I’ll share advice with students on how to create a stellar career, truly rise above peers in their profession and get employers to go “gaga” over them.

Perhaps most importantly, I’m offering all attendees of my session a FREE mentor match. I’ll introduce them to a seasoned professional with whom they have common interests and can build a long-term collaborative relationship.

Read more in the press release below.

SJSU Student Organization Conference Release

Fonts, format and Facebook. This is not your father’s parchment resume anymore.

Click this link and pass it on!

What’s really troubling is we work with professional communicators and marketers who should have mastery of the English language and know how to package themselves. So if your entire career is summarized in one document, listen to Karen Burns, author of The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl, Real-Life Career Advice You Can Really Use.

Before you send that résumé out, check it for buzzwords. Like “team player.” Or “detail-oriented.” Or “accustomed to fast-paced environments.” They make your resume look like everyone else’s. And they’re probably not among the keywords employers search for. The best way to sell yourself is to show, don’t tell. Explain your accomplishments rather than spouting them off in trite ways.

So check your résumé for these buzzwords and phrases. If you find them, replace them—or at the very least, elaborate upon them—with real-life, specific examples:

1. Team player

2. Detailed-oriented

3. Proven track record of success

4. Experienced

5. Excellent communication skills

6. Leadership skills

7. Go-to person

8. Managed cross-functional teams

9. Exceptional organizational skills

10. Self-starter

11. Results-oriented professional

12. Bottom-line orientated

13. Works well with customers

14. Strong negotiation skills

15. Goal-oriented

16. People-person

17. Dynamic

18. Innovative

19. Proven ability

20. Top-flight

21. Motivated

22. Bottom-line focused

23. Responsible for

24. Assisted with

25. Skilled problem solver

26. Accustomed to fast-paced environments

27. Strong work ethic

28. Works well with all levels of staff

29. Met (or exceeded) expectations

30. Savvy business professional

31. Strong presentation skills

32. Looking for a challenging opportunity

33. Cutting-edge

34. Multi-tasker

35. Proactive

36. Seasoned professional

37. Perfectionist

38. Highly skilled

39. Functioned as

40. Duties included

41. Actions encompassed

42. Best-in-class

43. Strategic thinker

44. Trustworthy

45. Flexible

46. Works well under pressure

47. Quick learner

48. Partnered with others

49. Results-focused

50. Out-of-the-box thinker

What other trite, useless words or phrases make you cringe on a résumé? Share them with us, please!

How to fail fast

On or off the learning curve? New communications media: Fad or fact? It doesn’t matter. As a communication professional, you are obligated to learn new channels. Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Blogs? YouTube? Are you still in denial about social media or did you jump in, learn from smart friends and suggest new ideas for your employer or client? Where are you on the adoption curve? Stay relevant. Don’t be a dinosaur. Just do it.

You are not your résumé. Your résumé is not a stone tablet documenting your career. Do you customize it every time to show the prospect you have exactly what she wants? Do you include links for your Facebook page, blog, Twitter account and LinkedIn profile? If you do not have a complete profile and recommendations on LinkedIn today, you do NOT exist to prospective employers and recruiters. Do you have a portfolio? Is it online and accessible 24/7?

Be responsive. How long did it take you to return my call or acknowledge my email? Is that how responsive you are to someone trying to give you a job? We are all competing in a global market and there are other candidates who are at least as smart as you, willing to do your job at a fraction of the rate and a lot more eager about getting the job done. Extra points awarded for responding quickly and providing valuable information. Instant disqualification for responding two weeks later with “I’m interested” and expecting someone to be impressed.

Listen more. Typically, your clients aren’t communicators. That’s your role and great communicating starts with great listening which leads to deep understanding which, best case, sets the stage for great thinking. So, listen. Probe with questions. Repeat back what you think you understand. You have two ears and one mouth. Use them proportionately.

“But I’m so experienced.” Your experience might be perceived as a price tag that puts you out of the competition. It can also be a great big “sell by” date indicating you need to be left on the shelf. Your experience might imply you don’t know about the latest, greatest marketing media (see above). Your experience might intimidate someone who graduated college 10 years after you did. And it might create the impression you’re too good for the job and will get bored and split at the first opportunity. Don’t assume it’s a good thing. Focus on results and value.

No whining. Life can be hard. Work can be hard. And a lot of things are unfair. But complaining about it doesn’t change anything except the perception that you can’t hack it. As Jerry Maguire says, “That’s not what inspires people.” People don’t pay a premium for someone who sees only half-empty glasses. Find a solution instead of finding someone to blame.

Think ahead. If you can’t play chess, at least play a good game of checkers and figure out what your client or manager wants next. I don’t know about you, but I get Big Points when I can anticipate what my spouse wants. Your client is the same way. If you earned a good result for the client, did you write it up so all your client has to do is forward it to her management? (And she might not do as good a job as you will.) Think ahead. Just one or two moves.

It’s not about you. There’s a very fine ego balance consultants need to strike with their clients. On the one hand, you are the Star Who Does Great Things. On the other hand, you’re equally attentive to the Little Things: you get the rental car, order the meal that’s just a little bit less expensive and listen with Total Fascination when she’s telling you about her cat (mom, ex, garden, shoes, etc.). You’ll hand your client breath mints and make eye contact to let him know he needs to take the mints. Your entire Reason for Being is to make your client successful and as a service provider you go to great lengths to make that happen. And you will be rewarded and your ego stoked when the client trusts you completely with their career and future.

A handwritten note: the gem of personal marketing. Who writes Thank You notes? People who know that the recipient might just tack it to the wall of her office and look at it every day as a constant reminder you are One Classy Pro. Anyone who refers a job lead or grants you an interview is worthy of personalized multi-media gratitude: email, voicemail, thank you note, Facebook wall post, etc. But when you write it, stamp it and mail it you always leave an infinitely indelible impression.

