Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

On average, I probably look over at least a dozen or so resumes a week, each and every week.  I wanted to share with you some of my personal thoughts and opinions to help you land that job you want. Some of these suggestions are going to sound very very obvious, but you would be surprised if you saw some of the resumes that have crossed my desk. 

Mindset

To begin, let's get you into the right mindset of what you want your resume to accomplish.  No-one and I mean no-one gets hired because of their resume.  Your resume needs to be written to accomplish one and only one goal.  To get the person(s) reading it to want to learn more about you and call you in for an interview.  That's it.  Nothing more, your resume needs to make me want to talk with you further.  

So how do you do that?  Well you need to personalize your resume to what is asked in the job description.  If my job description states that a candidate must have 3-5 years of experience doing Web marketing, strong project management experience and can juggle; well you need to show me quickly through your resume that you have those skills.  Don't make me hunt for it because I am going to give your resume two minutes of my time and attention, if that.  If you have not shown me that you have the skills that I am looking for in those two minutes, your resume gets placed in the no pile.  

What all this means is if you are sending out identical resumes to each job you are applying to, you are not putting in the time and effort to get the job you really want.  And if you are not willing to put in the extra time to develop a resume that speaks to me, why would I be interested in hiring you?  

If you do what I have recommended above, you will already be heads and shoulders above a number of other resumes that are competing for my attention.  Now here are some other straight forward recommendations.

• Spell check - I know this should be incredibly obvious, but you would not believe how many resumes I receive that has misspelled words in it. 
  
• Length - I don't care if you have been working for 50 years, your resume should not be longer than two pages. 
  
• Targets - Know the company you are applying to.  For example, Capstrat is not spelled like this: CapStrat.  If you took two seconds to look on our Web site, you would have seen that. 
  
• Name of resume - Don't name your resume that you are attaching to your email something like Mike Smith Summer 2010.pdf.  Just name it Mike Smith Resume.pdf.  No dates, it makes me wonder what was the old version like. 
  

And finally, my last recommendation is to do your homework before sending your resume.  If you are applying for a Web position, try to find out who leads the Web team.  Find out who they are and what they are about.  Do they have a blog, Twitter account, LinkedIn, etc.?  Personalize your cover letter that calls out a recent blog post from one of the leaders of the company. 

Bottom line - Make Yourself Standout! Now go get to work and land that dream job!  Good luck. 

This is the first article in the Capstrat series, Navigating Your Career. We hope to meet you at our Annual Networking Night, April 14 at 6:00 p.m.

#1: Using Your Networking GPS to Navigate Your Career. 

Register here: http://GPS2010.capstrat.com

Millennials (college students to late twenty-somethings) have been dubbed the "always connected" generation - we're the most socially and technologically engaged generation in history. Our networks are extensive.

We're active. We rarely sit still. Our days are filled with work, studying or going to class, e-mailing, tweeting, texting, keeping in touch, meeting new folks, volunteering, keeping up with news, playing sports, etc. We belong to at least one social networking community, a civic or religious organization, a gym, a school or professional organization. We never stop talking (or typing). And all the while - whether we realize it or not - we're engaging and building our network.

When it comes to landing a job, whether it's your first or your fifteenth, there's hardly anything more important than learning to use your network effectively to help you navigate your career (besides the no-brainers like developing a solid, tailored, typo-free resume). In fact, I'm here at Capstrat right now because I engaged my network via almost every professionally appropriate channel imaginable. Karen Albritton, our president, joked the other day that my name, resume or bits of information about me came across her desk through eight to 10 people who were all seemingly unrelated - all before I even stepped foot in the door for my first interview.

So reach out to your professors, your parents, your uncle's neighbor, your dentist, your best friend's dad - talk to them about where you want to go, how you'd like to get there and ask for their advice. Give them the tools to speak on your behalf. If they can't point you in the right direction, they can point you to someone who can. Be patient but persistent. Good luck!

We hope you'll join us for Capstrat's Student Networking Night!

What: Networking GPS - How to Navigate Your Career

When: April 14 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Where: Capstrat

Dress: Business Casual

Register today: http://GPS2010.capstrat.com

*Don't forget to bring copies of your resumé!

