development and implementation of certain programs and events and add to the Job Forum leadership
  • Moderate discussion panels and take over some of the time spent by the ED
  • Conduct outreach to attract more volunteers experts for certain sectors
  • Streamline the work effort and set up systems to repeat successful programs
  • Generate ideas and recommend new programs and processes
  • Become the face of the Job Forum leadership for certain target audiences
  • Prepare and practice to take on more organization leadership in the future

 

Communications Developer

 

Resource Development and engagement communications for non-profit organization:

  • Take on responsibility for development and implementation of finding additional resources and partners and regularly communicating with select cohort groups and programs
  • Set up a regular calendar of communications about Job Forum programs and results and volunteers to send to volunteers and supporters
  • interview job hunters about their path to employment and write articles for the Job Forum digital newsletter
  • Manage and develop regular useful communications for our meet up group to make it more valuable and engaging.
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Come To The Job Forum To Expand Your Professional Network

We all have been hearing a lot about gloom in the job market and layoffs by large companies. There are a few things you CAN do:

 

  1. Come to The Job Forum to meet people who know lots of other people and may be able to refer you to a great company you did not know about!

 

  1. Focus on companies who publicly state they are hiring. Where to find these?

You can read the local business newspapers, The San Francisco Business Times, The East Bay Business Times, The North Bay Business Times, and Silicon Valley Business Journal.

 

  1. Here is a link to a list of some companies who are actively hiring. https://stillhiring.today/. Many of these are on growth mode. They include San Francisco Bay Area companies like:

 

Grammerly.

LaunchDarkly,

Clouldflare,

Freshworks,

Pandadoc,

Zip,

Deel,

Secureframe,

Avoma,

Sigma Computing,

Hightouch,

NextHealth,

Pave,

Abnormal Security,

Placer.ai,

Cribl,

Databricks, and more!

 

See you soon at The Job Forum every Wednesday evening sessions on zoom where you can ask in depth questions about your own job search initiatives.

 

Sign up on Eventbrite: https://thejobforumwednesdays.eventbrite.com

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Exploring The Professional Summary

As a professional résumé writer, I am always happy to offer advice and support to job seekers who are working to write a résumé that will be impactful and catch attention in today’s competitive job market.  One of the questions that I am asked quite often concerns the Professional Summary as a key section of a well-written résumé.

 

I consider  the Professional Summary to be one of the three key elements I consider important in an effective résumé, the other two being summaries of Core Competencies and Selected Career Highlights.  One of the mistakes job seekers generally make in writing is a résumé is failing to leverage the top half of page one of the résumé to present a strong value proposition to the potential employer, highlighting what sets the job seeker apart from other candidates. These three summaries are key elements of that value proposition and should appear “above the fold,” as it were.

 

First, let me say that the Professional Summary replaces the Professional Objective, which was once the opening statement of a résumé. The problem with an objective statement is that such a statement tends to be heavily focused on what the candidate wants, what he or she is “seeking.” Quite frankly, the employer doesn’t care what the candidate wants; the employer wants to know what the candidate can do and how well he or she can do it. The Professional Summary, on the other hand, is focused on what makes the candidate unique. In essence, the summary answers the age-old first question of the job interview, “Tell me a little bit about yourself.” It is the opening statement of the résumé and might be thought of as an expanded elevator pitch. The following is a sample summary:

 

Results-oriented, team-focused Human Resources (HR)  professional with more than 10 years of management and operations experience and advanced certification (Senior Professional in Human Resources/SPHR). Solid business acumen and ‘big picture’ outlook paired with understanding of the value of dedicated HR departments. High-level emotional intelligence and proven ability to promote visibility, approachability, and availability of HR. Capable of displaying a sense of fairness and openness in coaching and counseling employees. Proven effectiveness in increasing reliability of HR files. Accustomed to managing multiple time-sensitive tasks.

 

Comprised of seven to five lines of block text, the Professional Summary is the place to introduce the prospective employer to who you are as an employee. This is the place for outlining your “soft skills”—your ability to build consensus within a team, your problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, and your ability to cultivate and leverage relationships with strategic partners. In the summary, you might consider highlighting a unique combination of education and skills. Essentially, the summary is like the blurb on the back of the book jacket, compelling the reader to dig deeper and invest in reading the entire novel.

 

A good Professional Summary will define the job seeker’s career objective, but in a much more organic way. In fact, I would be remiss if I did not mention the importance of writing a résumé with a clearly defined career objective in mind. It is always of paramount importance to know what you hope to accomplish with the résumé. Having a career objective front-of-mind during the writing process ensures that your résumé has focus, and it will, indeed, inform the creation of the summary.

 

One word of caution, however. Keep in mind that recruiters and hiring managers (especially the most seasoned ones) are accustomed to skimming résumés rather quickly. Technical or hard skills are best presented in a bulleted list of Core Competencies. I often see résumés in which the writer has buried some very critical technical skills (those which align with the essential job functions of the target) within the opening summary. Making a very clear delineation between soft skills (Professional Summary) and technical/hard skills (Core Competencies) will serve you very well.

Best of luck to you in  your job search.

 

Written by Jerome Imhoff – resumeshopink@gmail.com

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The Job Forum welcomes you to volunteer with The Job Forum. This is a unique nonprofit group that has been offering job search advice and support to those who need and want to work for 70 years here in the SF Bay Area. Our volunteer members represent all stages of their careers and all sorts of roles at the companies where they work. Many of our current Job Forum volunteers were job hunters who got advice and encouragement from others, when they themselves were looking for a job!

 

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