As part of my severance package, I get a month's worth of a consultant's time from an outplacement service. They contacted me so I decided to give it a try.
Of course, the first thing they want me to do is rework the resume. The old "reduce the resume to 2 pages" routine. I have 25 years of experience...2 pages is pretty tight to fit it all in. But, I'll give it a try. The curious thing is, that even though I have a long resume, I find that when I do get an interview, people do peruse the entire document. And they pick up on all sorts of details that I never expect. You never know what catches someone's eye. Whether it's a technology, an artifact you've created, or a company where you worked. I hate to ditch some of this stuff.
On the other hand, since I'm not being overwhelmed with interviews or job offers right now, so maybe a new resume is something that will help.
The outplacement counselor wants me to sit through a 90 minute webinar about writing a resume. I just took a look at the resume development guide and wonder what could possibly take 90 minutes to discuss. I'm debating whether to just read the guide and give the resume rewrite a whirl or sit through the damn webinar.
Next on the outplacement counselor's list is networking. I wonder if they'll tell me anything that I haven't already heard before. And, what I really need is better advice about looking for a job in my *field*, not the generic advice that everyone gets. And the outplacement counselors do not have specific information, just general bits.
No one, and I mean *no one*, hates looking for a job more than I do. I hate the networking, I hate the "selling", I hate the resume sending, and the waiting --- I just hate it all. And yet, it's become necessary. Guess I'd better learn to not hate this stuff so much. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment