In my line of work, I see a lot of resumes - did you know that there are two main types? The two types of resumes generally used are a chronological resume and a skills resume.

A chronological resume places an emphasis on dates, job titles, and degrees. It provides a prospective employer with a time line of events relating your career and education, and allows the job seeker to highlight prestigious job titles and honors.

A skills resume places an emphasis on the skills you’ve acquired in your education and career. This resume type is most often used when you are seeking a job in a new field, or when you wish to highlight non paid experiences that may be relevant to the position applied for.

My own resume is chronological, and it allows a prospective employer to see the wide breadth of knowledge I have in the staffing and background investigations industries. However, in my current role at a staffing company, most of the resumes we receive are skill based. This is because we work with very specific needs for IT customers and need to know what type of programming languages a developer can use, or what kind of software someone has worked with. The dates and titles aren’t as relevant to our recruiters.

My office has always included ongoing training as a line item in the department budget. Nurses take continuing education courses to stay on top of their game, and IT professionals should do the same. Just because you’ve got your four year degree, or a few certifications under your belt isn’t any reason to stop advancing your education. If the thought of spending time in a classroom to take an IT Course makes you break out into a cold sweat, consider QuickCert.com - they allow you to self study for everything from Cisco to Oracle and Crystal Reports. Being able to study at home while working at your own pace is huge for a working professional with a family as well, and skills like these are in high demand in the IT marketplace.

You’ve probably heard me talk about my recent return to school on my main blog. (How could you miss it?) I was lucky to find a university in my area that combined traditional classes with online classes, while getting a degree that will suit me well in the workforce. I was also lucky in that the university offered a degree program I was interested in, because different universities have different niches. My school is great for business and liberal arts degrees, but they don’t offer anything relating to say, mechanical engineering. That’s not entirely a bad thing, because by specializing in a niche, a university can focus on that niche entirely and attract like minded students.

If you want a degree in mechanical engineering, you’ve probably already heard of Kettering University. If not, you’ll be interested in knowing that Kettering has been named by US News and World report as the #1 university in the US for industrial and manufacturing engineering degrees. (Information provided by America’s US News Best Colleges Guide, 2008 version.) Working in the staffing industry, I can tell you first hand that having a degree in industrial or manufacturing engineering is basically writing your own ticket. You can get a job anywhere, for good money with an education like that.

Kettering isn’t all work though - they’re using humor to make a point with students interested in learning more about their degree program. Stickman is their recruiting talent, and he’s made several videos letting potential students know the 411 on Kettering. This one is my favorite, probably because the sign behind Stickman says “L33TNEES”. A school with a sense of humor!

Check out the site - who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself back in school like me!

I use job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder quite often in my day to day work, but this week I came across a new type of job board that intrigued me. I’m definitely passing this information on to the recruiters I know.

Indeed.com allows you to search by city, keyword, and title. The neat thing about Indeed.com is that it’s a huge feed, and it pulls jobs from sites you’ve probably never heard of. Lots of employers chose not to use Monster or Career Builder due to the cost, and they post on smaller, cheaper, niche sites you’ve probably never heard of - how can you find those job listings? When you use Indeed.com, you’ll have no problem finding them, because Indeed pulls listings from those smaller sites and puts them into your results list.

Here’s a tip - in the search field, to narrow your terms to something in the job title, use this:

title:(analyst)

That will ensure the results you see have analyst in the job title. Let me know how it works for you!

I’m currently counting down the minutes (27 to go right now) until I can put turn on Outlook’s out of office assistant and pretend I’m not here. I’m leaving tomorrow, and as of 5pm today, I’m not responding to any more work issues. I’m going even going to check my email tomorrow morning before we head to the airport!

26 minutes to go. Did I mention I’m going to be walking? A lot? I packed two pairs of comfy shoes. Ok, they’re not Geox shoes or Josef Seibel shoes, but they’ll do! And I’m NOT bringing my laptop…the first time it’s stayed home in a long series of trips and vacations! (My back will thank me…toting the laptop on my shoulder through airports isn’t fun.)

The 2008 budget hasn’t been approved for my department yet, so until it is, no one is traveling anywhere. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, right? Well, I just completed my annual review, and one of my goals was to attend a certain training by 4/1/2008. Our budget should be approved sometime in February, but if it’s not, I need to figure out another way to get that training in, without the expense of airfare and a hotel in another city.

We’ve done web conferencing a few times for various meetings, but I’ve never set up my own web conference. According to the trainer at work, the software makes it easy and it’s all self explanatory. Sounds good to me - with the pressure of the training I’m planning to take, I don’t need my web seminars to carry a big learning curve!

I’m really sick of reminding the people I work with that when they email me for help, they do NOT need to insert 3 or 4 different screen shots of error messages into their email. The last email I got from a user darn near killed my Outlook, and in fact, the email hasn’t loaded completely yet.

No matter how many times I’ve nicely asked the same people to put their screen shots into a Word doc and attach it to their email…they don’t listen. I’m going to start sending THEM screen shots so they can see how much fun this is! (Perhaps a screen shot of this blog entry?)

On a day like today, when I’ve sent 75+ emails, received 100+ emails, and ignored the 70 in my inbox, I have to wonder.

How did offices operate before email? I’m only 31, and I’ve never worked in an office that didn’t have email. Ok, maybe that job I had when I was 20 something, but with my boss in the office next to mine, I didn’t need email. And prior to that, when I worked at Carvel…well, no email there, either!

Prior to email, were people on the phone all day? Sending things by fax? Inter-office mail? How DID people get along without emails? In a company like mine, and in my job, I need to talk to people daily who are thousands of miles away…and it simply wouldn’t be possible without my trust Outlook by my side.

The world really is becoming a smaller place. As I was stumbling last night, I came across two different sites, both offering overseas jobs to Americans. The first was a site where Americans with a college degree could head to Korea for a year to work as an English teacher. Wages weren’t bad, and there were lots of perks. For someone unattached wanting adventure, what a great way to see a new country! Jim and I have a friend who traveled to Japan quite a few years ago to teach, and he ended up liking his stay there so much, that he still lives there.

Teaching isn’t the only job that can give you the option to travel - in fact, there’s a huge nursing shortage. Should you wish to stay closer to home, as in, in the good ole US of A, there are plenty of hospitals begging for nurses. A travel nursing agency is able to provide you with a list of locations and pay rates, and you can take your pic. Think a summer in Hawaii would be nice? How about fall in Vermont? With a travel nursing job, you can work and play all at once.

With vacation and such, I was out of the office for a few weeks. I wanted in this morning, much to the amazement and delight of my coworkers, only to find that some assclown had dirtied up my desk while I was gone. For pete’s sake - if you’re going to borrow someone’s personal space, at least have the decency to throw away your nasty coffee cup, and clean up the coffee rings you left all over my desk!

Also, whoever took my wastebasket, please return it. If not, I will begin throwing my trash at random coworkers.

Have you ever heard of Salary.com? I came across the site a few months ago and when it’s review time again at work, I’ll definitely be using it. I think I’m guilty of selling myself short when it comes to salary, and after a few things came to light this week, I’m not going to think of myself as greedy when I ask for what I’m worth. That’s where Salary.com comes in - you can put in a job title, and a zip code, and actually see what people in your position are making in your town. It’s not a completely accurate tool, but it’s nice to see a range of what others are making, so that you can go into negotiations having a clue about your worth.

The Hispanic population is exploding, and I’ve already seen the effects of it in the workplace. I’ve come across job boards and job seeker communities specifically for Hispanic employees, and I’ve received resumes with a copy in English and a copy in Spanish. My college even recommended taking a year or two of Spanish simply because a lot of employers will pay a premium for bilingual employees. Questamente is a new website that is hoping to bring Hispanic professionals together for networking online, by providing bulletin boards, live chat, and individual profile pages. The site is even bilingual! Maybe you’ve searched for a group like this in your town, only to find that there’s not enough of a Hispanic population. You can just as easily network online and meet Hispanic professionals, or find out how to start, run, and manage a business, or locate a new position. You’ll find profiles of successful professionals, and blogs by members as well. The site is free to register at and use.

I’m guilty of worrying too much about work lately. And it’s beginning to affect my personal life. I had the strangest dream last night about my co-workers, and ended up envisioning one particular co-worker in his boxer briefs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the co-worker I would have preferred to see in his skivvies, so I fear that I’m scarred for life.

Do you ever have odd dreams about the people you work with? This was the 2nd time in a week I’ve had co-workers invade my dreams, and it wasn’t pretty either time.

If you ever get depressed when you think about how much money you’re making a week, or in some cases, NOT making, this is a neat little tool that will keep you motivated at work. You can see how much money you make per day, per hour, per minute, or even per second. The next time your boss asks you to do something that’s beneath you, just take a look at this. You’ll be the most motivated coffee fetcher out there! I love the little animated earnings graphic.

It never fails to amaze me how some people function in society. It amazes me even more when these people hold great jobs that indicate they should have a certain skill set. Wouldn’t you think an IT recruiter would know what his computer desktop is? Wouldn’t you expect him to be able to follow basic instructions to go to start, run, etc to open a program without using his program menu?

I would. Do I expect too much?

How about this one? A female recruiter left me a voice mail today about her computer problems. She stated she was using a coworkers computer, and that I should call her back “right away”. Sure, if you had PROVIDED ME YOUR NAME AND NUMBER! There was a number attached to the message, but Einstein made the call from her coworkers desk, and he’s out for another week. That at least gave me an office location, so I got to send out an email to other people in that office asking them if they knew who needed help. Since an email like that has the potential to make ME look like a dumbass, I was very sure to state in the email that the recruiter didn’t leave her name or number. HA!

