CAREERS NOW 05-28-08

Little Things Mean a Lot

DEAR JOYCE: I live in Pennsylvania but my cell phone is registered where I used to live in California, which, of course, has a different area code than where I live now. I'm starting to think that may be the reason why I get no call backs when I apply for a job in my current city. - S.N.

That well could be. Unless you're bringing a skill set not available locally, employers may suspect you're a relocation prospect and can't see a reason to pay for even a portion of your move.

Although a long-distance phone number does not necessarily mean that a job seeker lives out of state and just kept an old number from a previous residence, as you did, employers are wary.

An organization in New Jersey seeking a writer recently received an application through a job board posting but the applicant didn't fill in any of the address fields except the state, which she identified as New Jersey. But her area code was in Georgia. The hiring authority had a hunch that the applicant lives in Georgia and was not moving to New Jersey, but that once contacted, hoped to convince the employer that the work could be done online from Georgia. The applicant was never contacted.

The take-away: If there's a reason to keep your old long-distance number, explain it in a cover letter.

DEAR JOYCE: I'm a stay at home mom so I am chief navigator for my husband's job move to another city to be closer to his ill parents. My husband, a talented professional, earns in the low six figures but he works 70-hour weeks to do it. He isn't sure a long-distance job search at his level is feasible. Is it? - F.R.

"Daunting but doable" is the judgment rendered by arguably the nation's best upscale career expert: John Lucht. In Lucht's recent newsletter to subscribers, an article titled "Finding Work There" dissected the process with a number of details that can make the difference in the outcome of an out-of-area search. In approaching recruiters, for example, Lucht advises that if you want an appointment, "use the clout of a referral from someone who smells like money to the recruiter." Find this article and impressively more blue-chip advice on RiteSite.com; the annual subscription fee is $94, a bargain for high earners in transition.

The Take-away: Even when you know the steps to take toward a goal, the way you put each foot on the ground can impact success or failure.

DEAR JOYCE: I am 59 years of age, unemployed for four months and have sent out lots of resumes and contacts. Have 30-plus years' business experience. Should I be using a chronological resume or switch to functional resume to be able to get in for an interview? - T.M.

At root, formats come in three family trees:

-- The reverse chronological, which lists all employment and education, beginning with the most recent and working backward.

-- The skills-based functional, which shouts in headlines what you can do (e.g. budgeting skills, communications skills) instead of relaying what you've done and where you did it.

-- The hybrid (a.k.a. combination), which is a marriage of both formats.

Hiring professionals almost always prefer the reverse chronological format. It's easier for them to follow. But you are less concerned that they be able to immediately trace your workplace heritage than that they quickly grasp what you can do for them.

Unless you have a gap-free, upward record of achievement in the same industry or related industries, you'll probably do better with a functional or hybrid resume emphasizing skills and accomplishments, followed by a much shorter validation section of specific previous experience.

The resume itself, not its format, may be your bigger problem. Are you customizing it to fit each position for which you apply, or are you trying to get by with a generic resume that really doesn't connect your qualifications to the job? And here's another detail that may be keeping you in the shadows - stop after 20 years' experience. Unless you have an overriding reason to detail the last 30 years that you didn't share with me.

The Take-away: Not only do different format styles flatter different histories, but details that impact perception of suitability for a specific position, or that sidestep bias, matter as well.

Little things mean a lot.

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