VisualCV.com to Cease Operations

Over a year ago, I wrote something about VisualCV and mentioned how you could use this service to create your online CV. Well, the sad news is that VisualCV.com website will be ceasing operations, effective December 30, 2011. They've announced that they'll be deleting all user data once the website operations cease.

You can use LinkedIn to create your online CV and market yourself. LinkedIn is very popular with business executives and many people use it as a form of online resume. Some people may describe LinkedIn as a "professional Facebook," but it's more than that.

If you're a physician and you're looking for a way to promote your online presence, I'd recommend that you use Doximity and here's why.

The Art of Transforming a CV into a Resume

Author: Jocelyn Clarke, SPHR

Bottom line: To transition to a non-clinical job, a physician must build a resume that artfully describes a complex career trajectory using the language of business.

As a practicing physician, you likely had a CV in your back pocket. It cleanly laid your education, residency and experience, confidently listing your research/publications/presentations, licensure, and memberships. Through their CV, a physician constructs a representative identity based on medical practice and knowledge, but as you transition into a non-clinical field you must create a document that conveys business value.

Most physician CVs are simple (yet lengthy) documents that outline the facts of your career, with little embellishment and personal marketing. Using this type of CV to apply for jobs in non-clinical fields requires hiring executives to extrapolate how exactly you might fit into their organization and what value you would bring to their organization. A well-tailored resume, on the other hand, will address these issues head-on and get to the heart of your value proposition.

See you in New Orleans for ACC.11 & i2 Summit 2011

I'll be in New Orleans for ACC.11 & i2 Summit 2011. I hope to see you there. The ACC.11 & i2 Summit 2011 Community is a space for cardiovascular professionals interested in ACC.11 & i2 Summit 2011 to interact.

I shared a few of my thoughts about the upcoming meeting on this short podcast on HCPLive.
Dr. Joe Kim Previews 2011 ACC Conference 

About the ACC:

The American College of Cardiology is transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health through continuous quality improvement, patient-centered care, payment innovation and professionalism. The College is a 39,000-member nonprofit medical society comprised of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers, and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its stringent qualifications. The College is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards and guidelines, and is a staunch supporter of cardiovascular research. The ACC provides professional education and operates national registries for the measurement and improvement of quality care.

Does Your Resume Make You Look Too Old?

If you're planning on pursuing a non-clinical "encore" career after you retire from your clinical career, make sure your resume doesn't make you look too old. Otherwise, you'll fall victim to age discrimination and you'll have a difficult time finding a job.

Here are 7 Resume Tips from recently-surveyed hiring managers (published on BioSpace.com)

1. Trim your employment history to reflect your past 10-15 years. 
2. Avoid leaving dates of education off your resume unless you have a strong strategic reason to do so.
3. Ensure that your resume showcases valuable age-related attributes most likely to be valued by prospective employers – e.g. your judgment and decision-making abilities, your range of expertise, your reliability and dependable work ethic, and your commitment to corporate goals.
4. Highlight achievements that reflect strong technical or professional expertise, a high energy level, and the ability to flexible and adaptable.
5. Employment accomplishments need to be concise, but detailed. Employers want to know as specifically as possible what you will “bring to their party”.
6. Leave off "references upon request" – this is a "given."
7. Most importantly, have your resume critiqued.

Click here to read the entire article on BioSpace.com.

Demonstrate career progression in your resume using these 4 steps

Four Ways Your Resume Should Show Off a Career Progression
By Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC GetInterviews.com

Whether you've worked for the same employer your entire career or lost count of the number of resignation letters you've signed, demonstrating how you evolved as a professional is key to a winning resume presentation.

Prospective employers find career progression very important. What better way to showcase your potential for future professional growth than exhibiting your capability of successfully doing so in the past? It also proves you have possessed ambition and drive throughout your career. Even more significantly, it can clearly convey the depth and breadth of your experience to lend you a valuable edge in today's highly competitive job market.

