Why Your Professional Failures Could Be Job Hunting Gold

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Guest post by Rhys Johnson (TheDreamLife_RJ)

Because employers usually take only between a few seconds and a couple minutes to read through a resume, you might feel pressure to embellish your profile, or to lie. The reality is that even if your “too good to be true” resume gets you through the door, a skilled interviewer will be able to poke holes in your application if you can’t elaborate on specific details in a satisfactory manner. And even if your fib doesn’t get noticed right away your entire employment will be based on falsified information, which could be detrimental to your career further down the road.

It’s always a good idea to be honest on your resume. Sometimes the honest approach may entail including your failures. And with appropriate context, articulating the adversity you faced can provide an employer with compelling reasons to hire you.

As an intellectual exercise, Princeton professor Johannes Haushofer took honesty to a whole new level by publishing his own “CV of failures” online. The Washington Post shared that his goal was to inspire people to continue in their respective fields and help them deal with their own shortcomings. The Telegraph reports a similar story of a senior creative professional’s experiment of sending in a resume highlighting his imperfections, which got several responses and interviews – as compared to his traditional resume, which received only a single response.

Let me be clear – a professional resume is not the place to demonstrate either your flaws or your inability to achieve results. But while I wouldn’t advise an an approach such as Professor Haushofer’s for the serious job hunter, building a resume with examples of your ability to overcome professional adversity can bolster your candidacy, by demonstrating the positive elements and by providing great fodder for the interview. Here are some examples:

Example 1: Willingness to push yourself, and to take sensible risks.
A person who doesn’t fail is either perfect (which nobody is) or unwilling to try new things. An experience where you stepped out of your comfort zone in spite of your fear of failing can reassure potential employers that you’re willing to take good, well-reasoned risks which may pay the company dividends. Even if the project as whole didn’t succeed, highlight on your resume the aspects of the project that indeed went right.

Resume Example: “Led pilot project testing new lines of business. Sold idea to CEO, organized project team, and managed initiative through test phases.”

Example 2: Professional resilience and an ability to cope with failure.
Conveying that you can handle challenging situations is also something that potential employers want to know about you. The Balance explains that employers want to know if the person they’re considering for the job will be able to keep their composure and focus in times of hardship. Corporate life is full of ups and downs. In your resume, highlight the obstacles you handled with finesse and grace and, most importantly, through which you persevered and were able to achieve satisfactory resolution.

Resume Example: “Managed rapid department reorganization following layoff of 90% of team. Conducted needs analysis, and redesigned workflows to adjust to smaller workforce.”

Example 3: An ability to learn.
Failures can be the best teachers if you’re willing to learn from them. Highlight real challenges you’ve overcome, in which you were able to adapt your learnings into a successful project. The best such examples for your resume are those in which you were able to quickly adapt to a difficult situation.

Resume Example: “Successfully turned around project 25% behind target timeline, achieving on-time completion below budget.”

A resume that showcases your ability to overcome adversity will catch a potential employer's attention. The skills for your job can be taught and acquired, but ultimately, your attitude and mindset are the factors that will truly help you succeed.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Do Cover Letters Still Matter?

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Any career adviser will tell you that when you prepare a resume, that you need accompany it with a personalized cover letter.

For the uninitiated – a cover letter is a one-page document that accompanies your resume, and is tailored and addressed to the person to whom you’re sending your credentials. Usually, it summarizes a few key accomplishments found in the resume, reiterates your excitement in the position, and is generally intended to impress.

If the resume is your personal brochure, then the cover letter is the brochure for the brochure. In essence, the cover letter is the pitch to the reader why they should invest the time reading your resume.

Cover letters were invented and became standard practice in the days when job applicants sent a resume to an employer through (if you can believe it) the postal service. As in, you stuck the resume and cover letter in a stamped envelope and dropped it in one of those big blue mailboxes that used to sit on every corner. The corporate mail room would receive your envelope, it would mellow for a few days, and eventually the office clerk would drop it in the recruiter's inbox (an actual, physical tray which sat on the corner of a person’s desk), and it would then sit for a couple more days. Eventually, the recruiter would open the envelope, glance at the cover letter, and decide whether the resume was worth a read.

Did you get all that?

