While you search for your dream job, there are other things you can do. In a storm, we can hunker down in a shelter and wait it out. That may work if we have a shelter. But if we do not, we must create a shelter or more immediate form of rescue from whatever we have available to us. We have to use our ingenuity to survive.

There are those who tell us to reinvent ourselves. There is truth in that, but we must be careful how we apply that truth. While taking courses, and qualifying for new careers may be a valid course of action for those who have time, others find themselves in need right now. I believe that we have many talents. We have some things we do for work and other things we do for fun. In times of emergency, we may have to transform our hobbies or play activities into entrepreneurial emergency rescue plans. One mother became a CEO by transforming a hobby of painting birdhouses into a million-dollar production operation. Think of what you do that delights your friends. Remember you can do more than one thing at a time! Diversify yourself. Become a chameleon as you keep looking for the right job opportunity!

It reminds me of a what young man who was repairing my TV once said to me. “I always marvel” he said, “about how everybody needs me at once or doesn’t need me at once.” From a business owner’s perspective, I found this to be quite hilarious, but I also immediately grasped his point.

Once in our travels out West, my husband and I were looking for a quaint restaurant.  We spotted a lovely little Mexican Restaurant. It had charm and curb appeal but there were no cars in its parking lot. We pondered a bit wondering if that was a forecaster of its quality, but then we decided to give it a shot.

When we entered the restaurant, we were immediately capitivated by its compelling cultural ambience and decor. The customer service was exquisite and the cuisine was tantalizingly off the charts!  Afterward, we couldn’t help but reflect on the experience we would have missed if we had followed the “no traffic” diagnostic approach. The fact is that we had encountered a fantastic eating place in “off hours”, and its lack of traffic had nothing to do with the lovely experience that beckoned to outsiders who would dare to chance an entrance through its elegant and ethnically decorated doors.

My daughter and I often discuss this phenomenon and remind each other that whether we are overwhelmed with business or in “off hours”, we are still the same talented people. Or, put another way, our talent isn’t fairly measured by our traffic.

And the application for my clients is the same. When we have a job, we feel that our worth is validated. We feel in control We feel that we are valuable.. Conversely, when we do not have work, the terror moves in, and we worry about whether we’ll ever find a job and often we correspondingly lose our sense of self-worth. Yet, it is precisely at such times that we must challenge ourselves to remember that our talent and our value are not related to our customer traffic or our  employemnt status. Our value is a constant that never changes. Nonetheless, the outside world can distort our reality by its acknowlegement or lack of acknowledgement. So use your talent to find work in off or down times, and leverage it to serve your client’s or employer’s needs well in those much easier to bear, high-demand times!

When I listen to all these rationales, I call to mind a story I once heard about an old man, a little boy and a donkey. On their tiring journey, they began with the old man riding the donkey and the little boy walking. Onlookers crititized the old man for making the little boy walk. So the old man dismounted and placed the little boy on the donkey. Again, people criticized the little boy for making the old man walk. So the old man decided that both he and the little boy would ride the donkey. Onlookers now criticized the old man and the little boy for overloading the donkey. So they dismounted and all three continued on their journey. And you probably guessed it, people then criticized them for walking when they had a donkey to ride! So what is the point of this somewhat tiresome story? The reality is that we need to do what best suits us, what makes us most comfortable, and what gets us to our destination! The journey could be completed in any number of ways. But feeling good about the journey and how we do things is vital.

While there are many different styles and approaches to a resume, I have found that the most important key to success lies with proving our value, stating our accomplishments, and differentiating ourselves in our marketplace. We must show our reader how we can bring value to them. We must avoid the terrible pitfall of describing our job instead of demonstrating how we excel at doing our job! We must in other words fill our resume with accomplishment-rich content.

If we do this we will have a successful resume that will bring us to our destination, capture our readers attention and respect, and invite the interviews we earnestly seek.

As I have worked with thousands of clients, I have been struck by the reality that most people are reluctant to recognize their gifts and talents , and even if they do, they are very hesitant about verbalizing what they are.  It has given me a deep sense of career gratification to help people identify and give life and voice to their professional gifts and talents through the power of the written word.

Before we can become ready to “sell” others on the idea that we can be a true asset to their company or team, we must go through this process of self-discovery and subsequently practice the art of letting ourselves know what we know. It reminds me of an Arabian proverb.

He who knows and knows not that he knows, he is asleep wake him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not, he is simple teach him.
He who knows not and knows not that knows not, he is a fool, shun him.
He who know and knows that he knows, he is wise follow him.

I love reminding my clients that it is alright to allow ourselves to know what we know, and to use our gifts to lead others who do not.  It’s not bragging to admit that we excel at something if we really do. We certainly don’t try to pass ourselves off as knowing everything. Who does? But when we do know, when we have the skill, or we do have the answer, we need to give ourselves permission to present ourselves unhestitatingly to those who are searching for qualified people.

Have you ever met a sales person who really didn’t have their heart in their product? How did you feel when they presented it to you? Isn’t it true that you can’t inspire others to share your belief, confidence, and enthusiasm unless you yourself have it first? So the first sale has to be the sale of you to yourself. You have to know what you know, and be excited about your ability to share that with others.

I have a friend who says, “Shoot from the heart and you’ll never miss.”  If we do this in our professional lives, we won’t miss either!

I can’t tell you how many clients have entered my office with all those fears and damages foremost in their mind. “I have three degrees but haven’t ever had a decent job.” “I never went to college. I’m afraid they will think I’m a professional student.” “I went to college for 3 years and never got my degree. I’m afraid they will think I’m a quitter.” “I’m too young. I have no experience. I am afraid no one will want to hire me.” “I’m 50 and I’m terrified that I won’t be hired because of age discrimination.”

