resume workshop...

Tonight at school I had an obligation via a group of mine to attend and help out at a resume workshop.  I'm pretty sure all schools that have professional aspirations hold them from different groups on campus.  Anyway, this time was our turn.

And let me just say: most people's resumes suck.

Now, I'm not in HR, I don't have a job, and I'm not a career coach, but I'm critical, and I know ugly when I see it.  And these resumes?  They was ugly.

I've been told that I should put some advice-like posts in my blog so I'm not just entertaining (I hope), but also helpful.  I like being helpful, and I can't stand ugly resumes.  So here I am to give you...

ENTRY LEVEL'S RESUME ADVICE COLUMN

I'm going to get this out in the open: do not use a Microsoft Word template.  It shows lack of creativity, lack of dedication to the resume process, and that will warrant itself to translate to lack of creativity, dedication, and competence on the job.  If you're not creative enough to make your own resume, then maybe you would be better fit to fill out a job application at your local McDonald's.  I don't think you need to submit a hard resume for that.

HEADING

So, let's begin at the top.  Put your name, for god's sakes.  And make it big.  

Put your address under your name, but not so big.  And if your current address isn't your permanent address, put your permanent as well.  Then you don't need to go through the beauaucracy of "Oh, but I thought this was your place of residence," and you sounding unprofessional by going, "Yeah well, that was my dorm because I'm still in college, so I'm changing it every semester.  You're just going to have to deal with updating your records everytime I decide I want to move."  Also, if, say, your permanent address (where you vote and pay taxes) is in California and you're currently located in New York, it shows greater experience of inter-state citizenship and the fact that you're flexible about geographical living arrangements.

Also, put your phone number (the one they'll most likely be able to reach you at: your cell phone) and your e-mail.  The proviso for the e-mail address is that you shouldn't put XxCuTiEpiE854735xX, or any other lame-ass e-mail address you've had since the sixth grade when AOL was the coolest thing and IMing was a good way to bypass the fact that your parents would only let you talk to that cute girl you had a crush on on the phone for a certain amount of time per day.  Put something professional.  Educational institutions are always a good bet.  Also, anything involving your first name and/or last name is good.  Numbers, strange capitalization patterns, nicknames, and seemingly random symbols are not good.  I know this may come as a shock to some.

After that, we get to the meat of the resume: your life's history.

EDUCATION

If you're still in school, or just graduated (think three-ish months "just graduated"), put your education section first.  And yes, these should be sections, with clear headings and separators.  Put any educational institutions in reverse chronological order.  That means put the most recently attended at the top.  Indicate dates attended, location of the school, field(s) studied, and degree obtained.  Some people say it's good to have GPA and accolades, but I'm not too keen on that fact.  Maybe it's because I don't have a good GPA or any awards... but more often than not I've heard it's unecessary unless requested.

Unless you are a freshman or sophomore in college, do not put your high school.  Yeah, yeah, you did international baccalaureate, you were a part of the key club, and you had a 4.5 inflated GPA with star track and field.  So you were great when you were a teenager.  You should have translated that greatness into college and not spent all your time hungover playing Super Smash Brothers, then you might still be impressive.  In short, after sophomore year in college, nobody cares, and you should have moved on to better and greater things than high school.  If you haven't, they probably don't want you.  It's a harsh world out there.

EXPERIENCE

After education, you should show your relevant professional experience.  Note that "relevant" and "professional" means that if you worked for Abercrombie & Fitch in the past as a "sales representative" (i.e. model who sells clothes, but really just stands at the doorway with their shirts off, you know what I'm talking about), it's probably not the best idea to put that on your resume if you're applying for a job at say, the NAACP or ACLU.  They might not think too fondly of that experience.  

This relevant professional experience should go in reverse chronological order, as well.  If there happens to be a job that overlaps, put the most important/relevant one first, and the less important one after.  As always, put the dates you were in the position, the title of the position itself, the employer, and the employer's location.  As well, and this is quite important, underneath each write two to three bullet points about what exactly you did while in the position.  Do not write a novel.  Do not leave something unexplained.  Be specific.  Be succinct.