Writing Your Resume Workshop

Today at LeBow College of Business (Drexel University), they are having a resume workshop.

Date and Time:
Monday, October 18 at 05:00 PM until 06:00 PM

Location:
Pearlstein Business Learning Center
3218 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Room: 307

Event Type:
MBA Career Services

The resume is the visible tool of a job search. Make sure that yours is professional and powerful.

Presented by MBA Career Services.

Click here for more information.

Resume critiqued by a resume professional

Many physicians need help with their resumes. Why? Because the traditional physician resume is simply a list of jobs and it doesn't effectively communicate your accomplishments. We all know that you've been working as a doctor, saving lives, performing procedures, etc. How can you effectively demonstrate your leader skills on your CV? How can you communicate your team work experience? How can you describe some of your major accomplishments?  You may want to start by getting a complimentary resume critique. Explore what could be done if you were to rewrite your resume by working with a professional. Click here for more details.

5 Insider Tips for the Perfect Resume

There's an article on BioSpace titled, "HR and Hiring Experts Provide 5 Insider Tips for the Perfect Resume." What happens when you speak with HR professionals who work in the pharma/biotech (biopharma) industry about resumes.

Here are some interesting things to consider as you apply for jobs online:

“Computers are evaluating your resume, not people.”
“1 out of 5 resumes is unreadable.”
“Hiring managers don’t have time to read your resume either!”

According to real insiders, if you really want the perfect resume, you should keep these 5 simple thoughts in mind:

1. Applicants need to research the keywords important to the job.
2. Highlight years of experience and put bullet point summaries up front.
3. Unless requested, save your cover letter for after the screening process.
4. Apply a little “shock and awe” approach by touting some company knowledge up front.
5. Why not use the software screening system to your advantage?

You can read the complete article here on BioSpace.

September is International Update Your Resume Month

September is International Update Your Resume Month

brought to you

EXCLUSIVELY

by Career Directors International (CDI)

September is the perfect time to start a new approach to career care-taking. While children are embarking on starting the new school year, adults should also be taking stock of their professional attributes and career value by updating their resumes. 

Three Must-Have Cover Letters

Three Must-Have Cover Letters
Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC
GetInterviews.com

Salt and pepper. Peanut butter and jelly. Resume and cover letter. Some things just go together. One of the three types of cover letters should always accompany a resume in job search activities. Cover letters come in different “flavors” depending on their use and target audience. Let’s go over the main three cover letters you need for your job search.

1 – General Cover Letter. This letter is written to support the resume and has the broadest use in job search. When contacting a company “cold”, a general cover letter is your best bet because the primary purpose is to introduce you and highlight some of the key points brought into the resume. Sometimes referred to as a “broadcast letter”, it can be used when sending your resume to many recipients at once in a mass mail, too.

While general in nature, the general cover letter should be “employer focused” meaning the wording shows the reader how the company could benefit from the job seekers experience. A general cover letter does not mention specifics such as salary requirements but may mention relocation if it is an issue. Just as objectives are not used on resumes, language that details the wants of the job seeker such as “I’m looking for a permanent position with a stable company” should be avoided. The cover letter is a sales document that grabs attention, communicates a professional, intelligent message, and shows the benefits of the “product” (the job seeker).

The general cover letter should always end on a proactive note stating the job seeker’s intention to follow up with the employer rather than closing with a passive “I await your call” message. End the letter with a specific message about when and how you will follow up and then make sure to follow through. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and the squeak starts right here in the cover letter. How many job seekers say “I will follow up with you by email next Wednesday” and then actually do it? Very few! That’s why it makes you stand out when you actually do what you say you will do.

2 – Targeted Cover Letter. When answering a specific job advertisement or responding to an opening for which you have details, a targeted cover letter is the one to use. A targeted letter can be morphed from a General Cover Letter but the content will change to some degree. First of all, the Targeted Cover Letter will mention the specific opening by job title in the first sentence so the reader knows it is a response to the advertisement. It is important for the reader to understand right away which position is being targeted.

