How Many Passwords Are Enough? A Real Life Horror Story

Posted on June 9, 2012 by The Résumé Studio

Even before our collective blood pressure shot through the roof this week over LinkedIn’s password breach, I’d been thinking about creating a unique username and password for each online account I own.

Well, this week forced me over the edge, and I took two hours furiously doing just that: dreaming up and inputting a unique password for every … online … account … I … own.

In the words of a client who responded after I sent an alert through my e-newsletter: “A different login for every account? H. E. double hockey sticks!” (I couldn’t have loved her response more if she’d ended it with “Batman.”)

By the way, LinkedIn’s Vicente Silveira published Taking Steps to Protect Our Members on the professional network’s blog. Don’t miss it.

Are Your Passwords Unique?

So a question I’ve been mulling, “How many passwords are enough?” obviously hit home this week.

Here’s what I’ve wanted to share with my friends and clients, but have left sitting in a drawer until now.

A real life horror story, or at least I think so.

“They took control of my email account. Then they eliminated my address book, severing my connection to friends, family, colleagues, and everyone else from as far back as 1997!”

Can you imagine the feeling?

Gutted.

Unable to really do much of anything meaningful to mitigate damage that you’ll never really know the full extent about?

I was as passive as the next guy when it came to password management until my virtual assistant recently shared a horror story from one of her connections.

A tale with far-reaching implications, and we should all be aware.

Here’s what went down. Continue reading →

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Don’t Fall TOO In Love With Keywords

Posted on June 3, 2012 by The Résumé Studio
Are keywords making you a liar

Are resume keywords making you a liar?

About two years ago, an executive client looked over my desk, pointed to a job description, and asked, “Jared, what do you think of these keywords?”

I said, “Do you have those skills?” (We’d been at this a while.)

“No,” he said.

“Well, then we can’t include them,” I replied.

It seems we’ve all fallen so concerned (perhaps rightly) with building our websites, blogs, and career copy around keywords and phrases, that we might have lost our collective sensibilities!

Why would an otherwise smart professional ask such an apparently silly question?

Truth is, my client hadn’t lost his mind. When you’re in the thick of writing a really great résumé or LinkedIn summary—or any other chunk of career copy—it’s hard to strike a balance between pushing the envelope and totally losing sight of the big picture, while making sure to clear today’s technology hurdles.

Trouble is, if you’re stretching the truth—or straight up lying—you’re not representing yourself authentically. Plus, the blowback can more than chafe. Who can forget this unfortunate-ness?

The lesson? Next time you’re writing your résumé, optimize the heck out of it. Include the right keywords and phrases. Just don’t forget to take a step back every now and then to be sure you’re including keywords and phrases that are truly yours.

Until next time!

Jared Redick
Visit: The Resume Studio.com
Follow: @TheResumeStudio
Connect: LinkedIn.com/in/jaredredick
Call: 415-397-6640

Filed under: Hopefully Humorous, Job Search Tips, Resume Writing | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

4 Things SEO Taught Me About Résumé Writing

Posted on February 11, 2012 by The Résumé Studio

Of the things I swore I’d never do in 2005, writing résumés for technology professionals topped my list.  

Yet, while 85% of my business is outside the San Francisco Bay Area, living here has tricked me into writing technology résumés after all; such that writing for tech now accounts for roughly 40% of my overall work.

It’s all due to my acquiescing under a friend’s referral pressure. Which led to another. And another.

But something happened as I carved out an unexpected specialty.

Technology started teaching me.

From my own Google AdWords optimization, to learning about how a Web site is ranked by keyword algorithms, to the use of natural keywords, I’ve learned a few tricks. And they’re surprisingly helpful when it comes to résumé design.

Here are four: Continue reading →

Filed under: Job Search Tips, Resume Writing, Writing Tips | Leave a comment »

How to Customize Your LinkedIn URL

Posted on February 5, 2012 by The Résumé Studio

This blog post was updated on 12/6/12 to reflect changes to LinkedIn’s interface.

Thinking about tightening up your LinkedIn presence?

There are many ways to do that, but perhaps the easiest is snagging your custom public profile URL.

Customizing your public profile URL is great when you want to put it on your business card or résumé. Or anywhere else you want to publicly drive people to find out more about you online. Plus it’s easier to remember!

Confused?

If your public profile URL isn’t customized, it will appear as a confusing mess, ending in a stream of random numbers and letters, like this:

  • linkedin.com/pub/12kdud9ekhgkdla93s

Ugly, right? (The “pub” part stands for “public.”)

Good news: Continue reading →

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

5 Differences Between Legal and Business Résumés

Posted on January 29, 2012 by The Résumé Studio

This guest post is by Shauna C. Bryce, Esq, author of How to Get a Legal Job: A Guide for New Attorneys and Law School Students. 

There are some things you should know about lawyers.

For the most part, we’re suspicious (both by nature and by training), detail-oriented, and risk-averse. That means law firms and legal departments tend to be conservative work environments. That’s the audience of your legal résumé.

Knowing your audience is important because résumés are essentially marketing documents designed to get an employer to call you in for an interview, so targeting your résumé toward a specific type of employer and a specific types of job increases the chance your résumé will be successful in its goal.

What makes an employer want to call you?

Well, the employer has a specific need that he’s looking to fill. That need has a technical, “hard skill” component (for example, ability to speak fluent French), but also a “soft skill” component (for example, ability to work well in a team).

Further, the employer is also looking to see that you understand his industry, business model, and corporate culture.

Certainly you know that your résumé needs to demonstrate both your hard and soft skills. But whether you’re aware of it or not, your résumé is also demonstrating to the employer your understanding (or lack thereof) of his industry, business model, and corporate culture.

So, how do the differences between legal résumés and business résumés reflect the differences between lawyers and business people?  Continue reading →

Filed under: Job Search Tips, Resume Updates, Writing Tips | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

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