Introduction
Welcome back to the Facts of Life Book Series. In this week's issue, I have a BIG announcement about a course and community developed around this series, as well as our update on last week and the information about what we're adding to our Facts of Life Book this week. Let's dig in.
Facts of Life Book is also now an online course and community
As I've written this series, I realized that I want to form an online course and community around this topic - organizing our most important information BEFORE our need for it becomes urgent. While it's still a work in progress, I'm really excited to announce that the web site and course are now available. The web site is https://www.factsoflifebook.com. You can go to the course purchase page by clicking the blue button on the page just under the photos. Not ready to buy but want to stay informed? No problem, just sign up for the email list by using the form at the bottom of the page.
The course officially begins January 1, 2023 - but you can get lifetime access now for the lowest price ever - just $25 US.
How did you do collecting your education and training records?
Last week, we collected our education and training records. I encouraged you to start building out your Curriculum Vitae and/or Resume - which is a foundational document of the Facts of Life Book. You will update this often.
How did this process go for you? Did you find it easy to collect those records? Did you have any trouble obtaining these records? Drop a comment to update on your progress.
Collecting Your Work Records on Your CV/Resume
Start with the Basics - Continue Adding to your CV/Resume
As I mentioned last week, I recommend keeping one "primary" resume or curriculum vitae (CV). I call my primary document my CV. Each customized version that I create for each job I apply for or each time I have to provide it is called a resume.
Most people think about their work records as just a list of the employers, job titles, basic job functions, and the start and end date of a job. These basics definitely need to be the foundation of your vitae's employment history. That said, I want to help you expand your thoughts about these areas.
Identify Skills
Many jobs today are filled starting with an electronic screening process for resumes (and cover letters where they are even accepted). Adding a skills section to your CV/resume today is imperative. The Skills section should boil down your most important skills, relevant to this role, into three to five simple statements.
If a job description lists specific required skills and you have those skills, use the exact works on the job description in your resume for that job. You can also add a visual (like a little graphical scale) showing your skill level if you're learning something.
This is an excellent example that shows both "Hard" Skills (named Technical Skills) and Soft Skills.
Focus on the details using PAR
When I coach folks to prepare for interviews, I ask them to make their PAR list - Problem - Action - Result. This list gives them a list of specific examples that have sufficient detail to serve as answers for interview questions.
When preparing your resume/CV you need to really focus on PAR (Problem, Action, Result) as well. Most people list actions on their resume but they fail to draw people in with PAR.
Compare these two statements:
- Led five person sales team
- Deployed five person sales team around market segments resulting in annual increase in sales of $2M+ for the last five years
Notice how the second one communicates so much more and yet is still succinct.
It also communicates that you actively did something (you organized around market segments) and you had measurable results ($2M+ in increased sales).
This excellent handout includes a great list of Action Verbs and has a wonderful formula you can use for building PAR statements.
Unpaid Work is Still Work
According to a 2006 survey by Deloitte, more than 60% of respondents indicated that they believed volunteer experience had a positive impact on their careers. Yet, may people do not highlight volunteer work on their CV/resume - even when the experience they've gained through the volunteer work is directly related to the job they are applying to.
I advocate capturing all volunteer work on your CV and then deciding for each role how you will showcase this work on your resume.
My vitae section for this is entitled Community Service and at this point in my career is typically nothing more than a list of the organizations I volunteer with and non-profit boards I serve on. However, earlier in my career, I featured one of my volunteer roles - creating web sites for community organizations and political campaigns - under a "job" titled Web Site Development and Administration Experience in my work experience section. If you want to see an example of what this might look like as well as several other excellent examples of how to highlight volunteer experience, check out this great article.
Working In Public
When you do "work in public" - publish an article relevant to your career field, give a presentation at a conference, etc. you need to capture this on your CV - and highlight appropriately on individual resumes.
I have sections for all of the following on my CV:
- Professional memberships and affiliations
- Publications
- Presentations
And, since CVs are typically in the domain of higher education institutions, I'll also include that you should include University, Department and Professional service as a section of your CV if you work in this domain.
Other Life Experiences
If you are multi-lingual, you absolutely need to highlight language experience on your CV/resume. Additionally, in some cases it may be appropriate to include your Activities or Interests. I've never personally included these but they are in my Bio as a part of my media kit on my professional website.
If you are in the US, you absolutely must have a LinkedIn profile and it needs to be updated regularly. I have an article coming out on Friday with 5 tips for updating your LinkedIn profile so be sure to check that out.
Other Ways to Showcase Your Work
Depending on the kind of work you do, you may also want to showcase your work in a physical or digital portfolio. Graphic designers, writers, coders and others should consider building online showcases for their work. As you start to build this part of your Facts of Life Book, it's a good time to consider if this is a worthwhile investment of time and effort for you to take on.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
Next week we will begin capturing information about your finances.
A note on this section - I have a lot of personal shame around my finances. Too much money spent on things I didn't need. A bad investment decision from time to time, etc. If you also have this, try not to let that be a reason you don't collect this information and work through this section. We've all made some decisions about money that we regret. It is completely normal.
And, if you don't have much money, it's still a good time to start building processes so that as your wealth does grow you've got places to store all the info you need. I made my first financial tracker when I was in college when my net worth was negative so trust me that I know how it feels to be tracking more debt than wealth. Try to view this as a step towards building a more financially stable and healthy future.