OTHER

After your experiences section, you should have a place for the bits and pieces that don't really fit anywhere else.  On my resume are computer proficiencies, language proficiencies, extracurricular activities, board memberships, and interests.  You can put awards here, you can put special skills here, and just any other things that don't really fit the realm of education or work experience.  The trick is that for any position you held or award you won, write when it happened.  And as for proficiency in language or technology: don't lie, and be specific.  If you can read, speak, and understand French, but can't write it, don't say you're fluent.  It'll get you in trouble.

And here are some other things that I'd like to mention in my "other" section of this advice blog:

- Don't use font below 10 pt.  It looks cluttered and ugly.

- Don't use margins smaller than .5".  It looks cluttered and ugly.

- Just don't make your resume cluttered and ugly.  If you personally don't think it's pretty, a recruiter or HR professional probably won't think it's pretty.  They won't think you're pretty.  And you'll get rejected.  Some tips for clearing the resume and making it nice looking are: columns, headings, bold when necessary, italics when necessary, and serif & sans-serif font for specific purposes (i.e. headings)

- Don't lie.  I feel like it should be mentioned twice.

- "References upon request" is not necessary, nor are references directly on your resume.  If you cannot procure references upon request, you won't get the job; it's implied.

That's all I can think of right now as far as resume advice goes.  That, and I need to start preparing for my interview tomorrow.  Don't be like me; don't leave it to the last minute.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like someone to anonymously look over your essay, leave a comment or send an email to entrylevelblog@gmail.com.  It doesn't get any more anonymous than that.

diversity in advertising...

So today was the day of the Diversity in Advertising Career Day up at the Hilton on 52nd Street in New York City.  Sounds prestigious, huh?  Well let me tell you about it.

I got there around one-thirty, when a seminar titled "The 10 Commandments of Getting Hired," is starting.  That's one of the main reasons I went, so I rushed into the room.  For about an hour I sat about five rows back from the 8 or so panelists made up of different people of different functions from different agencies and listened to what they like to hear in resumes, cover letters, interviews, and follow-ups.  A lot of the stuff was things I'd heard before ("Proofread your resume," duh), but some of it was useful.

The real fun part of the event came after the seminar, when I got to visit the booths of 60+ agencies from around the country.  Who was there?  Ogilvy, JWT, Lowe, Saatchi, Google, Goodby, McCann, MTV, AdAge... just to name a few.  I was excited to have some conversations, rub some elbows, and meet some new people.

The first thing I had to do though was visit my good ol' HR ladies over at Lowe Worldwide.  Last summer I had an internship as a brand strategist at Lowe Worldwide in New York and it was one of th ebest experiences--it got me into the whole advertising industry, and I'm grateful for that.  What was the best part of the internship though was the people I met.  Half the reason I decided to go to the career day was to see them, once I saw Lowe would be represented with a booth.

I walked up and down the aisles of booths until I spotted Lowe.  One of them spotted me at the same time and got up running towards me, giving me a big hug in the middle of the expo.  The other one was talking to someone who wanted a job.  I felt kind of bad that I had wavered her attention, she had to say, "Sorry, I got distracted" to the guy she was talking to.  I'm sure he deserved a job, too.  I sat and talked to them for a little while, we caught up on how the agency was doing (no comments...) and how my schooling was doing (equally no comments...) and how the rest of the interns were doing, live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  All that fun stuff.  They sent me off to go talk to some potential employers and I said I would visit later.

The first I visited with was Ogilvy.  My old Advertising Management teacher actually knows Mr. Ogilvy, so I thought it might be zen to start with them.  I get there, and the woman is opening a Coca-Cola, so I wait for her to finish, take a sip, and shake my hand.  We have some small talk, it comes out that I'm graduating in May and she says, "Oh... you're a little early."  I told her I realized that, but just that I wanted to come and say hi and have some conversation, and asked when would be a better time when there would be more of a chance to get a job.  "Um... I guess around April."

That damn scarcity again.

