Several years ago on Thanksgiving morning my family and I were getting ready to head out to a friends house to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal and plan our attack for Black Friday shopping.

To our dismay, we noticed a lot of bubbling water at the end of our driveway and it had been raining for several days so we did not think much of it.  However it seemed as if it was a lot of water all of a sudden so my husband went to check what was happening and sure enough the pipe connecting the water company meter to our pipe had burst open.  We had no idea who to call so we were trying to figure out how to repair it, when a neighbor came along and saw what was happening.  This person took several hours (about 4 all in total) out of their holiday to help us get our pipe fixed just because his son knew our son.  We were so terribly grateful and when we offered to pay him, his response was simple  “No thanks, that is what neighbors are for”.

Now fast forward about 10 years I receive a call from someone wanting to get their resume done, I set up a time to meet them and when we meet we realize the connection.  Now I proceeded to gather all the normal information for the resume and actually start working on it a little while we are talking.  When it came time to leave he asked me what does he owe me.  My response “No thanks, that is what neighbors are for.”  He smiled and said he felt he should pay something,  my response was “you already did and you do not realize how much we appreciated it.

It just feels good when you get the opportunity to pay it forward to the same person who helped you when you needed it.

Today I was asked why I stayed at a company that they did not like? The answer was simple, I really really liked my job. You might even say I was a workaholic because I loved my job so much. So what is wrong with loving my job so much and giving so much of time freely to the company?

The answer from me personally was simple – nothing was wrong with this it made me happy to help so many people while doing my job. Now the answer from the Professional me – WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING? Why give your skills and time to a company that is not fully compensating what you do. People are laughing at you for all that you do for the company and do not realize that you are being taken advantage of.

Does this argument sound familiar? If so then yes it is time to reevaluate your work with the company. Is it possible that you are too complacent and the company if moving forward with out you? Maybe the company is becoming less competitive in today’s market and or you are no longer current in your field with the new trends.

Yes their are ways to make ourselves more marketable to our own company and others for that matter, but sometimes the answer is simple…..it is time to look for a change.

For me today I see so many clients who just need someone to talk this through with. Please take the time to discuss your options with your trusted circle of friends and ask for their honesty ….just do not hold it against them if you don’t like the answers.

It is the season that we start thinking about how we are grateful for what we have.  Our family, friends, our homes, and yes even our jobs.  But as we start thinking about our jobs we start wondering about the holidays and the new year rapidly approaching us, and if it is time to start looking for a better job.

Let’s start with the basics if you are among the working class of people please be grateful for your job, as way to many would gladly take your job if you are not interested.   Second if you are ready to make a change or just want to see what is out there in terms of a job, then you are on the right track.

Looking for a new job and or career can be daunting, and stressful.  So take your time and get your self set up for success now so when the right opportunity presents itself you are ready.

First things first:

1) Get out your old resume

2) Is everything up to date?  Is it compatible with today’s Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that most companies now use?  – If you don’t know ask around to see if someone you trust can help you.  If not reach out to a company that is willing to help you, many company’s including us at www.resumerx.com  will give you a free review.

3) Do you have a cover letter ready?  Cover letter should be no more than 5 paragraphs with no more than 3-7 sentences in each.  The cover letter lets you show case your skills and sell yourself to the company by highlighting your skills that match and how you can use them for the company.   MAKE SURE THEY ARE CUSTOMIZED to the individual company you are applying for.

4) Some times in order to get your cover letter and resume in together I suggest having a file where you cover letter is right before your resume.

5) Research the company you are applying for to ensure that you would be a good fit for them as well as they are with you.  Ex:  Would you want to apply to a job that makes meat products if you are a vegetarian?

6) ALWAYS have a second set of eyes read both your cover letter and your resume for any typographical and or grammatical errors.  The simplest things can make or break your chances so play it safe and eliminate any potential problems when you can.

7) Remember it is still appropriate to send a hand written “Thank You” card after your interview.

With these simple steps take the time to give “Thanks” to those in your life that you are truly grateful for.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blogs and if you have any suggestion’s and or questions you would like answered, please let us know.

Naomi

By Beth Noffsinger Messenger-Inquirer

Naomi Sutton has worked in human resources and recruiting for more than 15 years, and in that time, she has received résumés written in pencil and crayon — and in one instance, on a napkin.

“Those are unfortunately sad, extreme examples,” Sutton said recently, “but they’re not all that far-fetched.”

After working as an HR professional for Daymar College and other businesses, Sutton is using her expertise to start her own, small business, providing tips and assisting job seekers as well as doing HR consulting and working with companies.

She started Résumé Rx in September, and her business has the slogan, “Reviving Careers One Résumé at a Time.”

Sutton offers résumé writing services, including entry level résumés, mid-management level résumés and c-suite résumés; career consulting services, including working with people looking for a new career and people considering a career change internally or externally; and human resources consulting, including HR guidance and/or part-time assistance and assisting companies with their HR files or audits.