Keep your promises, keep everyone on track. Take notes. Flag action items. Send the action items to the people involved. Resolve any misunderstandings. Act on the action items. Report on the status of the action items. Reconvene and repeat. Simple? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. Common? Not at all. When was the last time you received timely minutes from a meeting? Or any recap at all from a meeting? Some one ought to be doing this and you have an opportunity to be the hero in this story. You are a communicator. Get it done.

Be interesting. Being an interesting person doesn’t compensate for you being unresponsive, not smart, or having out-of-date skills, but combined with great performance, being interesting makes you The Complete Package. Be involved in your community. Coach soccer. Play an instrument. Dance. Practice yoga. Volunteer. Sky dive. Write a book. Do a triathlon. If you are someone who is admirable, then you increase your chance of being admired.

Dress to impress. You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge the cover by the cover. Are you dressed appropriately and with a sense of style? Are your shoes shined? Are your nails neat? Breath fresh? Glasses clean? Don’t make me be your mother.

Don’t touch the third rail. Politics. Religion. Sex. Do we really need to elaborate?

Pay it forward. Give and you shall receive. Leave an unsolicited Recommendation on LinkedIn. Share your contacts and resources with new colleagues or students. Send small, thoughtful news articles they might enjoy, or send something that made you think of them. Don’t be a stalker, and don’t expect anything in return. It will come back to you, tenfold, over the course of your career. Guaranteed.

Do you feel our pain? Are these tips a no-brainer for you? If so, you’re one of a few rare GEMS (Go-to Expert Marketing Superheroes) and we’d love to know you.

Need help and want us to send over somebody who “gets” it? www.htconnect.com

“Rene’s advice, given in one of my most relevant courses in grad school, stayed etched in my mind months after her guest lecture. I admired her savvy business initiative, sheer talent, and sincere willingness to help those of us on the job hunt. I reached out to Rene following the lecture and immediately implemented the suggestions she made for my resume. After three months aggressively pursuing job opportunities in a struggling economy, I was hired by the company at the top of my list. Thanks to Rene and High Tech Connect for the tips for success!” — Yara Souza, Associate for Corporate Practice at Burson-Marsteller, San Francisco

Congratulations Yara! We’re so proud of you and confident you’ll have a wonderful career.

The Wall Street Journal has published an excellent overview on how people can find jobs online and I highly recommend you read it.  Here, in a nutshell, is the Wall Street Journal’s list of five mistakes online job hunters make:

1.  Forgetting manners

2.  Overkill

3.  Not getting the word out

4.  Quantity over quality

5.  Online exclusivity

One of the most important lessons from the article is this:

Many people make the mistake of joining LinkedIn and other social media sites and then just letting their profiles sit publicly unfinished, says Krista Canfield, a LinkedIn spokesperson. “Just signing up for an account simply isn’t enough,” she says. “At a bare minimum, make sure you’re connected to at least 35 people and make sure your profile is 100 percent complete. Members with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.”

Here’s the link to the full story.

Take a look at this link and you may want to share it with friends. With the current economy, most people are contemplating options and working on safety nets to ensure their survival. Thank you, Wall Street Journal, for giving everyone reliable, practical guidance.

Here, for your amusement and education, are the best of the worst:

1. Public (as in public relations) spelled without the l. You can NOT rely on spell-checkers to catch everything. Pubic is still a word. Just not one you want on your resume.
2. The Principal is your “pal.” For all those sole proprietors who give themselves this title, GAH! Use the correct spelling. Nothing nukes your chances faster than listing “Principle” as your title. It’s wrong and makes us insane.
3. Four different fonts. This is not the way the demonstrate your creativity. As Michelle exasperatedly exclaimed to no one in particular, “Pick one font and stick to it!”
4. Eight-point font. Not all clients are under the age of 30 and can read microscopic copy. Minimum font size should be 10, 11 or 12, depending on the font style. Do NOT reduce the font to cram everything onto one or two pages. Most résumés are reviewed in electronic form so if the reader can’t quickly scroll through 2-3 pages, it’s even faster to hit the Delete key. Trust us.
5. No margins. Do you GET the concept of white space? Just like the point above, people who cram everything possible into their résumé by using a smaller font will often shave margins down to .5″. This makes it hard for the reader and printed pages will often cut off your content. It also leaves no room for comments from reviewers in hard copy. Rule of thumb, leave one-inch margins all around. Ahh, doesn’t that look better?
6. Nineteen pages. Not even kidding. I don’t care who you are or where you walked on water, there is NO excuse for a résumé this long. Include links to online samples and redirect to your website if necessary. Bullets should call out your results and achievements, not rehash full job descriptions.
7. HIPAA. Just because it’s pronounced “hippa” does not mean you spell it that way. It stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the correct acronym is HIPAA. Check Wikipedia. Many who do healthcare communications spell this incorrectly, which tells us attention to detail is not your strength.
8. Facebook is for faces. Do not include your picture on your résumé unless you are in the real estate industry. And even then, we don’t get that whole strategy.
9. Guess my city. First, we don’t recommend you list your street address any more. It’s a privacy thing, to throw off any potential stalkers. But if you ARE going to list your street address, you might want to include the city so the employer knows how far away you live.
10. The kitchen sink. Ever seen a résumé with arrows, *stars*, italics, bold, CAPS, underline, and everything else in the MS Word arsenal? It’s atrocious. Less is always more. Stick to one bullet style, use either bold or CAPS as subheads (not both), and keep the rest super-clean. Your experience and talent should shine through in an easy-to-scan fashion, without doohickeys and adornments.