Today's Inspiration- Overcoming Obstacles

I was taking Cooper to the grocery store yesterday morning and, while changing radio stations, came across a show called Exceptional Women (106.7). The host, Candy O'Terry, was interviewing a woman named Linda McManus, who had been nominated as one of this year's Exceptional Women.

Listen to what Linda has overcome in her life:
- Childhood polio
- An alcoholic, sexually and physically abusive father
- An illness that caused her to have to quit her job
- A serious accident

Any ONE of those things would be obstacles for some of us, but instead of sinking into the pits, Linda decided, at a time when it was hard for her to walk two steps, that SHE WAS GOING TO RUN THE BOSTON MARATHON. And a year later, she did.

She's also started her own inspirational poetry company, photography business, and has turned her private love of poetry, photography and animals into getting her line published by greeting card companies. By following things that gave her joy, she turned her life around and is doing work she loves.

As the host said, "it's not how you fall, it's how you get back up again." For those of you in need of inspiration, what brings you joy, and how can you do more of it?

Warmly,

Kathy
TurningPoint Career Counseling & Career Coaching
www.turningpointboston.com

Keeping your spirits up on a rainy/ unproductive job search day

Ugh... today, in Boston, it's a dark, rainy day in November. If you're a job seeker, and especially if you're an unemployed job seeker, I'm sure it's tough keeping your spirits up!

Here's my antidote: learn something today. Anything. Learn to juggle; learn to make sushi; learn something about your profession; learn how to use a software feature on your computer. Do anything that will make you feel like your brain's not turning to mush.

Let us know what you decide to dig into!

Kathy

TurningPoint Career Counseling & Coaching
www.turningpointboston.com

Job Seeking? Expand your (Geographic) Horizons

Cool article about Jeanne Guerin, who just landed a great job in her field...

Instead of just applying to local companies, she broadened her search, hoping that a remote company might consider a work-from-home arrangement... and voila! She got it.

Congratulations to Jeanne! She was featured on CNNMoney.com about how she did it-

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/18/news/economy/hired_telecommute/index.htm

Kathy Robinson
www.turningpointboston.com

New Boston Career Events Link

To those of you who were using MarksGuide to find career-related networking events... here's a substitute now that MarksGuide seems to have gone away.

http://www.bostoneventslist.com

Kathy

www.turningpointboston.com

Cover Letters: Necessary or Not?

Here's an unscientific but VERY interesting poll of Boston area recruiters on the topic of cover letters... this was collected and compiled by Lanning Levine, a local human resources executive and consultant. (The entire summary below is his, as well.) Thought I'd pass along...

Cover Letter Poll

I hope you all agree with me that these are very interesting results:

1.Do recruiters read resumes? 40% said YES, 20% said NO, 25% said sometimes, 10% said they skim, and 5% did not comment
2.Do hiring managers read cover letters? 40% said YES, 50 said NO, 5% said yes, and 5% did not comment
3.Which do you read/look at first? 75% said they read the resume first , 25% said they read the cover letter first
4.Do you tear off and throw away the cover letter? 90% said NO, 10 % YES

The results are interesting. I found them very insightful. Most of all, that we are a group of very respectful professionals.

Even if we do not read or pass the cover letter on, 90% of us keep the cover letter with the resume.
Most read or skim the resume first. For this who did not read the cover letter first, most commented that if the resume gave interest, they went back and read the cover letter and very carefully with intent.
It seems be a draw on whether the managers read them or not.

5. Are there specific jobs (not fields) where the cover letter does or does not matter.
For those who commented, the comments are consistent, as follows.
If the role or function requires communication, having the cover letter, and a good one, not only matters, it is a MUST HAVE for the door to open. Quality determines if it is a deal maker or deal breaker.
As a rule, for techie jobs, non-management jobs, non-exempt jobs, a brief good cover letter neither help nor hurt the applicant.

In short, it seems that even in the technology filled new millennium, resumes are generally read first, but cover letters do matter, for those who are looking for them. Seems it cannot hurt to send it.

Thanks, Lanning, for digging into this topic!

Kathy Robinson
Career Coach/Business Consultant
TurningPoint
www.turningpointboston.com

"Follow" Group Members on LinkedIn w/o a Connection

TIP: Now You Can "Follow" Members of Groups You're In

New Following Enhancement:

LinkedIn literally just introduced Following across shared groups to make it easier for you to see contributions made by your connections and other valued users.

By default, you are following your connections and they are following you.

To follow a non-connection, simply click the link by their name in a discussion or on the Members page.

Updates from the people you’re following will appear at the top right of your My Groups page, the top right of the group Overview page, and in your weekly LinkedIn Updates email.

If you follow someone, you are following them in all groups you share with them.

Enjoy!


Kathy

Keyword Use on Resumes: Quoted in The Ladders

Hi,

Check out this Ladders Article... I weighed in on steps about how to integrate keywords into your resume.

http://finance.theladders.com/career-advice/Tuning-Your-Resume-to-Right-Keywords

Kathy
www.turningpointboston.com