Pitching Practice

People are landing regularly now, and one in particular is worth mentioning. John Kingery started with Outside In, a non-profit medical service provider for homeless youth on August 31, 2009 in their IT organization. Why single out John and share his story?

John was one of the founding members of the job search group that I facilitate on a weekly basis. John had a long career in the IT field, but when we first met he was clear about doing something different and a desire to work in a mission-based organization such as a non-profit organization. Unfortunately, he was difficulty clearly articulating how he could bridge that desire with his years of IT experience.

At the weekly job search group meeting we would begin the meeting with each member giving their job search elevator pitch. John was faithful about attending each week and rarely missed the opportunity to deliver his pitch. But John will be the first to admit that he struggled with his messaging in trying to bridge the worlds of IT and his passion to work in some new capacity in a mission-based organization. It just wasn’t coming together for him. At the meetings, he would share his experience interviewing for IT positions with for-profit companies and you could hear in his voice that they weren’t peaking his real interest. John stated to seek out volunteer opportunities with non-profit organizations and eventually he was able to get on two different boards.

These volunteer opportunities began to give John the excitement and passion he was striving for. He was able to serve and provide leadership utilizing his skills that he developed as an IT professional. And something happened through these volunteer experiences. John started to make the connection between the two worlds. John’s elevator pitch began to flow and gel. He was able to effectively articulate the bridge between his interests to serve in a mission-based organization by utilizing his IT leadership skills. You knew if we were seeing the well articulated pitch in the weekly job search group, then it was also occurring in his networking meetings and interviews. A few weeks later, John announced that Outside In had offered him a position.

John’s patience and perseverance paid off. His regular practice of his pitch and his exploration through networking and volunteering gave him opportunity to make that connection within himself between the two worlds and then to articulate it to others. While this maturation process is not that uncommon with job seekers, John’s journey is noteworthy to share. We now have another successful alumnus to the job search university. Congratulations, John Kingery!

Is the Traditional Resume Dead?

Is the paper resume and its MS Word version dead? That is the question I am asking myself after being introduced to the site VisualCV.com.

This past week Joshua Waldman, a social media expert with Career Enlightenment, made a presentation to the job search group I facilitate regarding leveraging social media sites to find a job faster. In Joshua’s presentation, he introduced the group to the site VisualCV.com and explained how to capitalize on this new technology with other sites like LinkedIn or Twitter. VisualCV is a dynamic site that allows you to post documents, videos, links and logos to reinforce your experience and skills that are found on your resume. For example, you could post the PowerPoint marketing presentation to VisualCV to reinforce your marketing project accomplishment that you have listed in the resume.

You can create customized versions of your VisualCV to send to particular companies or positions and make them private so that only the appropriate people can view their respective customized version. You can link your VisualCV to your LinkedIn profile. You can respond to a Twitter job posting instantly with your VisualCV. Imagine having a conversation with a networking connection and passing your VisualCV via your iPhone to him or her right there.

Since a picture is a thousand words, I encourage you to check out Joshua's VisualCV site as an example.

While the old MS Word version may not be dead just yet, in the near future it will be time to consider listing it on the Federal Endangered Species Act.