Resume-writing colleague Arnie Bolt shared findings from a recent ExecuNet meeting he hosted, in which a panel of executive recruiters was asked how they work, how they evaluate candidates, and what they look for in resumes and other communications. Universally, the recruiters wanted to see an entire work history on the resume, even if it went back to the year “dot” and included irrelevant information.

My advice: Give them what they want - but not right away! Use your strategic, well written, concise, and on-target resume to spark that initial phone call. Then, if you are a strong candidate for one of their searches, go right ahead and give them chapter and verse on everything you’ve done. At that point, you’ve cleared the initial screening and won’t advance any farther unless you comply. But don’t shoot yourself in the foot by giving them what they think they want in your initial contact.

Let’s face it - you can’t possibly include everything you’ve done in your career on your resume. Go with the most high-impact, relevant, and meaningful information to incite interest. The resume is, after all, a marketing document. You can provide the entire prospectus once your audience is interested.

Interesting article in today’s Boston Globe about gaining relevant experience through volunteer work.

Key points:

• Don’t volunteer just anywhere doing anything; look for an opportunity to use existing skills or build new expertise.
• Invest time volunteering to determine if a new career path is right for you - you get to literally “try before you buy.”
• Take your commitment seriously - fulfill your obligation.

Good examples in the article included a woman doing volunteer records research for a nonprofit social agency and a former financial analyst who’s now assisting in a middle school math classroom. Both are seriously considering a permanent career switch that requires additional education - they’re very smart to get their feet wet and see if they really like the new field!

Yes, you can certainly put this experience on your resume. No, you don’t have to volunteer that you’re not getting paid for it. It might make up the very first “experience” segment on your resume or might appear towards the end, under “extras” such as professional affiliations. It depends how central it is to your current goals, perhaps how long you’ve been doing it, what your current employment status is, and other factors. Still, it can be relevant, solid, and meaningful experience that you can showcase as a prime qualification for your new career.

Verizon (telephone company) should answer their phones when you call them. Whole Foods should use good environmental practices. Hairdressers should have great hair. If these things DON’T happen, you lose faith in that individual or company!

The same is true for executives in a job search. Your resume content must match your elevator speech, your online profile, your networking chit-chat, your interview stories, and every other aspect of your career marketing messages to create a congruent, believable, provable image. All of the above should position you as “you” - just the best, brightest, most relevant “you” with regard to your current goals!

Love what Louise Fletcher has to say over at the Blue Sky blog: Calling Seth Godin on the carpet when he opines about job searching!

I agree 100% - both with Louise’s admiration of Seth’s marketing expertise and her disagreement with his career advice. To sum it up:

• Looking for a job does not mean sublimating your personality or corrupting yourself… not if you do it correctly.
• Self-employment is not for everyone!
• In every market there are opportunities. Good companies are still hiring, and smart, focused, value-oriented candidates will be found and hired.

Excellent piece in Fortune this month about “what’s working” for people in a job hunt.

What’s interesting is that what’s working now are the same things that have always worked. These job seekers haven’t re-invented the job hunt wheel or found anything new under the sun. It still - and always - comes down to clear messages, outreach, relationships, and persistence.

The only new twists are that some of these efforts involve technologies and services (LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging, email) that didn’t exist in other tough job markets. Still, these are tools, not panaceas.

I was most impressed by the story of Rob Sparno. And - hey! - he’s 55! He set a tight target and methodically pursued people at his ideal companies. He created a positive support group. He used sales and marketing techniques to get to the right people. And he did his homework, so when his efforts produced a meeting, he was prepared with some carefully researched ideas about the company’s probable problems, and some carefully prepared ideas about how he could solve them. A home run!

And - as we enter baseball season! - it seems apt to mention that the greatest hitters are successful only about 1/3 of the time they step up to the plate. Every effort won’t lead to a job, but keep putting in the time and (smart) efforts, and you’ll reach “home” before long.

Had a great interview a few weeks ago with producer Elsie Nolan of WBZ-TV, the Boston area’s CBS affiliate, all about how to recognize an impending downsizing and what to do about it.

Article and video clip here.

The bottom line, from my perspective, is that you always need to be alert to what’s happening in your department, at your company, in your industry, and in the economy in general. A downsizing or layoff shouldn’t come as a surprise. But regardless, if you lay the groundwork for long-term success throughout your career, you’ll find the landing much softer and the bounceback much quicker.

Things you should always be doing:

• Stay active in professional associations to build a network of contacts in your profession and/or industry.
• Create visibility for yourself by taking on leadership roles in those organizations and/or reaching out to leaders with feedback, ideas, comments, and compliments.
• Create visibility for yourself at work by volunteering for the tough assignments (and, of course, succeeding at them).
• Share your expertise - whatever it is - with others in your company, your industry, and the whole wide world through articles, comments, blogs, etc.
• Do your job really well! Track and measure your performance so when you say, “I’ve done a great job,” you can support that statement with facts and figures.
• Update your resume every 6 months or so. Be ready for opportunities that will come your way.

