Thanks for sending in all of your resumes over the past week in preparation for Job Search Boot Camp!  I’ve loved looking at them.  After reviewing all the resumes, I wanted to share 5 big picture ways to avoid your resume getting thrown in the trash.

These are just the first step of having a polished rock star status resume.  Without these, you won’t make it far.

5 Very Basic Things You Need to do with your resume

1. Make it pretty.
2. Put your references on a second page by themselves.
3. Finish your sentences.  Tell me more.  Show quantifiable value that you added.
4. Keep it to 1 page!
5. Cut cheesy interests and bullshit about crappy jobs.

Shout Outs!

• Most Likely to Call for an Interview: Jen Deweerd from Ontario, Canada
• Overall favorite resume: Katie Garton, Syracuse, New York

Possibly THE best blog post I’ve ever read.

How Recruiters Read Resumes in 10 Seconds or Less

What would you find out if you were eavesdropping on corporate recruiters?

On Company Loyalty… considering leaving your company? Do a Sunday Night Gut Check.

Simplifying Simplicity with Five Simple Questions.

As you may have gathered by now, I don’t believe in traditional job searching.  I think huge job boards are typically a black hole of nothingness, traditional resumes are old school and cover letters are ineffective bull shit. 

Therefore, I was pretty darn excited when I came across this modern job-seeker Yifei Zhang on brazencareerist.com. Yifei (pronounced EE-fay) wants a job at hubspot.com, so what did he do?  He created heyhubspot.com as a way of showcasing his skills, talents and desire to be a valuable member to the hubspot team. 

Yifei is a college drop out who, in my opinion, is smarter and more innovative than most of the college grads I know.  He is living proof of my theory that “the best education is self-education.”

Yifei took an unconventional (and perhaps controversial) path to starting his career.  He did the same thing in trying to land his dream job at Hub Spot.  Read Yifei’s story below and then give us your feedback.

Yifei’s Story

I come from an Asian family with strong educational roots. As a little kid, I loved reading. Loved learning. And I had great parents who supported me. Then high school came around, and I started to hate institutionalized education. I couldn’t have explained it as well then, but the rules of were designed to make everyone “adequate” – even those who aspired to be more.

Long story short, I went to college at BU, and worked my face off trying to break free of the bureaucracy and actually learn a thing or two. But it seemed so inefficient, all the busywork and prerequisites. I loved the people, the atmosphere, and those unique moments of intense challenge (right around finals). And when I realized that I could have all of that outside of the campus without the cost or absurdity, I made up my mind to leave.

So my last two years have been spent immersing myself in topics ranging from entrepreneurship to meditation. I taught myself web design, worked first in high end retail and now a non-profit foundation, made a lot of friends in the Boston start-up community, and am just looking to continue the journey.

Why I used Social Media to Apply for This Job

I decided to apply to HubSpot using a blog because it seemed like the right thing to do. No joke. HubSpot is a young, progressive start-up that helps businesses get found online. They market themselves through quirky online videos and rap songs. The blogging approach seemed to be a good fit for the company culture. Had I been looking into investment banking, I might have taken a different route.

What are your general thoughts about using social media in a job search?

I think online media can be effective in today’s job market… but only if you understand the bigger picture. The main advantage isn’t the ability to put your resume and accomplishments online. The main advantage is being able to convey your “soft” qualifications – your passion for the subject, your personality, your ability to engage an audience, etc. It’s that ellusive quality called “brand.”

My own approach, while it has a bit of novelty to it, is just another way of tackling the same problem: how do I stand out?

What do YOU think?

• Would YOU ever try to land a job by creating a site like Yifei’s? 
• Do you think Yifei’s method will be effective?
• Do you think that dropping out of college will be a help or a hinderance to Yifei’s career?
• Employers- if someone applied for a job at your company through a method like Yifei’s, how would you react?
• Do you think more traditional companies will start using social media to find their ideal candidates?

Stories like this prove that the recruiting and job searching game is changing.  I’d love to hear what YOU think!

How do YOU feel about people making money via social media? Are sponsored tweets unethical? Is paying the bills via blogging wrong? Let us know what you think!