Sutton worked in HR and recruiting at Daymar for more than eight years, then spent several months at a recruiting firm before starting Résumé Rx.

She said she “used and really respected” the recruiting firm, “but everybody who was sending in Résumés, I spent more time revamping the résumés to make them submittable.”

Sutton would have to tell people to re-do the résumés because they were in the wrong format, and then they would come back with typos and grammatical errors. In the few months that Sutton worked with the recruiting business, she had more than 1,800 clients that she worked with.

The owner of the recruiting firm wanted Sutton to move to New Jersey, which Sutton didn’t want to do, eventually suggesting that they split off.

Sutton spent a couple months deciding whether or not she wanted to start her own business when clients started contacting her again.

“It’s kind of been blossoming,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it to take off as fast as it did, which is good, don’t get me wrong. I figure I’d get a couple résumés a week, maybe — more like a couple a month. But it has been steady, and it has been good.”

Clients would ask her to look at their résumés, and when she said she would have to charge them, they would ask, how much?

“You start out really reasonable,” she said, “and before you know it, you have five or six résumés on your desk that have to be done by the end of the day.”

Sutton’s résumé services start at $75. She will give potential clients 10 to 15 minutes of free advice and will quickly review an emailed résumé, giving a little bit of feedback on it.

One of the main mistakes job applicants make on their résumés is not having a clear objective listed on it, Sutton said. The objective is to tell potential employers what an applicant is looking for in a job, and many people’s objectives say they want to work in a company where they can use their skills, Sutton said.

“It’s not narrowed down,” she said. “It doesn’t tell me the position you sought. It doesn’t tell me why you’re a good candidate. … Your objective is not meant to be a cover letter. It’s meant to be an objective. Specific. Be smart with it.”

Sutton will tailor résumés and cover letters to the jobs her clients are applying for. If a client wants her to do another résumé for a different job than what she was initially hired for, it does cost extra. She also asks her clients to send her the job descriptions.

“I will take whatever ad they’re looking at and show them why they should or shouldn’t apply,” Sutton said. “I don’t sugar coat it  — this is not a good fit for you for the following reason or it is a good fit.”

One of Sutton’s clients is Chuck Maddox. They both worked for Daymar College at the same time, though Maddox was based out of Louisville. He is now director of education at Miller-Motte Technical College in Roanoke, Va.

“I was interested in updating my Résumé,” he said. “I reached out to her for some help. It was very beneficial. She spent a lot of time talking to me about the different aspects of a Résumé and how to get them past the screening systems to be considered.”

Many companies employ applicant tracking systems, which are designed to help employers find the most qualified candidates. It can be used, for example, to scan for key words the employer wants to see in a Résumé, but didn’t specify on a job ad, Sutton said.

If a Résumé uses a fancy font or special characters, it can lose its formatting or be garbled by the tracking system, she said.

Sutton and Maddox spent a lot of time on the phone to get the most effective Résumé possible, Maddox said.

“She dedicated a lot of time to it, and I think the end product was certainly worth the effort,” he said, adding that he has sent the Résumé to two parties and has interviews with both.

In the past, Maddox worked on his Résumés on his own. He said Sutton helped him make it more specific for the job market he was looking for, and he plans to stay in education.

Maddox spent several years working in public education before moving to private education. He called it a different market with a different approach to getting hired.

“I would recommend (Sutton) highly to anybody out there in the job market,” Maddox said. “It’s difficult to find jobs these days.”

In some cases, Sutton writes the cover letters or Résumés for her clients, but they have to provide the material.

“I might be able to take your job description and start a Résumé,” she said, “but I won’t be able to complete it. … A Résumé is not a job description.

“It’s not all encompassing, and it never should be. It should be the highlights and major achievements of your career in that position.”

She tries not to change her clients’ words when working on Résumés or cover letters.

“I really try to keep it in their vocabulary style,” Sutton said. “Anybody can write for somebody else, but a good interviewer will know that it’s not their wording, so you’re starting yourself off to a bad start.”

Often, Sutton ends up changing the format in which the Résumé is written.

She also does interview coaching, advising both job seekers as well as potential employers. She helped one company learn how to do a better job conducting interviews, giving them a questionnaire of what to ask interviewees. Sutton also provides other HR guidance for businesses.

“The smaller employers don’t know what they can and can’t do,” she said. “They don’t have an HR resource to call.”

She works with clients from around the country, sometimes doing phone meetings or talking via Skype. Sutton lives in Pleasant Ridge near the Daviess County line, and she will meet clients she knows or knows of in Owensboro.

Sutton’s goal is to help people.

“It’s very simple,” she said. “There’s so many things that people need better guidance with, and not that I want to take away from anything, because a lot of people do a great job with their own Résumés, but a lot of people are uncomfortable, get Résumé fright just like test anxiety.”