As I listened to and attempted to comfort my clients, I came to a profound realization. We ALL have things in our past, unfinished academic business, job choices, job losses, or things that make us feel unacceptable. And the good news is, NO ONE has it all or can present the perfect record! So let’s get down to the basics of presenting what we do have to offer! The person who is a professional student has a marvelous education to put on the table. He needs to recognize and promote that! The woman who went to school for three years and did not finish needs to realize that she has 75% of a college degree! The young graduate that lacks experience has a wondrous youth, new ideas, endless energy, and trainability! The 50-year-old has precious experience to share!

My oldest client was 84 years old when we did his resume! He came to me one day and said, “Retirement has never been for me. Do you think I’m still marketable?”
As I spoke with this man, I realized that he was a fantastic forensic specialist with unique and voiceprint expertise. He has been hired by prosecuting attorneys and testified in trials as an expert witness in voice recognition.

I said, “Mr. D, how many people can do what you do?”

He said, “There aren’t many with expertise in the field of voice identification.”

“Then you have 60 years of experience to offer. You are sharp as a tack and there is certainly a market in law enforcement for what you have to offer. But there are also young upcoming professionals that would probably pay to have even the smallest portion of your knowledge and field experience.” I heard from this client recently, and as far as I know, he is still going strong!

So we come to the job interview with the backdrop of our past, with this “transcript” that we think we created. We may feel defensive.  So it becomes our task somehow to prove our acceptability to the person who sits on the other side of the desk. Because we need and want a good job, our worthiness somehow appears to be defined by whether we can articulate our worth to the manager or HR professional who has the power to hire or dismiss.

So our first preparation for the interview is to work at quieting those old voices, to somehow take back our power, because the interview is not the definer of our acceptability. An interview is simply a mutual exploration process, an effort at determining whether we can meet a company’s needs and whether they can meet our expectations. If we somehow can disarm that “unacceptability land mine”, we can free ourselves to enter into that mutual exploration process without becoming devastated if we don’t fit their profile. And too often we don’t even consider the other side. What if they don’t fit ours? What if we see things in the interview about company policy, protocol, or even their management philosophy that give us warning messages that we would not want to work for them?

My point is simple. The interview is a two-way street. It affords us an opportunity to present who we are and what we have to offer, and in turn, to explore  how a company operates, and what, if anything, they have to offer us. When there is a common meeting ground between both parties, a wonderful working relationship may come to be. Our ability to handle interviews with this attitude  is a skill we must develop. It may not come in the first interview. It may not come in the 10th interview. But we only need one job. So what is it worth to try to find the right job-a job that makes us feel happy to go to work, a job that allows us to feel that we are making a contribution?

Our first step to finding that kind of opportunity has to begin with our ability to disarm our unacceptability button, and open ourselves to a two-sided exploration process!

As I tell my clients, “old legends never die”. But if you stop to think about how the function a resume has changed over the years, you will understand why. A resume was once an amenity. Today it has evolved into a primary screening tool that has become our literal passport to the professional community. Without it, in most cases, you can’t even hope to approach your prospective interviewer. The fact is, the more advance knowledge a prospective employer has about your gifts and talents, the more likely you are to secure an interview. So don’t worry. If it takes two pages, an intelligent audience won’t disregard your resume because of it’s length! But poor presentation, a lack of accomplishment-focused or relevant content, or a failure to demonstrate the value you can bring to their company are the real deal breakers!

I often joke with my clients about our college days when we were all terrorized by the strictest academic thesis writing requirements. We were sure that there was a room on campus, in which a person with a bean-counter mentality did nothing but measure margins and paper weight to determine the quality of our work. The corporate market sports an entirely different playing field. On that field, margins and paper weight are not the deciding factors. What matters to our market is who we are, what talents we offer, and how we can play into their purpose! So keep your eye on the ball. Remember when we are marketing ourselves, we are on a different playing field with its own unique set of rules!

I am a professional writer and have had the privilege of writing resumes for over 6500 people of every walk of life. Over the past 15 years my work has been mostly about helping people to get better jobs and professional opportunities. Today, it’s about survival in an economy that has imploded into unprecedented job losses and striken terror into the hearts of many.

I have no profound insights to offer about how the economy will go, what its recovery rate will be, and how many jobs will come back to us through governmental rescue packages, though there is an upward trend in jobs, and a downward trend in unemployment.  But I do have something to say about survival through hard times.

It calls to mind a time when I was learning to ski. My instructor had taken me up to a foreboding slope that was peppered with mogulsm challenging terrain for any skier. She apparently felt I was equal to the task and with her positive, “let’s go”, she took off down the slope ahead of me. I, on the other hand, stood transfixed on the moguls below, and the more I focused on them, the bigger they became. Fear enveloped and immobilized me and before I knew it, my teacher was at the bottom of the slope. Realizing that I was disempowered by fear, she rapidly ascended the chair lift, and soon rejoined me at the top of the slope. When she arrived, she reassuringly said, “We’re going to get down this hill together this time. But to do it, I want you to promise me that you aren’t going to look ahead.  I just want you to follow me,  and we are going to master it one turn at a time. Relieved that she had returned to rescue me, and realizing there was no other way out, I followed her instructions. I didn’t look ahead at the formidable moguls, and kept my eyes fixed on her, and followed the tracks she made in the trail ahead, and one turn at a time, we got down that slope. When I reached the bottom, and looked back at the steepness of that slope, I couldn’t believe that I had just accomplished what I thought to be impossible.

And I believe this story presents a metaphor for how we can get through the challenges in today’s economy. We are going to have to follow 
positive people and focus on getting over those formidable financial moguls, challenges, and interviews one turn at a time.