Get a complimentary resume critique

I've found that most physicians need help with their resumes. Why? Because the traditional physician resume is simply a list. How can you effectively demonstrate your skills and talent when you're applying for non-clinical jobs?

Get a complimentary resume critique and see what could be done if you were to rewrite your resume. Click here for more details.

What Recruiters HATE in a Resume

What Recruiters HATE in a Resume
By Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC GetInterviews.com

Recruiters can be valuable to job seekers who are looking for employment in professional positions, and recruiters should be considered a key part of an aggressive job search. It is a recruiter’s job to seek out well-qualified candidates to fill positions with companies. They review resumes with a goal of excluding those who are not qualified or who do not present well. It is important to make sure your resume is recruiter-friendly and as useful as possible so you can get past that elimination round. Make sure your resume is effective and does not have a negative effect when viewed by a recruiter. Here are some things recruiters HATE on a resume.

• No focus. Recruiters look for specific candidates with specific skill sets. If they have to try to “guess” what type of job you are targeting or where your value lies, they will just move on! Use a good branding line and a competencies section at the beginning of the resume to grab the recruiter’s immediate attention. Support your focus with a strong cover letter.
• Lack of details. Do not be vague! If you used specific software to accomplish a task, say so. If you applied a specific methodology – name it. Companies have laundry lists of “must have” skills the recruiter is using to find candidates. If you don’t show some of those skills on your resume, the recruiter will pass over you and you will miss the opportunity, even if you are a great candidate. Recruiters cannot read your mind – they have to see your qualifications on the resume.
• Irrelevant information. Recruiters do not have time to wade through a resume loaded with irrelevant information such as hobbies, ancient work history, out-of-date skills, or reasons for leaving prior positions. This information wastes valuable page space.

Six Ways You May Be Hurting Your Resume’s Impact

Six Ways You May Be Hurting Your Resume’s Impact

Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC
GetInterviews.com

Scenario: You are unemployed, concerned about paying the mortgage, and trying to find a job. You’ve written your resume and cover letter, spent hours trying to capture what makes you unique. The problem is – it’s not working. You are not getting calls. Perhaps it is time to drop back and examine your resume for some of these common mistakes people make when constructing their own resumes.

1. You skim the top of information, giving only general ideas of your career roles. You figure a hiring manager reading your resume will know what past jobs entailed simply by reading job titles, right? Wrong! Job titles are not standardized and can vary widely from company to company and even industry to industry. Don’t assume the hiring manager will figure out your past roles. The hiring manager is not going to do any work on your behalf! There are too many applicants in the market to waste time on “maybe” candidates. Give specific details about your roles, quantifying wherever possible. Concentrate on high-level skills and unique experience that will be valuable to the reader.

2. You fudge details. When nothing is happening for you in your job search, you may be tempted to fudge on your resume to seem more qualified than you really are. Don’t do it! Employers will find out and then you are in even more of a pickle. If you claim a certain skill on your resume, the employer will ask behavioral questions in the interview to elicit the depth of your knowledge. It will be very apparent that you are clueless or don’t have the skill level you claim. Not only will you be eliminated immediately, but you have burned that bridge forever for any possible employment. Don’t lie on your resume – you will be found out.

Make Your Resume Stand Out in a Crowd

Make Your Resume Stand Out in a Crowd
by Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC, President of GetInterviews.com

Everyone knows the economic recession has caused record levels of competition for open positions. Employers are inundated with applications within hours of posting a new job advertisement. When competing against several hundred other applicants, you need to make your resume stand out in the crowd. Consider the following techniques for making that happen.