Isn’t using the phone something you learned to do as a child? When you call anyone, you should identify yourself. (Note to my husband’s coworkers who call our house: It is disrespectful to just ask for him, without stating who YOU are. I’m trying to educate you dumbasses when I ask “And who may I say is calling?) When you leave a voicemail, you should identify your self. You should provide a number. You should then state (briefly) the reason for your call. You should close by providing your number again. It’s really NOT that hard.

I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting a report on my online personality assessment that I completed for my meetings at work this week, right? I was actually very surprised by the results. Before we received the results, the facilitator asked where we thought we fell on this scale:

1 - Dominant, ambition, results orientated

2 - Social influence, expressiveness, a “people person”

3 - Patience, composure, team player

4 - Analytical, detail orientated, precision

I would have thought dominant, for sure. I definitely am that way at home, and in my personal life, but I also made an effort when I took the assessment to think of how I would handle the situations presented at work. You see, I’m SO different at my job - most people think I’m quiet and reserved. I definitely hang back in situations and feel things out more. I was surprised when I received a 2 for my work persona. Apparently, I do come out of my shell sometimes!

Here’s what my profile said:

Colleen is enthusiastic and capable of generating enthusiasm
Colleen prefers to communicate in person (funny, because I deal with people 99% via email at work)
Colleen is open, talkative, persuasive, and makes new friends easily
She takes care of things that need attention
Can work on a team, but enjoys being the one in charge (boy, is that true, or what?)

Once we had our results, we used them to learn how to relate to other people on our team. For example, I can’t go to my analytical, logical coworker with a “gut feeling” about something - I need to have a reason for him to show him why I feel the way I do.

The whole thing was incredibly fascinating!

So I’m in Boston right now attending 2 days of meetings with my team, most of whom I never see. We’re spread out among several offices across the US, and while most people might hear “team meeting” and consider it to be a two day waste of time, I was interested in attending. We deal so much with each other via email and phone conferences, so it’s been great to interact with people in person and participate in discussions and brainstorming to see how we can improve processes. Email is great, but meeting in person is a must.

Our director hired someone who gave us an online personality assessment, and we’ll be meeting with that guy tomorrow to see how those came out. I full expect my report to say, “Does not play well with others.”

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I have my resume on Monster.com - it’s currently not active or searchable, but I never took it off the site after getting my job 3 years ago, figuring that it would be safe and secure. A letter I got from Monster.com this afternoon says otherwise:

Dear Monster Customer:

Recently, a malicious software, known as Infostealer.Monstres, was used to gain unauthorized access to the Monster resume database. Regrettable, some of the contact information that was captured included your name, address, telephone number, and email address.

The letter went on to state that action had been taken to protect data in the future, and that Monster would continue to review all log ins with access to the account to make sure they were being used properly. (I’m certain that’s true, because in my job, I deal with Monster on the employer side, and I’ve been contacted in the past about compromised accounts. Monster regulates accounts for “non human access”, and when they see hundreds of resumes being accessed in a short amount of time, they investigate.)

Monster also asked that users be on the alert for fraudulent emails that appear to be from Monster.com and ask you to:

• Download software
• Ask for your banking information, or other account numbers
• Ask for a payment of any type
• Ask you to download agreements pertaining to your Monster account or a job

If you receive an email like this, which appears to be from Monster, please forward it, with the full header information intact, to siteabuse@monster.com

Do I feel safe about continuing to use Monster? Sure. My name, email, and address is already out on the internet in various places. You should NEVER put anything you’re not willing to make public, like a social security number, on a resume.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the real world (you know - outside, with the other people, and the fresh air?) were like the internet? What if people at a board meeting acted as if they were commenting on blogs? Video is NOT work safe, but probably will make your coworkers crack up.

I wish I could go to board meetings like this. My humor would be appreciated!

There are certain situations where using an excuse makes you look like a lazy ass. For example, if I came in to a conference call 5 minutes late and was asked a question about the discussion that occurred before I was on the line, it’s completely appropriate for me to say “I’m coming in late to this conversation”…and ask to be brought up to speed.

When you receive a chain of 7 or 8 emails in a single day, and you’ve been copied on each email, it is NOT appropriate to say “I’m coming in late to this conversation”…and ask to be brought up to speed. All you need to do is open your eyes and read the emails that 4 or 5 other people have sent to educate you. I had to bite my tongue (fingers?) to refrain from telling this jackass to READ his emails - but instead I copied and pasted to “bring him up to speed”.

Seriously - how hard is it to go through your inbox and READ emails before sending something like that? It’s not as if this person wasn’t copied on the earlier emails - he was! Duh.