You said WHAT on your resume?
Your prospective employer, a recruiter, or hiring manager is not your best buddy and not your confidant. Yes, these people want to know about you, your background and your achievements, but they don’t need to know all about it! Many people writing their own resumes think everything needs to be explored, without knowing that every revelation can be an act of self-sabotage. So let’s look at items regularly included on do-it-yourself resumes that should be shared only with your best friend. Reasons for leaving. People still regularly include this potentially self-sabotaging information on resumes as incredible as it may sound.

TORI Award Recipient!
Well the 2009 TORI Awards have been announced in Orlando Florida at Career Directors International’s Career Summit and I’m proud to say that I maintain the record as the only member of the Career Directors International association to have won TORI Awards across nine consecutive years. Talk about professional pressure! This year I was honoured with two Third Place awards for the categories of Best Creative Resume and Best New Graduate Resume. I also received nominations for Best Executive Resume and Best Technical Resume. Congratulations to all the other winners. It’s truly wonderful to see so many talented professionals out there creating powerful, inspiring and interv

You’re leaving? Is the grass ever really greener?
There are some perfectly valid reasons to leave your current company. An entrenched bullying culture, where management pay lip service but nothing ever changes. Serious mismanagement where you know that any moment auditors will be walking in the door and closing things down You are fighting an uphill battle against a family-owned and operated company, knowing that the chances of you being promoted on merit over the owner’s children are laughable to even contemplate. You are a whistleblower, who despite doing the right thing, have become a pariah in the company. You will be in the same job, doing the same thing until the next ice age.

Resisting Change? Say Goodbye Career
What have you done to improve your skills in the last six months? The last year? He who stands still doesn’t stand a chance in this ever-changing world. Think your job will be there forever? The title may well remain, but without a doubt, the job itself will evolve and you’ll need to keep up with it. People who resist change do so at their own long-term employment peril. Consider the role of the Personal Assistant/Executive Assistant/Secretary. In the ’80s, there were no mobile telephones and few, if any offices had computers. Typewriters, transcription machines, liquid paper, carbon paper, stamp machines, paper folders, plug and cord switchboardsâ€

What the heck are you doing?
Give someone your undivided attention when he or she speaks. It’s not old-fashioned to stop multi-tasking for a minute. Is it too much trouble to refrain from interrupting while the interviewer speaks? To treat people politely and with respect? Manners are what makes us civilised; and they also appear to be in decline. Just last week I was talking with an Operations Manager friend of mine, who was hiring. He told me he couldn’t count the number of people striding into his office for an interview sipping coffee. “If they’re going for a cool and nonchalant look, they’re failing” he said, before adding that his favourite line is ̶