Boston Globe has an article about people dumbing down their resume to avoid the dreaded "overqualified" response.

Hmm.. I am not sure rebranding a "Marketing Director" position into a "Marketing Manager" is ethical, despite what the article says.

Kevin Lewis writes about a study in a Boston Globe article:

Watching the news some days, you'd think a lot of companies were run by psychopaths. And, according to a recent study, some might well be. One of the authors of the study was hired by companies to evaluate managers - mostly middle-aged, college-educated, white males - for a management development program. It turns out that these managers scored higher on measures of psychopathy than the overall population, and some who had very high scores were candidates for, or held, senior positions. In general, managers with higher scores were seen as better communicators, better strategic thinkers, and more creative. However, they were also seen as having poor management style, not being team players, and delivering poor performance. But, apparently, this didn't prevent some of them from being seen as having leadership potential. The authors conclude that "the very skills that make the psychopath so unpleasant (and sometimes abusive) in society can facilitate a career in business even in the face of negative performance ratings."

Babiak, P. et al., "Corporate Psychopathy: Talking the Walk," Behavioral Sciences & the Law (March/April 2010).

If you lose your job these days, it's worth scrambling to find a new one fast. After six months of unemployment, your chances of landing work dwindle.

The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That's the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans.

Read the whole article on Huffington Post

If you are within drivable distance of North TV, 93 South Washington Street North Attleborough, MA 02760, come by this Tuesday, June 8 any time between 5-7 PM for a 2-minute video resume. Hopefully this will become a regular program-- we will keep you posted.

There is no cost: the video resume will be free, and it will be broadcast on North TV, North Attleboro's public access channel.

If you are too far away, still read this post for useful tips on making your own video resume.

If you have any questions, contact Karen Ross at 617.417.0886, or email her at NorthJobFocus@aol.com. If you bring a CD, they will also give you the video on the CD.

Things you should do before you arrive:

1. Prepare what you are going to say. 2 minutes may not sound like much, but when you are talking for 2 minutes about yourself in a professional way, it will feel like an eternity. So write a script, practice reading it, make sure it is between 90-110 seconds when spoken in a measured tone
2. When writing the script, remember: a video resume is not your resume read aloud in a video. This is your elevator-pitch, only longer (you do know what an elevator speech is, right?)
3. Include at least the following elements:
   • A greeting. Do not say "good-morning" or "good evening". A "hello" will do nicely
   • State your name and profession: "My name is Joe Smith, and I am an accountant"
   • Follow up by your experience: "I have __ years of experience as ________ at ______________. While there, I (include instances of how you saved them money, or made them money, etc."
   • Remember: Do not embelish your video resume. Once it goes to the Internet, there is no going back, so just the facts, please
     
4. Dress accordingly. Remember: the employer will see you and will develop an impression of how you will be at the workplace. So unless you want to be a bartender in a tropical resort, shorts and flip-flops will be a bad career move. You don't have to wear a suit (unless your profession demands you do) but dress as if you are going to your new job on your first day.
5. You would be surprised what a professional camera and bright lights can do to a face. If you are male, shave (or groom your facial hair). Fix your hair. In short, look presentable, because that's what you want people to think.
   

Of course, if you wish, you can display your video resume right here. We will take care of uploading it to Youtube with the right tags.

Good luck.. I hope the video resume will help you land a job.

A virtual job fair is scheduled May 6th and several nationally known companies such as All State and McDonald's are participating. The virtual career fair is free, and job seekers can sign up at now http://www.myjstn.com/vcf/ for the event and get updates.

The event is sponsored by Job Search Television Network, which just started broadcasting in the Boston market, where it is being carried on WMFP and on Comcast Channel 52 from 6 - 8 a.m. Monday - Friday.

The network is also on Verizon FiOS, RCN, DirecTV (Ch. 62) and Dish Network (8786) in Boston.

The channel also just began airing in Rhode Island on Cox Cable Channel 71, and Manchester, NH on Cox Cable Channel 72 from 6-7 a.m. and 9-10 p.m. Monday - Friday reaching another million viewers across the region. JSTN is expected to cover all of New England by the end of the spring and is building toward becoming a national network.

Looking for low-cost job-search assistance or career counseling?

Working with the Employment Guide, AARP is holding Helping Experience Work@50+ Career Fairs throughout 2010 in the 19 states with the highest unemployment rates among older workers. The Work@50+ Career Fairs are free; there is no cost to participate.

States holding one or more career fairs include the following:

Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington.

Each Work@50+ Career Fair will offer career counseling, job-hunting strategies, networking tips, and information on how to effectively market your skills and experience. Employers ready to hire 50+ workers will also be on site. Attending a career fair is an excellent opportunity to enhance and re-energize your job search efforts.

Get more information on the Helping Experience Work@50+ Career Fairs and register for an event near you.

Let me make clear that I don't think all recruiters play these games, but enough of them are guilty of these to give the rest a bad name. If you, as a candidate, have seen these or similar tricks, or want to defend recruiters, let us know through your comments. If you are a recruiter and think that we are being unfair, add those comments too.