So I moved on to McCann.  I went to them, we had our small talk, this times sans Coke, and when we got to the point of giving a resume, I gladly handed it over and she looked at it.  Within a second, her brow furrowed up and said, "So... you graduate in May?"  I replied that yes, and that I knew I was a little early, but that I was here for the experience (and my Lowe gals).  "I'm sorry, we don't really hire this far out.  I can take this resume, but I don't think I can do anything with it."  So now we're killing trees.

I get it, people.  I'm early.  But isn't that good?  I'm eager to enter the business.  I want to get my name in, get my face in.  I want to meet people.  It's not like I went to the career day expecting a job out of it.  I went to meet some nice people, have some nice conversation, and maybe score a few free gifts and a meal at the same time.  Is that a crime?  

Saatchi told me the same thing as the others.  So what did I decide to do?  Just have a little fun.  I went to Lowe, dropped my bag off there, and galavanted around just talking.  

My best fun stop was at MTV.  I was attracted to them because of their table overflowing with free DVDs, notebooks, and belts.  Yes.  Belts.  Belts with blinged out buckles that said "SPIKE" on them.  I had to have one.  Or two.  I hadn't quite yet decided.  So I went up to the table, started talking about the channels, what they do there, marketing positions, and then we got on the subject of Flavor of Love.  Let me preface this with one sentence: I hate Flavor of Love.  So I asked them what they thought of it.  They hated it too.  Good to know there's such strong brand support in the company.  About five minutes later, after having gone through Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and that old show where they would play five seconds of a song and you'd have to guess what it was, the recruiter said, "Why am I even talking to you?  Are you trying to get a job?"  I said no, unless she was offering.

Maybe I just enjoy career fairs too much.

i think white is a color...

I wouldn't go so far as to say we have any sort of breakthrough in the post-May job search, but we do have an event to go to. And, in my stoic life, events are reason enough to celebrate. So bust our your party hats and groggers, it's networking time.

This Thursday, I will be attending what is called the Diversity in Advertising Career Day at the Midtown Hilton in New York City. It sounds so professional, huh? What it seems to be, however, is one big giant career fair with seminars. The seminars sound pretty good, and useful, including one titled "The Ten Commandments of Getting Hired," which we all know I could use greatly.

I could also use the 60+ companies that will be represented there, from Arnold, DDB, and Lowe (my internship alma mater) to Yahoo!, The Washington Post, and Zimmerman. Even Google will be there. And from what I hear (and see) about their food... I'd have no problem getting hired by them. What's 80 hours of work a week if you get lunch and dinner "on campus?" I feel that more companies would have stronger ties with their employees (and the rumor mill among laypersons) if they offered perks like free food to their employees. It's definitely a pull on why I like my university so much. Nothing says "I love you" like free food at lunchtime.

Digression aside, I feel like this could be 1) fun, 2) an opportunity, and, if nothing else 3) a reason to get dressed up and chit-chat small talk.

Now, the reason for the entry is, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the day is called Diversity in advertising.  Not that I've said this before on the blog, but I'm quite Anglo.  I'm about as white as mayonnaise.  In other words, I've never been known to look particularly... diverse.  This could go either one of two ways: either the title of the day has no real impact on the attendees or outlook on the fair, or I'm going to be seen as yet another priviledged white imperialist trying to take the riches from the poor and give to the richer, creating even more elaborate systems of inequality and abuse, ready to only get myself ahead in life so that I can have a casket emblazoned in gold housed in a giant marble tomb on some lofty hillside in the stretched of Beverly Hills where I lived out my last years in a multi-million dollar mansion with maids, butlers, and cooks (who were probably minorities, and probably underpriviledged) because I am the man, and if anyone were to stick something to someone, they would stick it to me because of my Anglo heritage and that would become even more apparent among a crowd of advertising individuals from diverse backgrounds.

I'm not really sure how to play my cards.  But if the Hilton is full of Indians, Africans, Asians, Jamaicans, Latinos, and Canadians (eh?), then maybe white represents diversity in that group.  Though I feel this is a deeper political discussion than I intended to enter when I began the entry.

The point is, I'm going to this day, and I'm determined to have a ball.

I'll let you know how it goes.