As a parent, I think we all have that one saying or phrase that absolutely drives our kids crazy. If you would ask my son I am sure it would be ‘you lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part’.
He would ‘forget’ about projects, deadlines or responsibilities and somehow it would spill over to me. Finding 24-hour stores to buy poster board or other supplies; finding cleats that would fit him, were the right color and would actually last past two games at the last possible minute or completing forms on the way to school.
He would get in quite the tizzy about the impending deadline and be frustrated with me because I did not alter my speed in helping complete the impending doomed task. This is when the phrase would come into play.
He did not like the fact that I did not take on the urgency of the situation. He asked me once why I did not and I told him because, quite frankly, it was not mine. He knew, even without specific deadlines, that preparation was needed, yet failed to plan and prepare.
You do not do 2-a-day practices not knowing you are going to need new season cleats. C’mon.
Maybe your job has been stable, given you the opportunity to learn something new – yet you know you are going to want to leave. You are not quite fulfilled or you see a change in the industry or company that does not sit right with you. Perhaps you are content, it is good enough, although if another opportunity comes up you would certainly entertain it, even though you are not looking.
You are at 2-a-days.
You are actually preparing for the next step in your career even if you are not fully aware of it. There is one missing piece – what if that opportunity does come, out of the blue – then what?
Are you fully prepared? Can you translate what you are doing to what you want to do? Can you communicate effectively how you can easily move from one position to the next? In other words: is your resume and interview prep ready?
I hope so. Your break can happen any time, ready or not, it can happen.
I do hear people say that the resume is dead. No, not really. You see, it not only serves as a document that companies keep on file for their official records, as a means to introduce yourself to the right audience – it serves a greater purpose.
It helps you identify and communicate the most important aspect of you as a contributing employee: your value.
What do you bring to the table? It is not your current job description or any job description for that matter. Those things are what you were hired to do.
Your value is what you do, how you do it and how others receive benefit from it.
You manage a team. Yawn. What does that mean? What kind of manager are you? Do you bark out orders, give numbers then keep locked in an office demanding quotas be met? Or are you the roll-up-the-sleeves-in-the-weeds with your team get it done, motivating, mentoring manager? Saying you are a manager does not give the slightest inkling into your value.
Oversee a budget. Boring. What does that mean? Compile reports. Snooze. What information is included, where do you get it, how do you put it together and who uses it for what purpose?
Translating value into a resume is not just for the reader – it is for you. When you compose a resume that is value driven demonstrating rather than stating you get the benefit. This is your sales statement. Before you can sell any product you have to know it inside and out.
Putting together your resume gives you the complete information about the product – you; the benefits, features, strengths and return on investment. Knowing this information you can ace interviewing and networking by being able to adapt your sales statement to any audience.
When you try to put together this tools critical for career progression at the last minute it will most likely turn out like the 11th hour school poster board project. Is that how you want to present yourself to an ideal opportunity that just fell in your lap?
If you are not actively looking for a job now is an ideal time to start putting your resume together. There is no pressure or deadline that is breathing down your back. Also, hiring a professional resume writer at the 11th hour is not going to guarantee success. Many do not do immediate turn around because we understand that an effective resume is not simply translating your job duties into pretty bullet points within 24 hours.
Start now. Take an old job think about what you did, how, who you worked with, how you worked with them and how they received benefit by you doing what you did. This is the foundation of value. You then have plenty of time to review, add, edit, tweak, evaluate, walk away, tweak some more and have a baseline ready.
That way when an ideal opportunity appears – or a worst case scenario (downsizing, mergers, closings etc.) all you have to do is a bit of tweaking and can engage immediately. As Henry Hartman so eloquently said:
“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity”
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As the Founder and Principle of Career Polish, Inc., a national career coaching and practice firm, I am an Executive Brand Strategist, Resume Writer and Career Coach. I work with individual clients, companies, leadership and teams to identify, strengthen and effectively communicate their brand, engagement, commitment and most importantly – their value – by learning and leveraging LinkedIn, resumes, networking, communication, relationship management, presence and influence.
I help people get from where they are in their jobs to where they want to be in their careers.
Click here – CareerPolish.com – to find out more about how we can help you.
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