These are excerpts from our book, "The Laidoff Ninja."

1. A recruiter will contact you, tell you about the job, and send you a job description, but won't tell you the name of the company because they are afraid that you will either apply directly or go through another recruiter. Really.

2. Many recruiters will often advertise phantom jobs to build up a candidate pool. This often results in the scenario described above where they would not tell the candidate the name of the employer, because there isn't one.

3. Recruiter will say to a candidate: "I am having lunch with the hiring manager tomorrow." Craig, the co-author of The Laidoff Ninja, called a recruiter to see how his lunch with the hiring manager went. It was obvious that he didn't even remember saying it. He fumbled for recovery by saying, "Oh ... yeah ... that is tomorrow."

The purpose of a recruiter saying "I am having lunch with the hiring manager" is to imply that he or she has a real-life relationship with the hiring manager. This one falls in one of hte plausible but unlikely scenario.

4.Recruiter: "We will only handle you if you come in and interview with us first."

Why? If you have a recruiter who is saying that you have to meet in person, insist on finding out his reasoning.Is it an ego trip? Is it pre-screening? Why can't it be done over the phone?

5. Recruiters will ask one candidate about interview experiences, and then pass on the experience to the next candidate. Is it ethically and morally OK? As I am not a recruiter I don't know, but here is what I do know:

Candidates: Unless you knew the recruiter previously and considered him a friend, remember that he is NOT your friend, and he does NOT have an exclusive with YOU. He gets paid when ANY of his candidates gets hired; he does not particularly care if it's you, Adam, or Eve, as long as he gets paid. So when your recruiter asks you how the interview went, he may actually try to pump you for information. By passing on that information, he improves the chances of the next person, but what he really is trying to do is improving the chances of getting paid himself!

If you have never asked a recruiter what other candidates were asked during their interviews, why should the recruiter get that advantage and pass it on to other candidates who go in after you?

Give him your general opinion or questions about your personal history or resume, but DO NOT share difficult or interesting technical or job-related questions you may have been asked.

Pardon me while I put on my sarcasm hat, because the following gem is from an "alleged" expert--someone who has apparently helped 20,000 people with his resume writing skills.

Oh my, wake up the kids; why didn't I think of this? Let me ask you, Mr. Expert, how exactly is one supposed to find WHO the hiring manager is? It's not like job postings say "this position reports to Jane Smith in Production, and her mailstop is B16"!

When are people going to stop giving out this type of advice that is not actionable?

We actually show ways to find out who the hiring manager is, how to find out her contact information and how to decide whether to contact her or not. You can read more about these "actionable intelligence" methods in our book, The Laidoff Ninja.

That is what Phyllis Korkki writes in the NY Times, in a piece titled "From a Step Back, a Leap Forward"

THE idea subverts the old notion of a steady climb up the corporate ladder: Sometimes you have to go backwards in order to get ahead. It's how many careers play out these days.

Most careers no longer follow a classic vertical progression, said Cathy Benko, vice chairwoman and chief talent officer at Deloitte L.L.P., who has done research in this area. Instead, people often move up, down, out, back and sideways in the course of their working lives, she said.

I don't necessariy agree; you may end up getting stuck at that lower rung, or have to fight up all the way again. Also, landing a job like that isn't exactly easy: there is also the dreaded and unjustified "OVERQUALIFIED" tag you may get stuck with when you even apply for jobs like that.

But if you need the income and the health insurance, go for it. Employers will benefit from a great employee, and you will have a job. Good luck.

This is an exceprt from our book "The Laidoff Ninja", now available on Amazon

Be a LION

Wikipedia defines a LION: A LinkedIn Open Networker is a member of the business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn who positively encourages connections from any other member, whether or not they have had a previous business relationship. The abbreviation LION is used, and is usually placed somewhere in the profile page.

LinkedIn hasn't exactly prohibited LIONs but has adopted a peculiar strategy given their mission is to connect people - they limit the number of invitations one can send out and they do not display the number of connections when it exceeds 500.
Link to the TopLinked 50

Join the TopLinked Group:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?gid=42031

Then invite the people on this page to connect with you:

http://www.toplinked.com/top50.html

In a few days, you will have millions of second-level connections, thanks to the extensive network from the top-50 list. Because the people in the TopLinked list are LIONs, they are generally very open to making introductions or forwarding requests.

Build your own LinkedIn network

Click on "Add Connections" in LinkedIn (upper right corner)

Enter the user ID and password for popular free e-mail providers like Gmail or Hotmail, and it will scour through your inbox and prepare an invitation for the people you have listed there.

If you do not want to share that information, or do not use one of those e-mail programs, then you can manually enter the e-mail addresses in the box on the right.

If you choose to import your contacts from another e-mail provider, you will see a screen where lists of your contacts (from your email) who are on LinkedIn will be shown.

Select the people you want to connect to and click "Send Invitations"-it's that easy.

Remember: dig your well before you are thirsty.