When you set your Facebook profile to "Friends-only" are you confident that it is only being seen by friends? Do you just assume that your settings are etched in stone and will never go awry?

How about photos? Do you think they show up in search results even if you don't want them to? Are people tagging you in photos that you don't know about because you're not being notified, though you expressly put a little mark in the check box indicating that you wanted to be notified?

I'm not picking on Facebook here. Insert the name of any social network in it's place and you can ask similar questions.

This topic came up at lunch with a co-worker a few minutes ago. We were discussing whether or not a brand that you fan, can automatically delve into your profile and other content simply because you became a fan.We talked about it at length but that's not the point of this post.

Her follow-up comment is what stood out and inspired me to put this question out there for all to consider.Here is what she said:

"I just don't trust privacy settings."

Hmmm, why do I trust them, I thought.  I decided that I trust them becasue I need to. It's probably a false sense of security though. But in my case it's not a big deal because I'm not living a double-life via FB, hooking up with ex-beau's or wishing my boss a speedy death.

What you will find on my page are pictures of my kids and some personal things about my family life that I don't typically share on other social networks. And that's information worth protecting, I think. 

This is why I pay close attention to privacy settings on every network, becasue it's up to us to manage them. But how much contrrol do we really have? Blind trust is never a good thing, is it? 

I guess time will tell.  

 

I will admit, if you are a company, it's really hard to get me to follow you on Twitter or sign-up for emails, let alone tell someone else to follow or email you. Like everyone else I am bombarded and inundated with digital marketing, most of which are irrelevant to me. Two fairly new concepts that I not only happily follow, but also recommend to people are Groupon and Twongo. They are on the elite list of the few sites I visit daily.

Similar to Woot!, both websites provide a crazy good deal for a limited amount of time, usually a gift certificate sold at 50% or less of face value. Twongo has the added bonus of being based on the Chinese concept of Tuango, where the more people that buy the deal, the more they save.

Groupon and Twongo both focus on local small businesses. Groupon is available in many cities and is only a recent additional to the Triangle and Twongo solely focuses on Triangle area. I would tell every small business owner to partner with one of these sites. There have been several businesses that I would never had tried or even heard of if they weren't featured on these sites.

Why these sites work? Aside from the obvious price discount there is a good lesson here for all marketers. These sites are highly targeted, updated with relevant content and create a sense of urgency and immediate call to action. Twongo's additional concept of the more people buy, the more they save encourages word of mouth promotion, which is a difficult even under the best circumstances.

Are your marketing efforts are timely, relevant, targeted and promote word of mouth dissemination?

I recently learned that Kit Kats are available in 70 countries worldwide. That is a pretty impressive number and it got me thinking about how Nestlé is marketing Kit Kats globally. When I think of a brand that has crossed oceans and borders, I think of McDonald's. Having lived overseas, I have seen McDonald's come in many different shapes and sizes based on their target market. In Indonesia, McDonald's has a hamburger that is served between two rice cakes and a spicy burger marinated in satay sauce. In Germany you can get a cold beer to wash down your burger. In India, try the Maharaja Mac (like a Big Mac) made from lamb or chicken since people of the Hindu faith do not eat beef.

Nestlé has upped the ante in Japan, where Kit Kat is the number one branded candy. How did they do that? Nestlé did extensive consumer research to understand their customer and find the candy that meets and exceeds their needs. Based on an article I read on AdAge, Nestlé came up with 19 different Kit Kat flavors that are tailored to different regions in Japan. The most popular flavor nationally is soy sauce. Green tea, miso, soybean, baked corn and sweet potato are just a few more examples of the unique flavor offerings.

In addition to marketing Kit Kats to Japanese people based on taste, Nestlé has also looked into cultural habits. Japan practices "omiyage" which is a gift-giving culture where people present the perfect gift to a friend/family member after traveling in a way that honors the recipient. Potato Kit Kats are popular in the northern region of Hokkaido, which is known for their potato crop. Cherry blossoms, which are world known and related to Japan is also a Kit Kat flavor sold in the spring.

Maybe next time when someone asks me about global marketing campaigns and successful branding overseas, I'll think of Kit Kats before McDonald's.