Mom Returning to Workforce

Dear Liz,

I am a 27 year old mother of 2 young children (3.5 & 1 year old). I got my B.S. degree in Computer Science in 2003 and did two 1 year co--ops (during college) at big computer companies. However, since 2003, I have not held any computer related jobs and have been home with my kids. (I've worked small jobs in other work areas.) I feel rusty in my programming skills andI feel like so much time has passed that my knowledge and software experience is probably so out of date.

However, I study things online and feel that I am able to pick things up quickly-most of the software and program languages have some similarities so one can learn the differences and pick up things easily at this point. I found a job that I really like and want to apply to in the website area. I've worked on website stuff in my co-ops in the past and on a personal level but I don't remember what software was used. The job requires some experience in Dreamweaver and CSS which I don't have but I have read about and learned online. I feel confident that I would be able to pick things up quickly and do the job well but I am just not sure how I can address these issues with the interviewer should I get to that point. For now, I want to make sure the information I put in my resume and cover letter would be consistent with what I might talk to them about in the future.

Also, is it acceptable to tell an interviewer that I was home with my kids these past few years?If I'm asked about things from my co-ops that I don't remember-what do I say? Unfortunately I haven't been able to get in contact with any of my bosses or coworkers from either co-op job-especially after so many computer companies went out of business and groups and people got shuffled,reshuffled, and laid off in the past 5 years. Any advice?

Marwa

FROM LIZ:

Dear Marwa, here are a few pieces of advice as you pursue thejob that you spotted:

1) Definitely take some time to learn about the company [unless it's a 'blind'ad, in which case you won't be able to do that] in order to write a terrific cover letter to send with your resume.

2) If you can find a contact via LinkedIn or your offline network that can help you get your resume into the company without going through the dreaded BlackHole, i.e. applying to the job online, that's the best way to go - especially since you're a non-cookie-cutter candidate.

3) Spend some time trying to reach co-workers and managers from those two co-ops. You said that you haven't been in touch, but it's extremely easy to find people online these days. It's worth some research time and a few phone calls to see if you can make live contact with a person who could recommend you. With your most recent years having been spent out of the workforce, these recommendations are extremely important for you.

4) For sure, say in your resume and cover letter that you've been home with your kids. There's nothing disrespectable about that!

5) Also, spend some time online to try and remember the software you worked with before. It's one thing to explain that you don't have Dreamweaver experience -not the end of the world - but another to say "Five years later, I don't remember the name of the application I learned." It'd be worth your time to have this information at your fingertips. Experts in this group and in your other networks can tell you how the software you used compares to Dreamweaver.

Cheers,

Liz

Explaining Resume Gaps?

Dear Liz,

At two different times in my career and for two different reasons, I have gaps between my past jobs. One gap is four months long, the other seven months long. I feel uncomfortable writing in my resume or in my cover letter about these gaps, one of which was due to a relationship situation (I quit a job planning to go into business with my SO, but that didn't pan out) and the other to a health issue which has not recurred. Any suggestions for minimizing the impact oft hese gaps, on my resume?

Yours,

Robin

Dear Robin,

There is no need to list the months of your employment on your resume. Simply list each job that you've held with the years of employment next to your job title (e.g. 2002-2004) and those gaps will disappear. In the unlikely event that a prospective employer conducts a background check and asks you later about one or both of the gaps, you'll at least have moved further down the selection pipeline and with luck have established enough rapport to enable a more comfortable conversation about these somewhat sensitive topics. In many cases, however, your prospective employer won't care about short gaps in employment, as long as your skills are a match for the job and your references are excellent.

Cheers,

Liz

Lose the Lame Lingo (Resumes and 70's Pickup Lines)

When I was 19 I lived in New York, where the drinking age was eighteen. Thus it was perfectly legal for me to go dancing to Rick James and his ilk at the Ipanema Ballroom with my friend DeeDee, and I did.

One night, as I sat at a table by myself (DeeDee having taken a moment to powder her nose) a somewhat unsteady young man pulled up a chair at my table and sat down. Before I had a chance to react, he began a conversation with "Say, youdon't look so bad yourself," causing a question to flash into my mind: What'sthe term for a non-sequitur that doesn't follow anything?

Before I landed on the answer, the young man opened his mouth again and I thought, dear god, don't let him say "So, you come here often?"The poor thing did not disappoint. Gazing groggily across the table, he delivered the two-fer, "You come here often? And what's your sign?"

DeeDee soon regained her seat at the table and ousted the young man, and we all carried on with our lives right up through the present day. Surely these many years later the young man in the story has put aside those hackneyed ‘70's pick-up lines. No club-goer with the slightest grasp of what is seemly would dare let questions like "What's your sign?" or "Come here often?" or let "You don't look so bad yourself" pass his lips outside of a Wild 'n Crazy Guy imitation at a Halloween party.

We know better. Those old pickup lines are trite and embarrassing.

What does this story have to do with your resume? Plenty.

If you'd be horrified at the thought of greeting a fetching stranger with"What's your sign?" you should know that there are equally tired, unoriginal and cringe-worthy phrases strewn across the resumes of job-seekers today. It's time to root them out. In fact, it's long past time.

To read the full story, jump here.

Why Isn't My Resume Working?

