There are several types of gaps that can occur on your resume. A few of the most common include “the out of work gap”, “the tried a different career gap” and “the I had to handle a personal situation (death, birth or sabbatical to find myself with the monks in Asia) gap”.

In this current economy for example, there are huge amounts of people who are, or were, out of work for several months. Some people have been out of work so long that they have to extend their unemployment way past the normal amount. Here are some ways to address handling gaps like these in your resume.

Remove the months from your resume.

If you lost your job in February of 2009 and now it is November of 2010, to say that you worked from 2006 -2009 looks a whole lot better than saying you have been out of work since February 2009. In fact it is almost a year better. Now some would say this is lying, and certainly some HR types would certainly find this infuriating, as this is info they want to know before talking to you so they can screen you out. So this brings us to the first and most important rule of resume writing.

Rule #1: Always remember that your resume is a marketing piece. It is meant to make you look good.

If you go on a first date do you tell your date about your crazy uncle who thinks he is an Avocado?  Yes, eventually, but not on the first date! In some cases on your resume it is alright to omit something that makes your look bad. But a minor omission is very different then a lie. A lie would be saying that you had an MBA when you never went to college. Beside the fact that it is unethical and wrong, it is stupid to do so as it will definitely bite you in the butt if your potential employer were to find out.

A minor omission would be more something that would not get you fired on your first week when the found out the truth, but might cause your interviewer to ask you about it when they interviewed you. AH HA! Let me repeat that again: “when they interviewed you”! That brings us to Rule #2.

Rule #2: The purpose of your resume is to get you an interview.

So now that you have an interview, as long as you have a good answer to why you omitted the months from you resume like that Jerk Carl the wireless executive recruiter blogger told me to do it. Then at least you are being interviewed and no longer a piece of paper, but an actual living breathing person who has a shot at getting the job before being deleted or crumbled in the trash.

Create a consulting business

Now this is truly a great way to fill a gap and probably the most often used method I know. But I have to say most of the people fall short in the presentation.

Here is a typical example:

Bob’s Consulting                                                                             2009 – Current
I was the owner of Bob’s consulting where I did lots of IT, Telephony and important stuff for many companies.

Underneath this he writes a half a page at how great he was & all the cool things he did for 10 years at the fortune 500 job he got laid off at. So what’s wrong with this? Here comes Rule # 3

Rule #3: Sell it baby! If you don’t who will?

There is nothing wrong with putting Bob’s consulting on your resume, though when you started it you might have been a little more creative than that with the name. But if that’s what it is, then here’s what you do. Write a paragraph that sells the crap out of Bob’s Consulting. Make it sound like you were saving the world. Use bullet point & underlines and all the fancy things you did with you fortune 500 job. Don’t write it as an afterthought to just put something on the page to fill the gap. Sell it baby like it means something!

Paint the best picture you can.

I recently coached a candidate for an interview that will illustrate this point. He was desperate for the job. Flat broke and his lack of finances was severally impacting his personal life and even his survival. He had been out of work for almost 2 years!  So we role played the night before and one of the questions I asked him was what have you been doing for the last 2 years?

His answer was “I have been doing some part time consulting when I can, it doesn’t pay much, but at least I am surviving.” Wrong answer!

What I coached him to say was: “The market has been very tough and a lot of the roles I saw available for someone at my level were opportunities with companies I did not believe in. Rather than taking a job with a company I knew I would not be happy at and would probably be short lived, I did some consulting until the right job came along. And this is that right job.” He applied the same attitude to all his answers and is happily work at his new job now!

Now on your resume where you have a gap you can say something like from 2009-current after a massive company layoff I took some time to spend renovating my house and getting to know my wife and children better. I am now ready to get back to a fulfilling career. Something like this is definitely better than leaving a gap.

If you leave a gap you can bet someone will be thinking you were just drinking beer in your underwear and watching Oprah Winfrey.

Hmmm… I have to go now. I am out of Bud and I need to pick some more up to get back to the show before she gives away a new car or something!

