Digital Family Reunion just messaged us to tell us they posted the ‘08 Holiday Party video with a great plug for ResumeBucket and NeoHire.  Here’s the video:

We have a lot to be happy about this holiday season here at ResumeBucket headquarters.  We’re quickly proving to be a useful resource for a lot of folks.  Several hundred new users are uploading their resumes each week, and the feedback has been great so far!

We have so many things planned to make our site the ultimate resource for our users, and we’re trying to figure out how to proceed.  We’re working on developing a lot of partnerships that will help employers find you, so expect lots of exciting news after the new year.

In the mean time, we want to thank all of our users for signing up and giving the site a whirl.  Please, ALWAYS, feel free to let us know if you have any great ideas, feedback, questions or concerns.  We always want to make sure that our efforts are focused on making it easier for our users to find their next job.

Happy Holidays,

-Everyone at ResumeBucket

I got excited recently when a friend told me that he was going to post his resume to ResumeBucket.  Not because I think that ResumeBucket is a good vehicle for his career or anything like that, but because it’s been a long running joke that his resume would look hilarious.

It’s not quite up-to-date (the last job is in 2005), but it’s comprehensive and he actually held all of these jobs for the time periods shown.  He changed his name for obvious reasons.  I present you with the resume of Todd Blankenship, Jr.

Some stats:

• Todd had a total of 26 jobs in the 146 month span outlined in his resume
• On average, he started a new job once every 5.5 months
• He bounced around more than 10 different “industries” during the 12+ years covered
• With two separate employers, he quit his job and then later became re-employed…in the span of two years.
• He was never unemployed for more than 7 months

On top of that, he was brutally honest with most of his job descriptions.  It’s a pretty fun, quick read.

Hopefully this was a nice break from working on your resume!

Note: His resume was so long that we couldn’t zoom out far enough to get a full screenshot:

"Your resume here"

Times are obviously tough when folks with masters degrees are posting their resume in the middle window of the cab that they’re driving.  It’s both funny and sad; I don’t know Mr. Williamson, and I have no idea whether he’d be a good employee for a position in his desired career.  But I do know that he’s willing to do what it takes to make ends meet, and he’s definitely bold for posting his resume in his cab.

It just goes to show you, though: be creative when you’re promoting yourself, and you never know what will happen.  You might end up in an AP news feed =)

Let’s face it — if you’re looking for a job right now in any competitive field, you’re basically playing the odds and trying to be noticed.  So why not take the same approach that’s so popular in Internet marketing?  Give multivariate testing a shot!

According to Wikipedia, multivariate testing is “a technique for testing hypotheses on complex multi-variable systems, especially used in testing market perceptions.”

If you don’t think that hoards of HR employees or office admins sorting through resume after resume is a “complex, multi-variable” system, think again.  You’re appealing to humans, the same way a product web site is trying to appeal to visitors.  You’ll never know what works best unless you try some different approaches.

Mixing Up Your Cover Letter

Whether it’s a separate attachment, the body of an email, or a cover page on your resume, the first thing a prospective employer will see is your cover letter.  So how do you make it count?

There are several variables, including:

• Your industry
• The type of company that you’re applying to (corporation, start-up, small business)
• Your experience level
• The public perception of the company
• What has worked for you in the past?

Don’t discount the last item — build off of your successes.  If you’ve had a lot of luck in the past getting interviews with formal cover letters, but not so much luck with friendly or personable ones, then figure out why the formal route has worked.  Is it because of your industry or the type of companies that you’ve applied to?  What perception did you have of the companies that interviewed you?  Did they seem relaxed or corporate?  Were they large corporations or small operations?

Start with what has worked.  And then make some variations.  Write ten different versions of your cover letter, and mix in different tactics:  slightly witty, confident, short and sweet, complimentary, excited, bold. Get some feedback from the people you respect to narrow your options down to 2 or 3, and continue to tweak.

Once you feel comfortable with your choices, move on to your resume.

How To Vary Your Resume

This can be a tough task for some people, especially those that do not have a lot of job searching experience.  What information should you include on your resume?  How much detail should you provide about your responsibilities at each position you’ve had?  Should you include references on your resume?  How many pages long should your resume be?

Start small.  Make an outline, and keep it simple at the beginning.  Stick to the primary sections of a resume:

Career goals, qualifications, experience, education, references.

Don’t waste any time tweaking your resume up front.  Wait until you complete these five steps before you spend any serious amount of time editing.  Don’t worry about typos, wording, styles, or anything else until you have some resumes to work with.

1. Create a solid, simple, visually attractive resume and save it as your first option, and then continue to build it out. 

2. Add each job title that you’ve held for each company that you worked for.  Save that as your second option. 

3. Add your responsiblities, in detail, to each job title.  Save that as your third option. 

4. Add every project of considerable size to your responsibilities, and save that as your fourth option.

5. Add your extra-curricular activities from college and/or high school, and save it as your fifth option.

At this point, you can go over each option and start tweaking.  Once you’re happy with your resumes, pass them along to your peers for review, and make the changes you see fit.

But I Don’t Work A Traditional Job

Actors send headshots with their resumes, designers send portfolios.  Mix these up.  Get a second set of headshots, or re-order your portfolio in a few different ways.  I don’t know what you’d send to NASA if you were applying for a job as a lead scientist, but I assure you it’s something more than a two page fact sheet about yourself.  No matter what you’re attaching to your resume, make sure there is some variation.

The Fun Part Begins: The Testing

Any statistical test requires a sample size.  This may mean applying for jobs in cities that you’ll never move to, or for jobs that you’d never take.  Your goal is to find out what works best for you.

Find at least 75 jobs related to your career, and email your cover letter and resume to each of them.  Keep track of them in a spreadsheet.  Select three cover letters and the version of your resume that you feel is the best fit for each.  Note which cover letter and resume you sent to each prospective employer in a column in your spreadsheet.  Send an even number of each pair.

Wait for feedback.  Any time you get a response, mark that row in your spreadsheet as a success.  If you get an interview, take it, even if you know you’re not taking the job.  This is practice!

At the end of your interviews, ask your point of contact what they liked or didn’t like about your cover letter or resume.  Get real feedback from people whose job it is to hire someone like you.  Make adjustments and start the process over.

What About Jobs That I’m Actually Interested In?

Apply for those, too!  After your first round of testing, you should have at least a general idea of what is working and what isn’t.  If option 1 netted 6 responses and the other two options netted less, go with option 1 for the jobs that interest you.  If each option resulted in a similar number of responses, spend the time to determine which of the options you think is best for each company that you apply to.

Most importantly, continue to get feedback.  Continue testing, even if you land a job.  Who knows if you’ll like it or if it will pan out? 

There’s no harm in sending your resume to prospective employers, even if you’re gainfully employed.  Knowing what works and what doesn’t for your industry will only help you when the time comes to find your next job.