The one thing that typically separates the winners from the losers is the willingness to take the first step. You don’t stop to consider the possibility of failure. It’s always forward, never back.
Who has the conviction to stand? Mouthless girl from Vimeo.com
I spent a few hours last week entrenched in a Facebook debate about gay marriage. What I think about gay marriage is not really the point. Someone re-posted a rant a woman had about pastors’ positions against gay marriage. She was tired of pastors talking about gay marriage when there are other sins happening right in the church that aren’t being addressed. My impassioned response provoked a lengthy reply from another person and voila – I was in a Facebook argument.
What concerned me about the exchange was that in response to this woman’s initial rant, which I admit was quite emotional though not at all scriptural, people who have publicly declared themselves Believers sided with her not because she was right, but because she was loud. And that got me thinking.
First, sincerity is not the same thing as authority. Second, people either don’t know their Bibles or don’t care enough to defend their beliefs. Third, people are afraid to stand for anything.
I’m a big fan of thinking and conviction. People are more apt to articulate feeling than to truly ponder a subject. Feeling is not the same as thinking. No thinking, no decisions. No decisions, no commitment. No commitment, no fidelity. No fidelity and every relationship that should be important breaks apart – faith, family, friends, self.
Deeply Concerned with the Silence
I’m deeply concerned with our silence. We’re all very “social.” But when it’s time to thoughtfully discuss gay marriage or salvation or war or politics, there isn’t enough thoughtful engagement going on. Conviction will cost you something, whether your life or your reputation. I was nervous when I responded to the Facebook post. I didn’t want anyone to hate me and I didn’t want to be made a fool of. Even in that miniscule display, somebody had to stand for God.
I only know a handful of scriptures and have a tiny bit of revelation about who God is. But I wouldn’t let you dog-walk my daughter and I’m not gonna let you dog-walk the name of my God.
(Coincidentally, my suspicion was confirmed tonight by Rev Jackie McCullough as I streamed Holy Convocation. I’m not the only one.)
Cry loud.
Watch Bishop Tudor Bismark at Perfecting Fellowship International’s Holy Convocation 2012.
Saturday, May 26th at 7PM EST. Streaming live for free http://www.perfectingchurch.org/hc
Floating scene from the movie Inception
One of my favorite songs in 2007 was John Mayer’s “I Don’t Trust Myself Loving You.” At the time it was right on target with what I felt about life back then. Things were shifting. My values had been uprooted and were floating around me Inception style, vying for my attention and re-evaluation.
In the last five years, I’ve watched my world change around me as I begin to change as a person. Yesterday, as I was reading Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the end of the first habit urged me to make and keep promises. Make and keep promises. Now, why is it important that we make and keep promises? Go ahead and answer before reading on.
Make and Keep Your Promises
Usually, when we think about keeping promises, we are most concerned with not disappointing other people and we are thinking about times when we’ve said the words, “I promise.” A few days ago, as I was Youtubing Jim Rohn, he also referred to keeping promises. Actually, he talked about being “behind on your promises, pennies in your pocket and nothing in the bank…” Meaning, not paying your bills and being broke.
Make and Keep Your Promises to You
A year ago, I would have been thinking that you keep your promises because it’s right. Don’t lie to people. But yesterday, my gut response was, you keep your promises because you made them and you don’t lie to yourself. Myself? I’m so wise but what did that mean? I pondered a bit more. Here’s what I came up with:
Everything sorilbran says, Sorilbran hears and when sorilbran doesn’t follow through, Sorilbran stops trusting sorilbran. I can’t keep letting Sorilbran down. That’s my homegirl! It’s not the big, blood donor, godparent promises that get us. It’s the small promises. Everything in my life – from weight loss to money management to discipline to the Alaskan cruise I want to take – has to do with me keeping promises to me. I have made a determination in my soul that I will NOT ever have another moment of second-guessing myself for lack of follow-through.
Your happiness is directly tied to your ability to make and keep promises to yourself. You can’t be happy without mastering the promises game. I love that song, but I will never again say or think that Sorilbran doesn’t trust sorilbran because sorilbran doesn’t keep her promises.
Nah.
Not the kid.
So now it’s time to write. You know me. In my little red journal, I’m going to list a set of promises by which I will conduct my daily affairs and I will keep them.
Please click on and read the following resume. Yusef’s original resume.
Yusef
Yusef was a client of mine who was in need of a little branding help. The resume you see is the second version he sent me as the first version had far less information than the one you just saw. He was in the market for a position for which he was under-qualified, at least on paper and nothing in the information he sent me on his background could have proved to anyone that he was, in fact, qualified to do the work for which he was applying.
Being Over- and Under-Qualified
If one were to judge us strictly by our job titles and corresponding duties, there’s no way we’d get the job. But as we discovered during the value training last month, we are far more than what we have done in the past and one of the keys to writing a good resume is to capitalize on what you have accomplished and what you have to offer and not just the laundry list of job titles you’ve been assigned.
