Getting a Job in a Down Economy

• By: admin
• On: 01/27/2010 11:38:15
• In: Emerging Professionals Practice Group
• Comments: 0

Lee Orosco, FCSI, CCS, was hired in 2008 by Carollo Engineers of Arizona. The company had posted its job opening in CSI’s Career Center in hopes of finding a CCS. "Their practice is based on CSI principles and formats," Orosco said. "They only advertised their position through CSI because they decided that was the best place to find a CCS." "I had decided that if I wanted to capitalize on my CCS credential, I should look at the CSI’s Career Center for jobs. I had several opportunities to choose from across the country." "CSI was a matchmaker! They brought us together!"

Orosco said employers always want to look forward, and you have to show them how you can help achieve that vision.

"They're not so interested in what you've done for other people -- they're interested in what you can do for them,” she said.

Here’s her six steps to getting a resume that says “I’m part of your future.”

Step 1: Understand the difference between a chronological, or traditional, resume, and a skills-based resume.

Chronological resumes emphasize job titles and are structured from your first job to your last. These resumes can weaken your candidacy because:

• Periods when you were unemployed stand out
• Jobs that may not be of any interest to the employers are given the same weight as other work you’ve done
• Titles are given more weight than the responsibilities and skills you learned while you had them
  

Skills-based resumes still list your job titles and employment dates, but they de-emphasize this information in favor of identifying skills that you could apply for your new boss. Skills-based resumes are useful when:

• You don’t have much work experience
• You’re trying to change fields
• You have school experience, but you haven’t had a steady, paying job
  

The process of developing a skills-based resume will also improve your interviewing and networking, because it helps you focus on what you can do for someone.

"It crystallizes your experience,” Orosco said. “If you have two minutes with a person, you will know what you would tell them. ‘I've got 4 main skills I can use to help you in your business.’"

Step 2:  Brainstorm the skills you have.

It's tempting to say "I have been an XYZ clerk – you get stuck on the titles," Orosco said. “When you're brainstorming you have to let go of titles and focus on what you're doing.”

To develop a list of skills, start by asking yourself a few questions and writing down the answers:

• What do you like to do – what makes you smile while you’re doing it?
• What did you do differently from your peers in school?
• How did you arrive at the job you’re doing now?
• What are you good at? What do people ask you to help them with?
• What evidence can you show to an employer to back up your claim?
  

A participant in the call described himself as a detailed estimator whose work saved the company time and money because he did a thorough job. “How to put that on paper, is the question,” he said.

"Have you ever kept track of how your estimates have actually saved the company money?" Orosco said. "That's something you can put there.”

Whenever you can, attach a metric – money saved, time reduced, etc. – to a skill you’re citing in your resume.

"They’re not going to give you a chance to demonstrate what you can do unless you get it into this succinct summary,” Orosco said.

Another caller talked about the less tangible skill of improving communication among the parties working on a project.

"Successfully applied architectural training and general contract experience to improve communication on projects and prevent conflicts and misunderstandings,” Orsoco said. “That's a skill you have that is different from someone who just has architectural training. That'll pop out and say, ‘Oh gosh, this person is unique.’"

Step 3: Write down all your skills.

"I would write up every skill,” Orosco said. “If you write up 10 or 12, you're going to find that four aren't that strong, but eight are well written.”

This gives you options for putting together the right resume for a particular employer. “When you're applying for Job A, there are six that really apply to that job, whereas four apply to Job B,” Orosco said.

Step 4: Research jobs and positions you find interesting or challenging.

Look at job descriptions and want ads for the kind of work you want to do, and pay attention to how the employer describes it.

“Look at those job postings and see the words they use to describe what they're looking for,” Orosco said. “You might say, 'I could do that, I've just never phrased it that way.'"

Orosco at one point was looking at jobs that often listed “Six Sigma Certification preferred.” After researching Six Sigma, she realized she had all the skills, just not that particular certification.

Orosco also recommended using your CSI connections to talk to someone who has the kind of job you want.

"If you know someone who has the job of your dreams, call them up and talk to them about it,” she said. “If you have a certain kind of architecture you want to practice, start asking around. CSI people can network you to that person."

Step 5: Review your skills list and prioritize, condense, edit.

Use your research to help determine what are important skills and what are everyday expectations. Polish your skill descriptions so that they will make sense to an HR director who is vetting candidates as well as to your potential supervisor.

"Make sure they're written in a way that speaks to someone who doesn't exactly know what you're doing,” Orosco.

Step 6: Write the resume.

Write the resume with an employer’s job description in mind, and focus on the skills that best relate to that job opening.

"Consolidate it down to the skills you're the strongest in,” Orosco said.

Place skills at the top of the resume, and work experience and dates at the bottom.

You can also use your skill description in other job hunting venues, such as filling out a profile on LinkedIn or to post an e-resume in CSI’s Career Center.

CSI’s Emerging Professionals Practice Group holds free, monthly meetings by webinar.
Join the group at www.csinet.org/Main-Menu-Category/Communities-2109-14280/Practice-Group/EmPro.aspx.