The main thing I noticed at this CTIA was the renewed optimism. It has been a dismal 2 years in wireless and to come to a show where everywhere you turn people are speaking positively about the future was wonderful. As a recruiter we have a bird’s eye view of the wireless industry a bit different then anyone else. When the recession started, it started with us first, for recruiting is considered a luxury when people are not hiring and one of the first things to go at a company, probably right after free coffee services.

But on the flipside, Recruiting is one of the first things to come back in a recession also. Why is that? Because companies lay-off their internal hiring team and suddenly need people fast. They have been putting off the expense of getting new people for so long that they are now under the gun, and now time to hire the hired gun!

So things are rocking, lots of good orders to fill and our marketing efforts are bringing in new ones all the time. Heck it took me a month to have time to write this blog I have been so busy. So at least in wireless I can say the recession is over and things are moving in the right direction.

So let’s take this ray of light and open the windows to fill the place with sunshine. Optimism is in the air and it is good. Real good!

You would think in this world of technology that can make an unmanned space vehicle go to Mars, a sheep genetically grown from a test tube and Dick Clark still look the age of forty when he is actually one hundred and ten, that they could create a way for job searchers to have their phone calls go somewhere before their cell phones.

Now with gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail and other free email services, people have handled the problem of receiving email at work from headhunters and companies.   In addition, with so many people today only having a cell number, how can one receive those inappropriate calls at work?

Well, believe it or not there are actually several solutions–

Tossable Digits is a virtual number, meaning you can use it for a while and when you no longer need it, as if after finding a job, you just toss it away.  Some of the features include.

# Do Not Disturb:
Control when callers can reach you!
You decide when you want to receive calls by restricting the times that your calls are forwarded to you. If a call comes in after hours, your caller can leave a message on your voicemail.

# Advanced Voicemail:
Listen to messages via phone, web or email!
If you’ve activated voicemail on an Extension or Virtual Number, and a call is received during a time you have restricted, callers will be asked to leave a voicemail, which you can later retrieve via their website, phone or email as an MP3 attachment.

# Call Screening:
Hear who is calling before you answer!
Tossibile Digits’ advanced call screening system asks callers to identify themselves by recording their name. When a call is forwarded to you, you’ll hear your callers recorded name and can choose to accept or decline the call. If you decline a call, your caller will be forwarded to voicemail without knowing their call was declined.

Now, I have not personally used this service but a friend has and loves it. It is not free, but not too expensive,  running about $5.00 a month.   If it saves you from getting busted by your current employer because of your talking to potential new employers, it is worth it.

Now with a little bit of “googling” you can find other similar products, but with slightly different features. Google Voice and 3jam are among others, all of which approximate the cost of a ring tone or two per month and are well worth it.

My favorite and the one I use all the time is Magic Jack. For a one-time fee of $40.00 you have a VOIP line that you can call at no cost, anywhere in the US. You have voice mail, music on hold, can pick your area code, and check your messages online from a received email. It is A killer. In addition, to renew each year the cost is only $19.95. I am on my second year and love it.

The point is this — don’t get your “butt in a sling” at work while driving in your car and answering your speaker phone. Just Because the number is in your area code, and you think it is someone you know, it could very well be a recruiter calling  about a job you’re not even interested in. In fact,  he may be calling you because you forgot to take your resume off Monster three months ago,  when you got a new job.

I know about this from experience. I have been that recruiter and it was ugly, real ugly.

A candidate was interviewing for a development job. She was living on one side of the Country and the job was on the other side of the Country. After two very good phone screens,  the recruiter working with the candidate followed up with the company to see if they were ready to fly her out for a face to face. Instead to the recruiter’s surprise, the hiring manager said he had already left the candidate a message that they wanted to make her an offer.

Now you would expect her to think what great news! “They love me so much after two phone screens they want to make me an offer!”

Well think again…

Now compare this to dating, you have been on two dates and suddenly you get a phone call from budding romantic partner saying they love you & they want to move in.
How do you think most people would react?

Nine out of Ten would be a bit freaked out by this. “Will he ask to marry me in a weak?” “Hell I have never even been to where he lives it could be a rat hole?”  “Is he a serial killer?”