I’m a bit late to the party, finally getting around to reading Never Eat Alone, the consummate book on networking by Keith Ferrazzi. Lots of valuable information here - especially pertaining to long-term career management and the value of relationship-building.

I came across a concise summation of the value of branding:

“Good personal brands do three highly significant things for your network of contacts: They provide a credible, distinctive, and trustworthy entity. They project a compelling message. They attract more and more people to you and your cause, as you’ll stand out in an increasingly cluttered world.”

In a nutshell, there’s your rationale for clarifying and communicating your brand in your resume and other career marketing messages. Too many people try to create a resume with all the “right” information when instead it should contain “your” information. What makes you unique and distinctive? Shout it out!

Even though 3 inches of new snow are covering my world, it still feels like spring. Birds are chirping, the sun feels warm, and psychologically I am uplifted by knowing that another winter is all but over. As a result, I’m humming as I sweep snow off the steps and grinning at the sales clerk as I try on new golf shoes.

Which brings me to my point: How you feel about the economy, your career prospects, your financial future, and your job search has a huge impact on how you behave and the image you project to others. If you’re secretly convinced that things are hopeless - that you might as well hang up the interview suit and spend the day in your bathrobe - it will be hard to hide that feeling.  And while you can’t force yourself to change your feelings, you can think positive thoughts, read positive facts and stories, and spend time with positive people to counteract the downweight of negativity.

So in the interests of lifting your spirits, here are a few positive thoughts and facts:

• Just this week I’ve had three calls for interview coaching, as my clients (all senior executives) are landing interviews.
• People are finding creative, low-cost ways to get what they need and enjoy themselves. What kinds of opportunities might this present to you?
• Federal stimulus money will breathe life into construction, green energy, financial services, and other industries.
• I wrote a resume for my brother in response to a specific job opening. He emailed it and had a phone call within an hour, an interview later that day, and a job offer four days later.

Look for signs of life, and you’ll find them even beneath the snow.

It’s not much fun reading the business pages of the newspaper today, or watching the nightly news or finance/business news shows. Page after page, story after story, it’s about layoffs, business closings, lack of capital, shrinkage of VC funding, and so forth. If you’re looking for a job, the future can seem bleak indeed!

I admit I am a bit of a Pollyanna, but I refuse to buy into the general gloom and doom. I know from my clients that companies ARE hiring, businesses ARE growing, and those that will succeed are not throwing in the towel - they are looking for leaders who will help them recognize and seize opportunities.

Make sure your message is all about opportunities spotted, costs controlled, smart expansion, vision and execution, and outperforming the competition. Be the astute leader who can steer a company through the rough waters and prepare for the economic upturn that will - undoubtedly - come.

If you’re unemployed, or even employed and actively looking for a new job, are you REALLY putting in the effort it takes to succeed?

If you’re like most Americans and Europeans, the answer is “no.”

Reported in Weddle’s excellent newsletter are the following statistics from a 2008 survey reported recently in  The Economist:

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 Length of time Unemployed Workers Spend Looking for a Job (per day)

• U.K.: 10 minutes
• Sweden: 10 minutes
• Germany: 10 minutes
• Spain: 20-30 minutes
• France: 20-30 minutes
• U.S.: 40 minutes

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In 10-40 minutes per day, what can you accomplish? Surf the web for the latest postings… dash off a couple of resumes… call one contact and give up when he or she has no leads for you.But just think what you could do if you devoted 2, 4, 6, or even 8 hours of your day to your job search - strategies and activities that will expand your horizons, your opportunities, and your results.

• Prepare and practice your “elevator pitch” so you can smoothly and confidently deliver it during an interview, at a formal networking event, or to a casually met acquaintance.
• Write out your greatest career “success stories” and practice relating them in a clear, compelling manner.
• Create a list of 50 people you can contact and make 10 phone calls per day to complete the list in a week. (Use your new elevator pitch for best results.) Make a new list next week.
• Review your resume and cover letters and edit/polish to perfection.
• Identify and research 10 companies that might be a good fit for you. Use LinkedIn and/or your personal network to connect to decision makers (or anyone) at those companies.
• Pick up the phone and call them! Use your referral as an introduction, then deliver a brief message about your potential value to the company. Ask for a meeting.
• Start a new list of companies next week.
• Read a book or online articles about trends in interviewing. Think about how you’ll respond, and practice your answers to tough questions.
• Review your interview wardrobe and replace, repair, polish, mend, or iron anything that looks less than perfect.
• Identify your top value points that you’ll want to communicate in your next interview. Focus on value to the company, not interest to you.
• Make an interview “cheat cheat” of your top value points and keywords for your success stories. Practice your interview responses using just the crib sheet.
• Call someone you know who’s unemployed and ask if you can be of help.

I could go on, but you get the point. Work the process and you’ll reap the rewards.