Suze Orman vs. Dave Ramsey: whose advice would you rather take? Suze recently changed her advice saying people should agressivley save rather than agressilve pay down debt. Dave Ramsey’s advice has not changed. What’s better: a personal finance advisor who changes with the times, or one that sticks with his or her guns?

What are you doing in “the other 8 hours”? Do you want a new car, a bigger apartment and a life that doesn’t require cutting out your morning lattes? If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to get the same results. It may be time to become a “crea8tor”: make more money and live your passion.

The Twentysomething Guide to Financial Potholes. How many of these potholes have YOU experienced?

Five Lessons Learned From Financial Peace University 2009 from one of my new favorite blogs debtkid.com.

I received the following Facebook message from someone I went to High School with today:

Nicole,

I am finding that my motivation to do my job is falling off little by little every day and the push to keep going and insure I am the best is becoming a greater challenge every day.

I am telling you this in hopes that you- one of the very few people who may understand my mentality that anything short of the best is not good enough- could offer some words of wisdom or bits of advice on how to push through it.

I find myself day dreaming of what it would be like to have a normal job, one that does not include the responsibility of keeping others employed, or having to continuously be an ass, or worst of all put up with two moron bosses that never communicate. You know, the kind of work where I have a few simple tasks a day and maybe a slightly difficult decision from time to time, and then I can go home to an average life…

Well hopefully you have some words of wisdom, because I’m running out of them…

-C.

I asked my friend if I could use his message for a post, because I’m almost positive a majority of twentysomethings feel hopeless about their job and career path at times.

First, the news has becoming depressing. Hearing about friends and family members losing their jobs and getting pay cuts is sad. Feeling the slow down of being in an industry that is highly dependent on the economy is scary. Seeing huge financial institutions fail, and their CEO’s making millions of dollars a year is bizarre. The fact that America is now considered “debt nation” and the government has to bail us out is awful. All of this “doom and gloom” has probably led many people to a small case of temporary depression!

As far as offering advice to this common situation, my first suggestion would be to take a few days off. Or maybe more if you can. Perhaps a little vacation would give you time to get your head together and either cope with the situation or pursue a new path.

Second, if you’ve determined that you are truly miserable accept that only YOU can change your situation. This may require going back to school, moving to a new city, quitting your job to pursue a new one, etc. Usually you will know if it is time to take the leap. My guess is that you will feel a million times better once you do.

Lastly, I think C.’s email brings up a VERY important topic: resilience. When talking to my business partner, Blake, over the weekend we emphasized how important this trait is when facing the challenges of building a solid business or career. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it- right? C. mentioned that “anything short of the best” is not good enough for him. If that is the case, he may need to accept that either a. he is not in the right job at all, or b. that being the best, or accepting the most difficult challenges are usually the most daunting and the least fun.

So why is resilience so important? Resilient people bounce back and don’t quit or give up easily. Their ability to keep going will eventually lead them to success. Resilient people can thrive and progress in difficult circumstances, and tend to get ahead when less adaptable people won’t.

After receiving C’s message, I wrote back and asked if I could post a response to his dilemma. He agreed and then wrote the following:

I asked my friend yesterday if he thought what is going on around us right now will affect the way our generation saves, works, changes… The way I see it is that we turning into our grandparents’ generation, that of the depression era. The mentality of working until your eyes are burnt, fingers are bleeding, and thoughts are worthless all to go to bed and wake up the next day to do the same thing. And for what? The fear that we will lose our jobs and be out of work for years to come?

That is a very interesting question that I hadn’t thought about before, but really it makes perfect sense. Living our twenties-a vulnerable time period in it self- while in a time of economic hardship and turmoil must affect the way we handle risk, finances and career choices. It seems that many of us are becoming paralyzed by fear, and therefore settling in many areas of our lives. It sounds like people like C. are hoping to hold on to anything that is stable and secure, even if it makes them feel like they are dying inside.

Gen Y is said to be a self-centered, free thinking and entrepreneurial generation. It’s almost ironic that Gen Y is also living through the present conditions we are. Perhaps it’s a big lesson we needed to learn.

Either way, my advice is to make choices that make you happy and keep looking forward. Be resilient and know that we are only in our twenties and have the rest of our lives to pursue more glamorous ventures.

Good luck to C and all others who are feeling this way!