And sure enough the candidate freaked out as well saying she was “feeling pressured” asking “is there something wrong with this job”. The recruiter thinking fast worked it out for her to go for a face to face so she could see the area & also the office. But by that time the damage was done. The candidate suddenly got sick, and could not be reached because of a sore throat and could not talk on the phone. Two days later she texted the recruiter she had taken another job.

Lesson learned: Doing things in the right order does matter in interviewing, dating and disarming a bomb. Cutting the blue wire before red can be very dangerous.

Now on the flip side to this often candidates move to fast and talk themselves right out of a job before they even know it is right for them.

For example: A candidate submits their resume through a recruiter for a sales job. They receive an initial phone screen from human resources. During the call the HR person tells them to their dismay the position requires you to be in the office every day & that the commissions for this job is expected to be 30K less than was represented to them.

Unfortunately it is not that unusual to have HR & the hiring manager have different ideas as to what the job requires or even pays. That is why recruiters are so determined to speak with the hiring manager to take a job order.

Well now back to the example. The candidate in a very upset tone calls the recruiter who set them up for the interview and say’s that even if they want another interview that he is not interested now as he was lied to about that position was a virtual office & commissions were uncapped.

So after a long conversation the recruiter calms the candidate down enough & assures them that the job is in a virtual office & the pay is uncapped because that’s what the hiring manager said. So a second interview occurs & the candidate actually gets job.

Lesson Learned: Interviewing & relationships are a work in progress. A job description often evolves as candidates are interviewed & priorities change. Also the truths you have on the first date as you are trying to impress the person in front may be quite a bit different 3 weeks later after you have had two or three dates.

Now besides the dating comparison, both these examples show why having a recruiter is an important component in many hiring processes. Would A-Rod or Payton Manning think of negotiating their own contracts, of course not!

Unfortunately not every company can afford using recruiters or have a strong internal recruiting staff and actually do a good job of hiring on their. But still there is nothing like having a Jerry Maguire to navigate you through the “match.com” mine field called interviewing.

I know I had you at Hello…

As a recruiter we are introduced to many training methods in finding new clients and potential candidates. There is a whole industry built around training recruiters. As many recruiters have a high percentage of their income based on commissions, so effective tools for recruiting is essential.

Recently I attended a webinar like no other. This took many of the methods recruiters use & put it into a way that applies to the job seeker including:

-How to determine WHAT markets are hot & have the most positions.
-How to find WHERE the open jobs are that are not posted in your field.
-How to find out WHO is the person hiring for the jobs.
-How to get the email & phones of HIRING MANGERS for these jobs.
-How to use SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES to find these jobs & people.
-How to create a BRAND that draws people to you.

The name of the seminar is Beyond Job Boards: Use No-Cost Social Networking and Web 2.0 Search to Uncover Full-Time Careers and Freelance Work

You can find out more about the webinar & who is doing it here: Beyond Job Boards!

When I first started this blog I did it because so many people were asking my advice that I did not have time to address them all. Having a place to send them that answered their “frequently asked questions”
has worked well for me & the response so far has been very positive. But, I realize that there are other people who have already done an excellent job of covering topics on the job hunt, so why “re-invent the wheel”.

Therefore, from here on in, combined with my typically irreverent and questionably humorous brand of
editorial, I will be presenting information that others have put together that I have reviewed and feel can supplement my writings. If you have questions for me on this or have material you would like to suggest for this blog, please email me at cschumacher@electronicsearch.com for questions.

Also, check me out at www.mobilewirelessjobs.com, where I am “the keeper of the blog”, on a site for people looking for jobs in Mobile & Wireless Content.

Carl Schumacher.

You won’t get the interviewed for the job you want!

1. Style & Font are least important:  If I help someone “tweak” their resume and the style is OK, I try not to change it. (Style meaning what kind of bullet points they use or whether they block things off with lines, etc.)

2. Length is even less important: Too many people worry whether their resume is 1 page, or 2 pages etc. A resume is as long as it needs to be to get the point across.

3. Simple is best: If something is confusing or redundant, change it.

4. Be consistent: Having dates as 3/09 in one place and March 2009 in another or using seven different fonts is not what you want.