There are a lot of job-seekers on the market at any given time. It is easy for anybody's resume to get lost in the mix.

Many resumes are never read by resume-screeners at all. That's one reason we can send out twenty or thirty resumes and get no replies from employers for our trouble.

Still, if you're sending out a lot of resumes (and if you're writing pithy, customized cover letters to go with 'em) then it's fair to assume that your resume is not getting the job done for you. What could be wrong?

Check your resume for one of these ten common problems that will sink your interview prospects like a toy boat (say that ten times fast!):

Your resume isn't suited to the job.

Even if you write the world's greatest cover letter, you've got to have a resume that fits the job description. So, if you're qualified for the job but your resume doesn't show that: change it! That's why God invented MS Word.

Your resume is too hard to read.

A huge problem with lots of resumes is that they're too dense and dry. A resume isn't supposed to read like an 1845 international shipping manual. It should have a human voice. Does yours?

Your resume is too long.

Related to the previous problem, an overly long resume is off-putting to screeners. Two pages is the max - yes, editing is a business skill!

Your resume has mistakes in it.

The downside of being able to change our resumes at the drop of a hat is the ability to add new mistakes to them any time we feel like it (even at 3:00 a.m., when we can't sleep). Double-check your resume every time you revise it, and every time you look at it - it's easy to miss misteaks that we tpyed oursleves.

Your resume isn't up to date.

If your resume says that you worked Al's Fish and Game, and Al shut down the business in April, you're not credible from the get. Make sure your resume is current, with your current job and your current contact info. If your resume says "200x to present" you need to still be working at the job. Otherwise, change it.

Your resume is wishy-washy.

Another common resume mistake is to say "I do Customer Service! I do Sales! I do Marketing! I juggle, and I play the tuba!" Too much stuff in a five-lb. bag will not help you get a job. Use your precious resume real estate to describe what you do best.

Your resume has no meat on the bone.

Yet another common resume hurdle is this: lots of resumes are full of vague generalities: "I added significant value to the bottom line through best-in-class leadership of strategic initiatives." Yeah, what? Be specific. Tell us what you actually did, and tell us in context.

Your resume is alarming.

A resume full of job shifts, twists and turns requires explanation. Use some of your cover letter real estate to explain why you left Job A for Job B, and B for C and so on, or use the last bullet point in each job's details to explain why you bolted. Inquiring minds want to know, before they'll call you for an interview.

Your resume has unexplained gaps.

Multiple gaps of long duration raise questions, and your resume has to answer them. Explain what you were doing when you weren't working, and why you're chomping at the bit to get back to the rat race now.

Your resume doesn't sell you.

A resume that merely lists the tasks and duties you performed each day on each previous job doesn't say "Let's hire this person!" Use your resume to showcase accomplishments. What did you do to make each place better than it was when you arrived?

Hope these resume don'ts are helpful in your job search! Questions about your career and how to get to the next step? Write to me at liz@asklizryan.com

What About A Bad Reference?

You may be job-hunting, and come to the realization that someone is saying bad things about you. It could be someone you worked for in the past. It could be someone you worked with.

If the bad-mouthing person is one of your references, you're in luck, strangely. If you discover that one of your 'official' references is sliming you behind your back, you can drop that person from your reference list.
How would you find something like this out? You'd be well along in an interview process, things going swimmingly, when suddenly the recruiter or the corporate HR person calls and says "We've decided to in a different direction." You'll be mystified. If this happens two or three times, you might want to re-check your references.

Sometimes reference-givers don't mean to shank you, yet they do it. They'll say something like "Samantha is a a terrific marketer, but I understand she's trying to move into Sales - I'm not sure she'll succeed in a Sales capacity." Thanks for nothing, buster!

If someone can't recommend you heartily, he or she can't be one of your references. But it may be tough to pinpoint your reference problem. If you suspect that one of your references is not doing you any favors, ask a friend in a staffing or temp firm to call your references for you and check. Don't know anyone like that? Get thee out to some local networking events and meet some of those people! Undoubtedly there are favors you could do for them, in turn.

It's easy enough to replace a reference who's sinking your submarine. But what if the person who's bad-mouthing you is not someone on your list? There are people in every town who take delight in slamming other people. I overheard a woman at a networking event say, "Oh, Shelly is a nice person, but she planned an event for me in 2000 and it was a disaster." Yikes, that was eight years ago! Give Shelly a break.

There's not a lot you can do about sideways bad references. People know people. That's one of the reasons that you have to know people, too. Your reputation should be strong enough so that one unfortunate dent in your reference-list won't kill you. There should be three people willing to trumpet your fabulousness, for every one who doesn't.

Not sure if you've got all the people you could use in your corner? Get out there and network, my friend. That's what a network is: a net of colleagues who know you and trust you. If you know someone who knows the bad-mouther, you may be able to 86 the slander or at least tamp it down. All it takes is for someone to come to your defense a couple of times in public, a la "You talking about Shelly? Shelly is an amazing event planner. She planned my corporate retreat last year and it was incredible" to slow the slimer down a tic. The next time s/he's asked about you, that naysayer may say "I had a less than sensational experience working with Shelly, but it was a long time ago, and I hear her service is fantastic now."

We can't guarantee that outcome. But we can keep moving in the needle in the right direction.