Prelude

When I got laid off, searched my hard-drive for my resume. There it was, in all it’s glory: Alex_Resume.doc, created in Microsoft Word, using the “Professional-Style Resume” template. Although I had kept it current, something told me it was time for a change. I knew there would be plenty like it crowding the desks of hiring managers across Wisconsin.

Emurse.com

I’m not quite sure how I heard about Emurse—I probably googled something like: “Resume Building Software.” Emurse turned out to be a tool where one could create a good-looking resume and publish it online, making it available for download in a sundry of formats. Not bad for being free. Here’s a summary of what one can do with Emurse:

• Build modular resumes, customize headings/subheadings, and the way they are ordered.
• Select from a handful of impressive-looking styles. The kind that don’t look like they were made in MS Word.
• Publish the resume online as a web-page, making it capable of being indexed by Google.
• Make the resume available for download via .DOC, .PDF, .ODT, .RTF, .TXT, .HTML, and .RSS. Just to be sure.
• Create multiple resume variants, and publish them all

I liked how simple and easy the site was to use. The customization options and templates rendered a clean resume with maximum compatibility.

I didn’t like that you once you created the output, there wasn’t much else to do. One just hope google crawls it and doesn’t put it into the sandbox.

The Verdict: Emurse.com is a good tool for making a clean resume and publishing it online.

Winway Resume Deluxe

Is a software program I didn’t care for. It has a similar approach at building your resume from blocks like Emurse, but way, way more awkward. After building a resume, Winway allows one to select from about a million different templates/styles. Sorting through them was like wandering drunk through a really bad art gallery. Nonetheless, here’s what you can do with this gem:

• Build a resume. Functional and Chronological. Yippee.
• Write a cover letter
• Export all of these to a .PDF
• Email Resumes out

I liked that you could create a resume and export it to the formats that are important. I enjoyed the smooth uninstall from my hard-drive.

I didn’t like that Winway Resume Builder makes an effort to insult my intelligence. I’m talking about the video coaching feature, where I got tutored on how to interview well by watching 1980s role-plays of really bad actors in spiffy re-encoded quality. That’s not how people behave.

The Verdict: You might as as well spend the $39.95 on some cologne. It’ll make you more attractive.

If You Need to Revamp Your Resume

I think Emurse.com is worth a look, if nothing more than the chance it could wind up being a Google search result for your name. Its simplicity and ease-of-use can have done in 30 minutes and moving on to the next thing. Emurse will even email you if anybody visits or downloads your resume. Has anyone else out there tried either one of these two resume-builders?

Brazen Careerist

Founded by top-notch writer and blogger Penelope Trunk (who happens to live in the same town as me), Brazen Careerist is a professional social network for Gen Y. It’s like LinkedIn with a pinch of Facebook: helping young people develop professional connections—with a personal touch. Brazen Careerist allows one to:

• Build a profile consisting of your professional work history and education (similar to LinkedIn), with an added section for “ideas,” where you can express yourself.
• Follow/friend other members of Brazen Careerist
• Upload your own resume (.DOC, .DOCX, .PDF, and .ODF formats) and made available for download
• Link to your blog and social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to name a few)
• Publish a feed from your blog or create a blog post right in the web application

I liked the idea of concerting with other young people that share a common goal: advancing their careers. I also liked how Brazen Careerist made it easy for me to sign up by using FacebookConnect to fill out most of the registration for me.

I didn’t like how slow the pages loaded compared to other social web-apps. It annoyed me when I had to re-enter information into my resume numerous times because of bugs when saving the work experience entries.

I see Brazen Careerist as being a perfect HQ for building your personal brand and connecting with people—if you don’t have a stand-alone blog. Otherwise, it can be used as a more-focused Twitter: an outpost from which to build an audience that permits you to refer their attention to the things you create.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network with a population of over 45,000,000 users. I’ve heard it quoted that as many as 80% of employers use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find candidates. LinkedIn allows users to create a profile consisting of your resume and professional recommendations/endorsements from other LinkedIn connections. Employers also post their requisitions on LinkedIn and as a member, one can search these postings. LinkedIn lets you:

• Search for jobs
• Search for contacts by cross-checking your email records if you use a web-based email like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail
• Import your resume to populate work history
• See the connections of your connections (2nd degree), and request an introduction to those connections
• Write and request recommendations for/from any of your connections
• Update a “what are you working on now?” status
• Link to your other sites/blogs

I liked that this social network actually had job postings that were current—I can’t say as much for most job posting aggregators. I also thought the recommendation feature was novel.

I didn’t like that you had to upgrade to a premium account in order to send someone a message (if they’re aren’t in your network).

I see LinkedIn as having lots of potential  for developing new professional contacts because it tracks “degrees-of-separation” so well and allows one to be “introduced” by intermediaries. This also seems like a great place to build professional credibility by way of amassing lots of endorsements and using them as testimonials—especially useful in b2b sales.

For The Long-Haul

Brazen Careerist and LinkedIn, when used correctly, allow one to build a professional image or brand online. This is a long-term strategy that demands consistency and tenacity—you may not see results for months. Reminder-to-Self: start using these tools before you are unemployed.

Next Week

Next week I’ll talk about some resume-building and distribution tools I’ve worked with and what I think about them. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your experiences with Brazen Careerist or LinkedIn. Have you ever landed or found a job/freelance work through them? Leave your comments below.

I accomplished a lot. Friday I received several more phone calls from my friends and colleagues and got some additional leads about open positions, which I followed up on immediately. What I’ve read is proving to be true: your best resource in a job hunt is your personal network of friends and associates.

Other Tools

In case you’re wondering, I’m really not using monster.com or careerbuilder.com. In fact, I’ve deleted my accounts with both of these companies for a couple of reasons: the inbound inquiries I received through them in the past have been mainly staffing agencies and people trying to get me to join their multi-level marketing scheme. On top of that, neither company allows me to upload my polished resume in PDF format.

The tool I’ve been using most is: Indeed.com. Indeed is a lightning-fast job posting search that not only crawls the big job posting sites like CareerBuilder and Monster, but also indexes openings directly off companies’ own websites.

My Resume Revamped

After a vigorous search of my hard-drive, I uncovered my old resume. Based on the infamous MS Word “Professional” Resume Template, it was a stunning example of what doesn’t set you apart from the other dreaded unemployed. Here’s the old copy (your browser must support Adobe Flash Player):

Original Resume Redacted

As you can see, it was hybrid chronological format,  3 pages long, and looked like something a high-school student could do. I spent some time online researching professional resume-writing companies and looking at their samples resumes for ideas. Some sites I looked at were: Elite Résumé, Management Consulted, and Resume Resource.

The New Resume

Accoutmgr Redacted

I managed to condense it to two pages, and it looks better. The tools I used to create this were as follows: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat Professional 9.1, and Microsoft Word. From what I hear, recruiters prefer to receive your resume in PDF format, and that makes sense considering it should display correctly on all platforms with no formatting issues. Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding the process I went through.