5. This is not an art project: The color purple should never appear on a resume unless you are Barney the Dinosaur and even that is questionable.  Please, no pictures unless you are looking for a job in the Philippines; for some reason, every resume I have ever seen from there has the candidate’s picture on it.

6. Your resume is a marketing tool: It is meant to represent you at your best.  It should be accurate but does not have to include every detail of your life…especially if it makes you look weird or stupid.

7. It should read like a book: Title at the top, (name, address, email, phone, etc.), syllabus underneath (accomplishments or skills), chapters below (Job history, education etc.). Chapters are read in chronological order and make sense.

8. The Summary and Accomplishments are critical to getting someone to read your resume: They need to be strong and engaging. If you can get a WOW! out of someone’s mouth when they read your accomplishments, you have done your job.  The Summary and Accomplishments should change depending on the job you are applying for.

9. Spell check and have others proofread your resume to make sure it makes sense: Having several typos on  your resume makes you look like a dork.

10. Rules are just guidelines: If, by not following some of these rules, or for that matter, anyone else’s rules for writing a resume, makes it better, then don’t follow them. Heck, after all, it is your resume.

What job do I really want to do? Well, Bill Gates isn’t handing over controlling interest of Microsoft and Bono hasn’t mentioned he is looking for a replacement at U2, so those choices may be gone, but there are certainly others.

Leaving your job is a very destabilizing situation, and depending on if you have money put away or are given some kind of a severance, can even be a threat to your survival. But no matter what the case is, it is a time of transition that is for sure. Now during a time of transition, why not do a little reflection. Dig down deep and see what you really want to do.

Here is what I suggest, write down 20 jobs or careers you would like to do. If you write down the King of France or a Cage Fighter as your choices, the process may take a bit longer, so stick with jobs in the realm of possibility. But that does not mean you cannot think out of the box and get creative. If you have been looking to start that website business selling antiques your Grandmother left you, write that down as one of the choices.

Now after you have written your 20 possibilities, it is time to look at their feasibility. Here is an example: you have worked at a company for 15 years and have done a lot of product management, product marketing and marketing in general and in the course of your work you have helped negotiate several contracts and played a key role in bringing in business for your company. Now, you have never really been a sales person or really even a Business Development person, but you have great customer facing skills and also have been the key subject matter expert in a number of sales. A natural progression for you would be Business Development Manager or an Account Manager. Actually, I see this type of job progression all the time.

Ok, so you have decided that you really want to go for a job as a Business Development Manager. Great! But, what about the fact that your resume has no real Biz Dev. experience? Unfortunately, in this current economy there is not a lot of people hired based on what they might be able to do at a job. Maybe “gleaning” your resume to the biz dev. role will be enough. A professional resume writer, career coach or counselor can do wonders on a resume if the person really does have the experience but his resume just needs shaping to be focused properly.

But, sometimes this just can not be done. Then it is time to do something to bridge the gap. Perhaps a sales training course? Or, maybe you need to take a job in sales or business development that is a little lower pay and responsibility than what you are used to. That way, you can work there for a few years and when it is time to really go for that dream job, you not only have the desire and skills to do it, you also have the quantifiable experience.

But why not plaster your resume across every job and resumeblaster service on the planet, and then do your reflection? As they say, isn’t job hunting “a game of numbers”? Yes, most definitely it is! But, here is something that can happen. You right away slap together a resume that is nicely done, but very general and immediately you start getting calls and even interviews. Awesome! Unfortunately though, after 3 months of you turning down jobs you didn’t like, and companies turning you down because you were not a right fit for the job, you’re worn out and depressed because of how bad the job market is. But, did you really know what job you wanted in the first place? Trying to drive to Las Vegas without a map or real plan on how to get there, you will end up in Idaho.

So, to sum this all up: In life there are times when a moment of reflection is in order, a baby is born, someone dies, the Cubs win the World Series, or you need to find a new job. Take that time to reflect and reevaluate. Who knows? Maybe those clothes you never threw out from the 80’s could be used for your new cage fighting job. The sky’s the limit!