Avoid resume templates. A resume template is a preset form into which you input information. Using a template means your resume will look like about a million other resumes in the market. Templates also typically use tables to achieve that preset formatting; tables cause significant problems for resume databases and applicant tracking systems when your resume is uploaded. Often, information in the table cannot be read or searched by the database so it is rendered useless. Finally, using a template is like trying to fit a size 12 foot into a size 10 shoe. It can be done but it’s not very useful or effective.

Keep it conservative. You may think a conservative visual style would make your resume blend but that is not true. It makes it more user-friendly. A resume with lots of bells and whistles such as fancy fonts, clip art, highly graphic design, or embedded objects are difficult for employers and hiring managers to manage. You can make your resume distinctive simply by making it look organized, clean, and logical in design.

Bring forth your accomplishments. Most people prepare their resumes without including their achievements. They write down their job responsibilities, get the basic facts of education down, and think those are enough. The resumes that stand out will be those showing accomplishments, achievements, metrics, or results in a prominent manner. Don’t just talk about what you did, but detail what your actions meant to the company or how they were performance highlights.

Don’t reach for just “anything”. It may be tempting to apply for any job you see in the hope of finding any kind of employment. That is a bad strategy. You should be qualified for the positions you are targeting. If you are applying for “anything”, not only are you wasting your time, but also the time of the employer. Employers are looking for well-qualified applicants, and with so many job seekers in the market, they are able to find candidates with excellent qualifications. Employers are wading through hundreds of resumes; it is an overwhelming task for them and generally they are not contacting “maybe” candidates. If you send your resume for any job that catches your fancy, you just add to the “static” in the job market and it accomplishes nothing for you.

Highlight your unique qualities. Everyone has something that makes them uniquely qualified. Sometimes it is a second language or a particular skill. Maybe it is an advanced degree or a special certification. Find what makes you unique and bring that forward. It may be just the “edge” you need to get a bit ahead of the competition. What is not unique are common attributes such as “excellent communication skills” or “detail-oriented”. Every job seeker in the market, all 10 million of them, claims these “soft” skills.

Pay attention to keywords and buzzwords. Regardless to whom you send your resume, it will end up in a database to be stored and searched. For your resume to rank high in resume database searches, it needs to have correct keywords and buzzwords for your industry and function. Resumes with strong content will naturally have these words included as part of the description. If you find few strong keywords in your resume, there is a good chance your resume is weak and won’t perform well in the market.

Your resume and cover letter are your primary marketing methods for finding your next job. They should be as strong and effective as possible. Work to make your resume stand out by paying attention to design, content, and strategy. Your efforts will pay off!

About the Author:
Alesia Benedict, Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Job and Career Transition Coach (JCTC) is the President of GetInterviews.com, the country’s leading resume writing firm. They provide professionals with customized, branded resumes and career marketing documents. Her and her firm’s credentials include being cited by JIST Publications as one of the "best resume writers in North America," quoted as a career expert in The Wall Street Journal, and published in a whopping 25+ career books. Established in 1994, the firm has aided more than 100,000 job seekers to date. All resume writers are certified writers. GetInterviews.com offers a free resume critique and their services come with a wonderful guarantee -- interviews in 30 days or they'll rewrite for free!

Not getting any interviews? It could be time to rewrite your resume.

If you're currently searching for a new job, I hope you're busy scheduling interviews and negotiating possible job offers. If you're not getting any interviews, then your resume or CV may need to be rewritten.

So many physicians expect to easily get an interview because they have the letters "MD" or "DO" after their names. Being a physician does not automatically ensure that you'll get an interview for a non-clinical job position. In some cases, it may even hinder your chances because you may appear over-qualified for many jobs. So, how do you effectively communicate your willingness to apply different skills to work a non-clinical job that may not require physician-level experience? You need to make sure that your resume (or cover letter) clearly indicates your intention to pursue a job that is not specifically for a physician but you also have to convince your reader why you're the ideal candidate for the job. That's probably the hardest part since so many other people are also applying for that same job. Plus, others may have more relevant work experience, so that puts you at a disadvantage if you lack that direct work experience.