At this point in American history, competition is very tough. For many jobs, the candidate pool is not just your next door neighborhood, but also an Australian kid half a world away. So, it’s not enough anymore to list what you’ve done. You have to learn to sell yourself.
A Look at the Old School Resume
Let’s start with the standard old school resume. You can follow along with Yusef’s resume.
- Header – You’ve got the contact information at the top with the full address, phone number and email.
- Objective / Focus – Next is the objective where you state how much you have your heart set on the employer providing you with one challenging job that you can do forever. How very Industrial Revolution of you.
- Skills / Qualifications – That’s where you list all the programs you know how to use and utilize impotent jargon like “quick learner” and “team-player” and “conscientious.”
- Work History – That’s where you give a list of your job titles, companies you worked for and years you were employed. Occasionally, you offer a blurb on what you did at that job.
- Education – You list high school, college, and additional training
- References – A list of people who can vouch for you, preferably 2 professional references and 1 non-related personal reference
Now, using Yusef’s resume, answer the following questions for me:
- What type of job is Yusef applying for?
- What value did he add at his last job?
- What kind of performance can the prospective employer expect to get?
- If you had to pinpoint a profession for Yusef, what would it be?
- What ares of expertise does he have?
- Additional education or certifications?
Uh-huh. A resume should always provide answers to these questions. If yours doesn’t, you’re underselling yourself (i.e. you’re doing it wrong). Read on to find out how to craft a New School Resume.
The branded resume is all about deliverables. The world is looking for providers, contributors. The branded resume presents you as one who can productively contribute to the team, company and mission. It focuses on the things you can and have delivered before. It’s not enough to list your past job experience because honestly, people who have done what you’ve done are a dime a dozen. No kidding. It is your personal and professional experiences that set you apart. It’s the way you’ve interpreted and leveraged what you’ve learned and done that will be the deciding factor in whether you are selected for a particular position or not.
You’ve seen Yusef’s original resume. Now look over the parts of Yusef’s Branded Resume.
- Header – Still includes contact information. I would also recommend adding your social media contact info.
- Brand Statement – The statement “New York Real Estate Professional” certainly clarifies things. It tells the employer the status you’ve achieved to date.
- Profile – Replaces the Objective / Focus and takes you from saying “I want” to effectively declaring “I provide.”
- Areas of Expertise – Everybody’s an expert at something. List your areas of expertise and be honest. Whether you have one area or ten. That’s fine. Just be honest about it.
- Experience - Experience is where we list the skills and abilities you’ve developed. Most people develop core competencies that extend beyond the duties listed on their last job description. Particularly when clients have lots of job experience in various industries, I focus less on industry and more on competencies. For instance, a secretary may have worked at 12 different jobs in 4 different industries, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that she mastered Office Management, Collaboration and Human Resources. Those three would serve as subheadings for her Experience section. Try to find the common threads that go through your entire work history. Whenever possible, begin each description with an action word like oversaw, organized, developed, implemented, performed and focus more on the things you mastered, delivered and achieved.
- Key Achievement – I usually add a Key Achievement section to the bottom of each subheading to add real-world, applicable value to your ability. If you can quantify what you’ve done (like “Increased in-store sales by 25% within the first 75 days), that will help your employer to get a better sense of precisely what you can do.
- Education – Include any college, certifications and training. If you earned your degree, your college listing would go something like this:
MBA, International Focus
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI | 2010
If you didn’t, this would be acceptable as it would keep the employer from mistakenly assuming you have a degree:
University of Michigan
Course of Study: Business Administration
Ann Arbor, MI | 2007-2010
Core Competencies – List your software and hardware training, languages you speak, licenses and training (CPR, or Weapons training or Lean Six) in this section.
Supplemental Sections
I have a few other sections I like to use when crafting resumes. The sections I use depend solely on the type of job sought and the person doing the seeking. Here are some sections you may want to add:
- Professional Affiliations – For professional organizations like Better Business Bureau, SAG, Atlanta Business Professionals
- Interests – For INTERESTING hobbies and leisure activities, not walks on the beach and old people stuff
- Intellectual Property / Media Credits – Particularly for bloggers, content providers, developers and other Creatives; feel free to list albums you’ve worked on, articles you’ve written, books you’ve published and the like
- References – Personal and professional references
- Honors & Awards – Any recognition you’ve received
- Supplemental Work History – Add here any unrelated jobs you’ve held that you’re proud of – worked for the registrar during the last election, hired as a vocalist for a Pringles commercial, etc.
** Very Important **
Your online presence must match your resume. If you populate the internet with raunchy videos and get into Facebook arguments with your boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, then STOP IT! We talked already about integrity. Whatever mess you have online, clean it up. It does matter and it does affect your chances of getting a job.