Incidentally, next time you complain about how nobody gets back to you the resume you sent to Company X, keep in mind that it used to cost real money – in both postage and stationery – to send a resume to an employer. Life wasn’t always better in the old days.

Times have indeed changed. These days, when applying to a job you'll apply by sending your resume  through the corporate website or on a job board. Often, there isn’t an opportunity to include a cover letter.

Here’s a dirty little secret of the recruiting world – most recruiters, gatekeepers of the application process, don’t have the time or interest to read your cover letter. They usually spend a few seconds looking at top of the first page of the resume and then decide whether or not to keep reading. A cover letter, if included at all, is usually an afterthought. A nicety.

And yet, there is a time and a place for a cover letter. It can be a valuable tool for certain situations.

A cover letter is appropriate – even essential - in the following situations:

• You're targeting a position within a specific company and have the contact information for a specific individual or department. If you really, really want to work at Chester’s Advertising Agency, and you have the contact information for the CEO (named Chester, in case you were wondering), you have an opportunity to make a positive, memorable impression.
   
• You are attending a career fair and want to stand out from the pack. You’ve done your research, identifying five employers whom you would really, really like to work for. Handing the recruiters at the career fair a customized cover letter with your resume would demonstrate an extra bit of effort in a crowded field.
   
• Somebody has referred you to an individual at an employer. Let’s say that your friend  provides you with the contact for their friend, Joe, who works at the power plant. If you don’t include a cover letter with the resume, Joe might never figure out that you were personally referred and your resume will be just another in the stack.
   
• You’re emailing a resume to a company. Sometimes job advertisements ask applicants to send a resume by email . In the body of the email you should have something to say. A cover letter – even a brief one – helps interest the recipient.

A cover letter doesn’t matter so much when:

• Applying to a job through a company’s website or a job board. Often there’s not an opportunity to even include a cover letter. But if the job description specifically asks for a cover letter, you better darn well include it or risk being passed over for failing to follow instructions.
   
• You’re canvassing a job fair. You’ll stumble across a great number of employers you’ve never considered. They won’t expect a cover letter, and it would be impractical to provide one to every exhibitor.

Either way, it’s best to be prepared. Have that cover letter ready. You never know when you’ll  need it.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

How To Fill A Gap In Your Resume

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Whether it's due to corporate layoffs, family leave, or whatever reason, you may find yourself between jobs. It’s not unusual. But this does provide job seekers with a noticeable gap in employment.

In employers’ terms, that time is unaccounted for. If you send your resume to an employer without providing any context, the recruiter or hiring manager is left to his or her own imagination to deduce how you’re spending your working hours. For all they know, you're sitting on the couch eating bonbons and watching Gilligan's Island reruns.

The point here is not to advise you how to hide such gaps on your resume. Rather, how do you really use that time effectively so that you don't have a hole?

• Devote a portion of every day to the job hunt. Block out time on your calendar when you will check job listings, apply to jobs, send out resumes, reach out to your LinkedIn network, attend professional events, and so forth. Routine will reinforce in your mind that searching for a job is a job in itself. Consider dressing in business attire to help establish the proper mindset.
   

• Keep busy with temporary or part-time work. I used to work in recruitment, and I once left a  position without another job in hand (the position and I were a poor fit for each other). Through my network, I came across a part-time opportunity with a staffing firm. We were able to negotiate a flexible work schedule which allowed me to interview for full-time jobs on an as-needed basis. At the same time, I kept my skills sharp. And after the ego hit of being unemployed, I was able to rebuild my confidence and demonstrate to potential employers that my skills and I were valued and still in demand.
   

• Volunteer. Do you have a favorite cause? Skills you can share? Consider volunteering with a charitable cause close to your heart. In the nonprofit world dollars are tight, and giving freely of your time a few hours a week can ease a substantial burden. In addition to generating some positive karma in your account, you can pick and choose type of work you wish to do and how contribute your talents. Are you an accountant and your church needs help installing QuickBooks? Perhaps the local food pantry need help boxing meals. Or maybe can you provide assistance in another area of  expertise?

Maybe the hole in your resume is in your past; try to think back of how you spent that time. If you used it working in an unrelated field or volunteering, account for that time on your resume as well.

Oh - in case you were wondering, full-time parenting counts as work. Take your credit where it's due.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.