So, if you're not getting anywhere with your current CV or resume, consider making an investment to get professional help.  Click here to learn about our resume services.

VisualCV

How can you establish your personal brand online? You could create a website or a blog. Maybe you have your profile on LinkedIn, but is that enough? What happens if someone enters your name into an Internet search engine like Google or Yahoo? Are you easy to find? Do you have a strong presence on the web?

VisualCV.com allows professionals to create a multimedia online presence for your job search. They offer a free service and then they also have a "VisualCV Premium Account." VisualCV Premium Accounts are available for $59.95 per year.

If you're really serious about marketing yourself online, then make sure you're on LinkedIn, create a website, or use a resource like VisualCV so that you'll stand out from among the rest. Gain a competitive advantage by leveraging the power of the Internet.  Use social media websites and show potential employers that you're comfortable with technology and that you know how to effectively use technology to promote yourself. Keep your profile updated, upload a professional photo, and stand out from the crowd!

I Bombed the Phone Interview – Now What?

I Bombed the Phone Interview – Now What?
by Alesia Benedict, CPRW, JCTC
GetInterviews.com

It had been one of those days. You know the kind when everything goes wrong. Murphy’s Law kicked in and just as you struggled to put out the latest fire, you received a call from a hiring manager or recruiter about a great job. The phone call is always the first interview and it is crucial. You knew that yet you were distracted and stressed.

The employer had already reduced the candidate pool to a select group and you made that group based on your resume. That day he was calling candidates for further elimination in order to whittle the group to a smaller number for face-to-face interviews. Unfortunately, that call came right when chaos broke loose in your world and you crashed and burned. What can you do to salvage the situation?

Resumes & Cover Letters

CareerBuilder has some nice career advice articles about Resumes and Cover Letters. You'll find articles like:

• How Long Should Your Résumé Be?
• 13 Most Overused Résumé Phrases
• 10 Ways to Write a Stronger Résumé
• 25 Words That Can Hurt Your Résumé

To access these articles, visit this CareerBuilder link.

Finally, don't forget that you can receive a free resume review from our partners who provide professional resume writing services. Click here to learn more.

Career advice articles from TheLadders

I'm on the mailing list for TheLadders.com and I get their newsletter that features some of their career advice articles. Take a look at some of these career advice titles:

Creating Effective Cover Letters
HR pros are divided about how much attention they give these documents. But if it reaches the right hands, a well-crafted cover letter can win the job.

Make Your Resume Answer Someone's Prayers
Use your resume to show you understand the employer's needs and embody the solution.

Facing 50 Questions for Every Job Interview
Michigan job seeker Connie Corwin grew tired of being stumped on interviews, so she made her own prep list of questions and answers for every eventuality.

Best Practices for the Happy Hour Interview
What to wear, what to drink and when to call it a night.

The Minds of HR Pros and Recruiters
Find out why they choose one candidate over another.

Looking for jobs that pay over $100k per year? Find $100K+ Jobs at TheLadders.com. If you're having difficulty focusing your job search, you may want to leverage TheLadders.com

Get a FREE Resume Critique

A strong resume gives you the confidence and tool you need to make your first impression count. If you aren’t getting interviews, it could be your resume.

Our resume partners at GetInterviews can provide you with a complimentary resume critique (a $75 value) to determine if your resume stands out or if it needs help. Their writing service even comes with a guarantee: interviews in 30 days or they will re-write for free.

A professionally written resume can make all the difference! While the critique is free and will help you to know if your resume is on target, you'll also learn how a professional writer might successfully re-vamp your resume and refine your job search strategies. You'll learn exactly what their professional services would cost and also how their services can help you find a new job faster. Remember, the interview lands you the job, but the resume lands you the interview!

Don’t chance your career to a so-so resume. Make sure yours is worthy of your talents!

Contact the experts — and take the first step to your next success.